Build College professors have a profound influence on your personal faith in God. BJU professors not only prepare you for a career, they encourage you to build your faith in God and the absolute truth of His Word. Whether teaching courses from a biblical worldview, praying with you after class or mentoring one-onone, BJU professors are dedicated to seeing you strengthen your faith. To learn how BJU can help you build your faith, visit us at go.bju.edu/build.
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Contents , / ,
36 Cities of refuge The immigrant legacy and the welcome refugees receive in the United States offer relevant lessons in the debate over immigration reform and how to pave a way for foreign newcomers
44 Here to work
The passage of immigration reform may stumble on a path to citizenship that illegal immigrants don’t necessarily want
50 R-rated libraries
The library establishment is ideologically committed to providing inappropriate material to children, but citizens are not powerless to stop it
54 Powerful obscurity Robert Doar may not be well-known, but he made welfare reform a reality in New York City
58 Automatic employment
Manufacturers say robots and automation, far from hurting workers, can save American jobs in the face of global competition
7 News 16 Human Race 18 Quotables 20 Quick Takes
25
: /
25 Movies & TV 28 Books 30 Q&A 32 Music
30
67 Lifestyle 69 Technology 70 Science 71 Houses of God 72 Sports 73 Money 74 Education 76 Religion
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Joel Belz
Rough water ahead
The fiscal cliff was nothing compared to the dislocations Obamacare will bring
>>
WORLD • APRIL 6, 2013
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) High expectations. Few of us think we deserve to live in any house we choose, drive any car we choose, or fly first class every time we travel. So why do we all expect Cadillac healthcare, no matter what our malady? We don’t believe in third-rate heart surgeons, and if our baby girl needs plastic surgery after a car accident, we’ll talk about payment plans sometime after the procedures prove successful. ) Insurance. Because health needs are typically unpredictable, it’s natural that we turn to insurance to take some of the bumps out of the road. More and more through the years—and not primarily because of the Obama influence—we’ve tended to use insurance not just to smooth the bumps, but to buy the road itself. We’ve come to use insurance not just for the unpredictable, but for the predictable as well. Of necessity, costs soar upward. In all this, as providers develop and test new models of healthcare delivery, Americans will be forced to roll with the punches. A big part of that will indeed involve financial issues. But unprecedented adjustments will be needed on the other fronts noted above—government intrusiveness, high expectations, and insurance implications. Healthcare consumers like you and me will discover how much these adjustments will upset our lifetime habits. We’ll get angry—and we’ll probably be tempted to blame Obamacare for all that inconvenient discomfort and dislocation. Obamacare deserves stacks of blame—and not least because it was so crudely drawn and carelessly legislated a couple of years ago. But healthcare delivery for a country of million people, even apart from the financial issues, is a highly complex assignment. The evidence suggests that the transition ahead is going to be boisterous, rowdy, noisy, turbulent, and unsettling. A
KRIEG BARRIE
I at the turn of the year to slip past that perilous fiscal cliff, and then a few weeks later to whisk unscathed through the smooth straits of sequestration, here’s fair warning: There’s rough water ahead. And I’m not talking mostly about the debt ceiling issue at the end of March. That debate may produce a bit of a kerfuffle—but nothing like the really big tsunami that’s headed Washington’s way. The tsunami will spill sloppily over the whole country. That’s what’s bound to happen over the next - months as federal bureaucrats go about implementing various aspects of the “Obamacare” health coverage legislation. Whether by incompetence or evil design, there’s no way anybody anywhere in government is going to be able to make the new system work. Forget all the arguments you’ve heard pro and con. In one sense, there’s only one thing you have to know— which is the absurdity of abruptly taking on health coverage for percent more people with no concurrent plan to pay for that coverage. There’s no doubt that Americans bought into such an impossible bargain in large part because the system we’d developed over the last couple of decades had become so miserable. “What more do we have to lose?” folks seemed to ask. But the funding of this impossibly structured “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” is just part of the assignment. Those of us who argue that the free market should be the primary shaper of healthcare delivery need to remember how complex and detailed the task really is. Here, as I’ve said in this space before, are a few of the tough nuts to crack: ) Healthcare, by its very nature, is usually both personal and urgent. You don’t typically ask your neighbor where he’s recently gotten a good deal on treatment for hemorrhoids. Nor is comparison shopping a handy device when the doctor comes into the waiting room to say he’s about to proceed with an , quadruple bypass. It’s just one of those places where the free market becomes a clumsy tool.
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Dispatches News > Human Race > Quotables > Quick Takes
Southern strategy The selection of an Argentine as pope may have been, in part, an attempt to stop evangelical inroads in South America BY JAMIE DEAN
PATRICK VAN KATWIJK/DPA/LANDOV
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F L A, the selection of an Argentine cardinal as the newest pope of the Roman Catholic Church was an epic occasion. A celebrant outside the metropolitan cathedral in Buenos Aires compared the moment to winning the World Cup in soccer. A Franciscan friar from Puerto Rico noted: “We waited centuries.” The Buenos Aires Herald proclaimed the selection of Pope Francis “a realignment” of the entire region. Soledad Loaeza—a professor at the Colegio de Mexico—offered another observation: “It may also be an attempt to stop the decline in the number of Catholics.” Latin America has a massive number of Catholics: About million of the . billion Catholics worldwide live in the region. But the region has also experienced a dramatic rise in the growth of evangelicals over the last three decades. Indeed, Operation World calls the pace of evangelical growth in Latin America over the last century “spectacular.” In , the region was almost entirely Catholic. Evangelicals comprised about percent of the population. By , that number had
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APRIL 6, 2013 • WORLD
3/20/13 11:51 AM
Dispatches > News
Easter holiday on March , and Pope Francis will on that day deliver his first Easter message in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City. Eastern Orthodox churches will celebrate Easter on May this year.
LOOKING AHEAD Bible Bee registration Registration
for the Shelby Kennedy Foundation’s National Bible Bee begins April . Students ages to are eligible to register for the th annual Scripture memorization and biblical knowledge contest. Local competitions kick off on Aug. with the top contestants nationwide advancing to the National Bible Bee to compete for cash prizes of ,.
Medical exam
In a change announced by the Department of Health and General Medical Council, doctors in the United Kingdom must have their skills checked annually to test that they are fit to practice. The system, called Revalidation, starts for medical leaders in December, and on April for mainstream doctors. Revalidation is described as the biggest change to medical regulation in years.
Masters test
As cream surely rises to the top, day three of the Masters will require the eventual winner to card a good round on April . The golfing spectacle, one of the PGA’s four major tournaments, begins April . And traditionally, the easiest way to win the prized green jacket has been to take a lead on Saturday and coast to victory on Sunday.
Rijksmuseum reopening The main portion of the world-famous Rijksmuseum, or state museum of the Netherlands, reopens on April after more than a decade of renovations. The Amsterdam museum, which dates back to , is home to dozens of pieces by Dutch masters like Rembrandt and Johannes Vermeer—many of which had been moved from their original displays during the construction.
ST. PETER’S SQUARE: PETER MACDIARMID/GETTY IMAGES • STETHOSCOPE: DELIORMANLI/ISTOCK • BIBLE BEE: HANDOUT • MASTERS: DAVID CANNON/GETTY IMAGES • RIJKSMUSEUM: HANDOUT
jumped to as much as percent. In Brazil, the number is even higher: In a decade, evangelicals grew from . percent of the population to more than percent—about million people. Part of the growth has stemmed from many Latin Americans migrating from rural areas to larger cities to search for jobs. Evangelical pastors and missionaries reached more people at one time, and also provided critical aid to impoverished populations. The growth also stems from an explosion in the number of Pentecostals—the predominant group among evangelicals in Latin America. The rise of the so-called prosperity gospel in some Pentecostal churches presents a significant challenge to other evangelicals in the region. (Edir Macedo, founder of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in Brazil, is worth million, according to some estimates.) Still, Operation World attributes much of the evangelical growth to “the steady, faithful proclamation and witness of tens of thousands of laymen and pastors planting small churches out of a passion for the gospel.” Another encouraging trend: Latin American nations are sending a steady number of missionaries to other nations around the world. That growth hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Catholic Church, and in recent years leaders have emphasized efforts to make the church’s teaching more accessible to the masses. Some see the selection of Pope Francis as an additional boost for a region that’s a critical chunk of the Catholic Church. Meanwhile, Catholics and evangelicals also share challenges, including a growing number of secularists in Latin America, and a growing lobby for pro-abortion and pro-gay causes. Pope Francis has opposed both abortion and “gay marriage” in the past. (He once compared abortion to the death penalty.) Those issues didn’t come up in the first days of his papacy, but in his inaugural Mass, the pope did pledge to protect the vulnerable and “embrace with affection and tenderness all of humanity, in particular the poorest, the weakest, the smallest.” A
Easter Sunday Many Western Christians will celebrate the
WORLD • APRIL 6, 2013
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Dispatches > News
Silent treatment
Two separate incidents in Russia point to the growing trend of government-sanctioned persecution against religions not sponsored by the state. First, officers continue to hold a Presbyterian pastor with U.S. citizenship in a Russian detention center on charges of attempted bribery. Thomas Kang has lived in Russia for more than years and had just completed the construction of a large home that was to be used as a ministry for low-income families and the children of soldiers. As pastors from across Russia, South Korea, and the United States began arriving for the grand opening of Kang’s “House of Joy,” officials from the Federal Migration Service called Kang to tell him that the work permit for one of his builders had expired just a few days earlier. Kang rushed in to pay the small fine and added an extra , rubles () as a “donation” to the police—not an unusual step. He was immediately arrested on charges of attempted bribery and has been held in a detention center in Tula, Russia, since last September. Just weeks prior to Kang’s arrest, a group of men backed by local police destroyed the Holy Trinity Pentecostal Church in the suburbs of Moscow (See “Wreckage by night,” Oct. , ). Attempts to clarify the state’s intentions have been met with silence, and there are no signs of the rumored sports complex to be built on the land. The church’s pastor, Vasili Romanyuk, told me he’s received information that nothing will be built on the site except a walking park. Romanyuk’s congregation continues to meet at the site of the demolished church when weather permits, and two local pastors from opposite ends of Moscow have invited his congregation to use their buildings. “Pray for God’s leading to see what His will is. For now I see it in finding resources to buy land and build a simple building,” Romanyuk said. Evangelical Christians and other religious minorities are labeled as threats to the country’s Russian Orthodox identity. —Jill Nelson
SAVING LIVES: Sen. Cecile Bledsoe, R-Rogers, in the Senate chamber at the Arkansas state Capitol.
Overriding a veto from Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe, conservative lawmakers in Arkansas passed the strictest abortion ban in the country March , prohibiting most abortions after about weeks of gestation. Nine days later the North Dakota Legislature, not to be outdone, passed its own bill prohibiting abortions performed as early as six weeks. Both state measures employ a new pro-life strategy of prohibiting abortions once a baby’s heartbeat can be detected, possible in the sixth week of pregnancy using a trans-vaginal ultrasound. (Arkansas’ law only allows the heartbeat to be measured using less invasive technology, such as an abdominal ultrasound, which picks up a heartbeat at weeks.) Ohio and Kansas are also considering fetal heartbeat bills. Abortion advocates have promised to challenge the laws in court. North Dakota’s heartbeat bill awaits a signature from Republican Gov. Jack Dalrymple—along with another that would prevent selective abortions for genetic conditions like Down syndrome.
A federal judge struck down critical portions of a Missouri law that gave employers as well as individual employees an exemption from the contraceptive mandate based on religious objections. Missouri’s law, the first of its kind to provide religious freedom protections from the federal contraceptive mandate, passed last fall after the Republican state legislature overrode Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto. U.S. District Judge Audrey Fleissig in her March ruling struck down the parts of the Missouri law that provided an exemption from the contraceptive mandate, saying they conflicted with federal law. The law’s backers said Fleissig’s ruling made the mandate worse than it already was: Because she only struck down the exemption portion, the portion of the state law requiring employers to provide contraceptives (even those already exempted under the federal mandate, like churches) still stands. The state attorney general has not yet indicated whether he will appeal.
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ARKANSAS: DANNY JOHNSTON/AP • KANG: HANDOUT
No states’ rights on contraception
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Dispatches > News NABBED: Coptic Egyptian Sherif Ramsis was detained by Libyan authorities for bringing Christian books and CDs into the country.
Homeless in Lahore It took only a routine argument between drinking partners—a Muslim barber and a Christian sanitation worker—to spark the burning of Christian homes March 9. After the barber accused the sanitation worker of blaspheming the Prophet Muhammad, a mob descended on Joseph Colony, a community of minority Christians in the city of Lahore, and set fire to dozens of buildings. An aid worker said the mob burned around 160 homes, 18 shops, and two churches. No one was injured since police warned residents to flee their homes before the attack began. The residents complained police later stood by while the Muslim mob looted and started fires. The attack was similar to one in 2009, when extremists burned Christian homes and churches in Gojra. Human Rights Watch noted attacks against minority groups have escalated in the past year in Pakistan. Pakistan’s government condemns the violence, but local police often sympathize with the perpetrators and do little to stop them. The Christian sanitation worker, 26-year-old Sahwan Masih, faces a blasphemy charge that could carry a death penalty.
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Prosecutors on March 18 opened the trial of Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortionist accused of severing babies’ spines with scissors and storing fetal body parts in jars. Gosnell, 72, faces the death penalty if convicted of murdering seven infants allegedly born alive in his abortion center. He pleaded not guilty to those deaths and to the 2009 death of a female immigrant who expired after Gosnell’s staff gave her too much anesthetic and pain medication. The 12-member jury won’t count Gosnell’s abortion profession against him, though: During jury selection, Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Minehart dismissed Roman Catholics and others who expressed religious or moral qualms with killing the unborn.
LIBYA: Mohammad Hannon/AP • PAKISTAN: K.M. Chaudary/AP • GOSNELL: Yong Kim/Philadelphia Daily News/AP
In a growing crackdown against Egyptian Christians living in Libya, at least one evangelical died after his arrest in March, and dozens of Coptic Christians say they endured torture in a detention center in Benghazi. By late March, Islamic militants in Libya continued to hold as many as 100 Egyptian Christians jailed for possessing Christian books and other material. Authorities on Feb. 10 arrested an Egyptian Christian who owns a bookstore in Benghazi. Days later, officials detained four of the businessman’s acquaintances and charged the men
On trial
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Dawes: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images • Silverman: Waytao Shing/Getty Images for SXSW
Crackdown in Libya
with proselytizing. (Libya is a Muslim nation, and Christian evangelism of nationals is illegal.) One of the men, an evangelical Christian named Ezzat Atallah, died days after his arrest. Authorities claimed Atallah died of natural causes on March 10, but his wife said she observed signs of torture on his body. In a separate incident, Libyan militants detained at least 50 Coptic Christians selling clothes in a Benghazi market on Feb. 26 and accused them of proselytizing. Egypt’s Foreign Ministry persuaded the Libyans to release the prisoners, but several of the freed Christians told the Associated Press they endured torture and humiliation during their ordeal. Hundreds of thousands of Egyptians live in Libya, where many moved years ago to seek work during a failing Egyptian economy. Coptic Christians in Egypt called on President Mohamed Morsi to press Libyan officials to release any Christians still in jail on arbitrary charges. But considering Morsi’s reluctance to advocate for Christians in his own country, those pleas may go unheeded.
Nihilists’ America
South by Southwest is a cultural snapshot of where U.S. pop culture is heading By warren cole smith in Austin, Texas
LIBYA: Mohammad Hannon/AP • PAKISTAN: K.M. Chaudary/AP • GOSNELL: Yong Kim/Philadelphia Daily News/AP
Dawes: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images • Silverman: Waytao Shing/Getty Images for SXSW
>>
If an alien wanted to report to his home planet about life on Earth, he would be hard-pressed to find a place more data-rich than the March South by Southwest Conferences and Festivals, more commonly known as SXSW 2013. Numbers alone: About 200 movies played at the film festival. More than 2,200 bands performed in more than 100 venues—making SXSW the largest music festival in the world. The interactive portion featuring new technology also calls itself the largest show of its kind. About 30,000 people from all over the world paid up to $1,600 for a pass to the 10-day festival. Total impact on the Austin economy: over $200 million. But the reputation of SXSW rests not on these numbers, but on the nine-day event’s ability to highlight the “next big thing” in American popular culture. Founded in 1992 and then restricted to unsigned musical groups, it quickly became the place to get discovered. John Mayer, Hanson, Polyphonic Spree, and James Blunt all found record labels at SXSW. The 2010 Academy Award winner for Best Picture, The Hurt Locker, premiered here. Speakers in recent years have included Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and rocker Bruce Springsteen. This year’s keynote: Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters. But if SXSW covers the pop cultural waterfront, that means it has both the best and the worst. One of the hottest apps of the festival was “Bang with SXSW,” and it’s a spinoff of the distressingly popular “Bang with Friends,” less than two months old but already with more than 750,000 users. According to ABC News, “Forget matchmaking, this is Internet sex-making.” Sadly, “Bang with SXSW” is hardly an outlier. Foul-mouthed Sarah Silverman was here too. She kicked off
the JASH Comedy Network, a joint enture with Google and YouTube and v a stable of young, raunchy comedians. Among the movies premiering here was Spring Breakers, featuring former Disney stars Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens in roles that demolish their “good girl” images and will undoubtedly lure some of their teen fans into R-rated films full of sex and violence. Also premiering: Continental, a documentary celebrating New York’s infamous homosexual bathhouse while somehow failing to note that such bathhouses played a key role in unleashing the HIV/AIDS virus. That’s not to say that all is lost at SXSW. Artist Jim Janknegt led a team
austin city limits: Dawes performing at Stubbs Bar-B-Que (top); Sarah Silverman at the JASH launch during the Music, Film + Interactive Festival.
painting a large mural near the heart of SXSW. Titled “Touch the Word,” it shows Jesus in modern clothing touching people under the glow of bright lights from Austin’s music venues. The mural is part of the Wall Project, a joint ministry of Austin’s nondenominational Hope Chapel and the Anglican Christ Church. Terri Fisher, the leader of the Christ Church arts ministry, said, “We love Austin and we want this project to be a presence of Christ in the city.” One of the young bands at SXSW was Coin, formed when two members of the band met in a music theory class at Belmont University, a Christian college in Nashville. All four members of the synth-pop band talked c omfortably about their faith. Paste, which co-founder Josh Jackson told me is “not a Christian magazine, but a magazine run by Christians,” hosted one of the largest SXSW venues. Acts performing there included Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale, Dawes, and Josh Ritter. Austin’s Central Presbyterian Church, in the heart of downtown, featured an evening of gospel music, including Grammy nominee Anita Wilson. But visible expressions of Christianity were rare at SXSW. All of this suggests that, if Alexis de Tocqueville is right and the true measure of American character is found in its religion, then SXSW offers an increasingly secular, sexualized, and nihilistic vision of America’s future. A
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Dispatches > News
Pain test
The fetal pain laws pro-life legislators have used to restrict abortion in states (including Arkansas, as of February) since are facing their first major challenge after a federal judge ruled Idaho’s law unconstitutional March . The state’s ban on abortions after weeks of gestation— based on medical evidence that a baby in the womb can feel pain at that age—places an “absolute obstacle” in front of women seeking abortions, wrote U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill. The judge ruled Roe v. Wade allows abortions to be restricted only after the point of viability, considered to be about to weeks. Mary Spaulding Balch, state legislative director for the National Right to Life Committee, welcomed the ruling as an opportunity to have fetal pain laws constitutionally tested. If the case is eventually appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, she said, “there are strong indications that five of the sitting justices would look with sympathy” on laws protecting babies who feel pain in utero.
Academic choice
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WORLD • APRIL 6, 2013
Inside report shows public perception of Republicans is grim
>>
A M by the Republican National Committee warns, “Unless something changes, it will be increasingly difficult for Republicans to win another presidential election in the near future.” The nearly -page autopsy on last November’s election concluded, “Public perception of the party is at record lows … young voters are increasingly rolling their eyes at what the Party represents, and many minorities wrongly think that Republicans do not like them or want them in the country.” But the report’s recommendations anger social conservatives and the GOP’s grassroots: It calls for Republicans to “champion comprehensive immigration reform” and downplay social issues. While it does not push for a public change in the party’s support of traditional marriage, the report argues: “There is a generational difference within the conservative movement about issues involving the treatment and the rights of gays—and for many younger voters, these issues are a gateway into whether the Party is a place they want to be.” Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, noted that the report doesn’t mention pro-life issues and said such a de-emphasis would alienate a crucial voting block: “Social issues are keys to reaching certain minorities the GOP yearns to attract, as well as to motivate millions of voters who first gravitated to the party as Reagan Democrats.” The report also calls for changes to the presidential primary process, including holding the GOP convention earlier, reducing by half the number of presidential debates, and holding primaries in regional clusters instead of caucuses and conventions. Opponents fear that a shortened primary season would reward a well-funded, establishment choice and make it harder for grassroots-driven outsiders to sustain a challenge like the one mounted last year by former Sen. Rick Santorum. Party insiders and consultants were a top villain at this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). The conference included a panel titled “Should We Shoot all the Consultants Now?”
GOP REPORT: REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE • ROGERS: HANDOUT
The White House on March named Melissa Rogers, a religious academic known as an expert on church-state issues, as the new director for the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. “Melissa has long been a strong advocate of protecting the rights of religious organizations,” said Stanley Carlson-Thies, founder and president of the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance. Barrett Duke, of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, called Rogers “fair-minded.” Duke said Rogers “will approach her job by reaching out to all faith groups and providing them access to government funding on an equal playing field.” Rogers will confront tension between the administration and conservative religious groups over the contraceptive mandate found in the new healthcare law. A Baptist, Rogers has a law degree and in co-authored a book on religious freedom and the Supreme Court. Observers believe she may have been tapped to help the administration navigate lawsuits associated with the mandate.
GOP AUTOPSY
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Tears Water the Seeds of Hope is the inspiring true story of a Midwest husband and wife that become disenchanted with the relentless pursuit of the “American Dream” and embark on a journey that spans six countries and redefines their hearts and lives. The story begins in a small town in America’s heartland and weaves its way through South and Central America as the couple gathers an army of supporters, and eventually establishes a non-profit organization to save the lives of children in the end stages of starvation in eastern Guatemala. The narrative is filled with action-packed adventure and heart-warming victories as the characters face incredible odds and seemingly hopeless situations, while hundreds of volunteers join mission teams to offer help and hope through the programs of the ministry. Readers of all ages will enjoy the roller coaster ride of emotions—from laughter, to tears, to sheer joy—as they realize that it is possible for ordinary people to make a difference, one life at a time.
Chapter 2 Excerpt The Price of a Boy’s Eyesight On our first day on the Santa Elena Peninsula, we settled into Manglaralto, a small oceanfront fishing town where we would be based as we spent the next few days visiting villages being considered for water systems. Frank took us to a local hospital to illustrate the contrast between the health care in rural Central America and that of the urban United States. We were appalled. The floors of the few small dingy rooms were caked with dried blood, and the striking lack of medical equipment and supplies called into question what, if any, medical care could be provided in the facility. A lone nurse passed from patient to patient, but there were no doctors present. We happened upon a nine-year-old boy whose eye socket was swollen to the size of a tennis ball with infection. His mother sat helplessly by his side in a state of despair, having been told that her son needed an antibiotic costing nearly a month’s worth of her husband’s wages, which she did not have. Without the medication, the infection would most likely spread to the other eye, and the boy could be left without sight in either eye. Tears welled in my eyes as my thoughts turned to our own daughters and how easily we would have been able to solve this problem for them. I thought of the life-threatening illnesses common in this country and how often parents must watch their children suffer and die for lack of resources to purchase medications that would have saved their lives. They loved their children as much as I loved mine, and it occurred to me that I had done nothing to earn my lot in life. My life of privilege was a result of the geographic location of my birth and the opportunities that my country had afforded me. I had always been aware that thousands of children around the world died each
day due to unsafe drinking water, starvation, and preventable disease. But now the problem was becoming real and personal to me in ways I could no longer ignore. Apathy, preoccupation with “the good life,” and the responsibilities of home would never again be sufficient as an excuse to live as if the suffering in the world was not my problem. The medication the boy needed was available in a neighboring town, and we asked the nurse to determine the cost and send word to us at Manglaralto’s small rundown ocean front hotel where we would be waiting at a table outside. The sun was setting over the sea as a few tattered fishing boats returned to shore, their captains unloading meager rewards for a long day’s work. The sound of rhythmic waves lapped upon the shore while wild dogs searched the beach for food. They, like the fisherman, survived from day to day on the outcome of their quest for sustenance. Eventually we noticed the boy’s mother slowly approaching us, her downcast eyes expressing no hope or expectation of the miracle she needed. In her hand she held a scrap of paper on which was written the cost of the medication needed to save her son’s eyesight. She handed it to me without making eye contact. Twenty-five dollars was the insurmountable sum of money that would save her son from a lifetime of blindness. I stood up, reached into my waist pack, pulled out $25, and handed it to her unceremoniously. She burst into tears. Randy was next, followed by the members of the hotel staff that had been standing on the front steps of the hotel observing. As all within earshot watched in tears, the boy’s mother gushed expressions of appreciation in Spanish, most of which we could not understand. Her repeated phrase, “Que Dios les recompense,” were the only words I could decipher, which meant “May God repay you.” After several minutes exuding heartfelt expressions of gratitude, she hurried off to purchase the medication. We were amazed to find ourselves overcome with emotion over such a miniscule contribution given at so little sacrifice. The $25 would have been spent without hesitation on a few scones and lattes back home, but here it
meant the difference between vision and blindness for a child. We roamed the dusty roads of the small village long into the evening, visiting with families in broken Spanish and laughing until we cried as we used charades to offer small gifts as tokens of our friendship. We were having “fun” in the deepest sense we could remember, and although we did not realize it, the wheels of change were turning within us. When weariness finally caught up with us, we returned to our tiny hotel room, joyfully exhausted, to collapse and try to sleep. As we approached the dwelling, however, we realized that our rest would be postponed a bit longer. The dark silhouette of a thin man on a bike in front of the hotel caught us by surprise. When we were within earshot, softly spoken words of gratitude poured forth from the visitor, at which point the communication barrier became a serious problem. I vowed that my top priority upon returning home would be to become fluent in Spanish. The man was the father of the boy who had received the benefits of our paltry $25 donation. He had ridden his bike into town from his mountain village eight miles away, after ten hours of work, to personally thank us for our generosity. His family had been praying for a miracle for his son, and he considered us to be the answer to their many prayers. Tears streamed from his eyes as we again heard the phrase, “Que Dios les recompensa.” I wished I had been able to communicate to the man that God had paid us in advance. He had blessed our lives immensely, and we were there to express our gratitude to Him and to be a sign of His love for this family.
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..."I couldn’t get enough of this book. I simply didn’t want to stop reading it. I was completely drawn in from start to finish...Kim Tews did not sugar coat anything nor did she hold anything back. I found their story to be riveting and convicting. Tears Water the Seeds of Hope provoked, inspired and challenged me all at the same time. I highly recommend this book" Pilar Arsenec- National Book Critics Circle
Available at barnesandnoble.com and amazon.com
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3/14/13 1:19 PM
Dispatches > Human Race
CHARGED Matthew Keys, , a deputy social media editor at Thomson Reuters, was charged March in federal court with conspiring with the Internet hacking group “Anonymous.” Keys, whom Time named one of the top people to follow on Twitter in , faces up to years in prison and fines totaling ,. Reuters immediately suspended Keys with pay.
CHARGED A New York City man was charged March with negligent homicide in the deaths of three people after the SUV he was driving killed a couple, both , and their unborn baby. Julio Acevedo, , fled the scene of the accident but later surrendered to
authorities in Pennsylvania. The couple’s child lived one day after being delivered from his deceased mother’s womb.
FOUND A Russian soldier who went missing in the invasion of Afghanistan has been found living with local tribesmen where he was lost in battle. Bakhretdin Khakimov, who now goes by the name Sheikh Abdullah, was nursed back to health by Afghans after he sustained a head injury in a battle in Shindand. He converted to Islam in and is a practicing traditional healer.
Mitch Seavey The body of Ram Singh
Sheikh Abdullah
DIED The bus driver charged in the gang rape of a -yearold Indian woman hanged himself with a blanket in a New Delhi jail on March . Ram Singh was one of six men charged in the Dec. attack, which injured the woman’s male friend and led to her death. The incident sparked protests across India calling for stronger rape laws to protect women. RETIRED Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) announced on March the retirement of Michael Milton, , as RTS chancellor and CEO. Milton has served in leadership positions since , but he could no longer continue as chancellor, a position he
assumed last June, due to an undisclosed chronic illness. The retirement takes effect May , and the search for a new chancellor is underway.
WON Mitch Seavey, , became the oldest man to win Alaska’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Seavey, who won the competition in , finished the ,-mile race on March with a time of nine days, hours, minutes. Seavey’s son, Dallas, won the race last year but finished seventh in . ARRAIGNED Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law, Suleiman Abu Ghaith, pleaded not
guilty when he was arraigned in Manhattan federal court on March in New York City. The FBI captured Ghaith on Feb. and secretly brought him to the United States after tracking him for more than a decade. He is charged with crimes connected to the / attacks in New York and other activities including threatening similar attacks.
SEAVEY: BILL ROTH/THE ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS/AP • KEYS: REUTERS • ABDULLAH: ALEXANDER LAVRENTIEV/DPA/LANDOV • SINGH: AFP/GETTY IMAGES • GHAITH: REX FEATURES/AP • ACEVEDO: MATT ROURKE/AP • MILTON: RTS
CAPTURED Two Canadian prisoners were captured March after using a helicopter to escape from a Quebec prison the previous day. Two armed men allegedly held up a tour company helicopter, forced the pilot to fly to the prison, then used cables or ropes to free Benjamin Hudon-Barbeau, , and Danny Provencal, . All four men were in police custody within hours.
WORLD • APRIL 6, 2013
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3/13/13 1:55 PM
Dispatches > Quotables
‘Portman has not gained wisdom on this, he has lost objectivity.’ Dallas talk show host and Dallas Morning News columnist MARK DAVIS on Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, switching from Portman (right) and his son, Will opposition to same-sex marriage to support for it after his son publicly admitted to being a homosexual. “Portman has abandoned his [principles], not because he has suddenly decided that all of his previous views are wrong, but because of a personal development that understandably tugs at his heart.”
‘I cannot see how we could work with such an apparently delusional leader much longer, but unfortunately I do not know if we have any other good options.’ Retired U.S. Army Col. DAVID MAXWELL, now with Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, after Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai accused the Taliban of working “in the service of America.”
‘I did think about a catheter.’ U.S. Sen. RAND PAUL,, on his marathon, -hour filibuster in which he spoke against the government’s drone attacks on American citizens.
‘I’m just an angry old man hurting for my son.’
Nathaniel Richmond (left) and Ma’lik Richmond in juvenile court in Steubenville, Ohio
Former President GEORGE H.W. BUSH BUSH, in his newest book All the Best, George Bush, on harsh criticism of his son’s presidency.
RICHMOND: KEITH SRAKOCIC/AP • PORTMAN: OFFICE OF U.S. SEN. ROB PORTMAN • KARZAI: ANJA NIEDRINGHAUS/AP • PAUL: CHARLES DHARAPAK/AP
NATHANIEL RICHMOND, absentee father of one of two Ohio teens convicted of raping a 16-year-old girl. A judge sentenced high-school football players Ma’lik Richmond, , and Trent Mays, , to at least one year in a youth correctional institute for the attack on an unconscious girl at a drunken party last summer. The boys’ friends had trumpeted the assault via text messages and photos.
Unidentified MARINE CORPS OFFICIAL, quoted by Pentagon reporter Jim Miklaszewski of NBC News, after Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., blamed the budget sequestration for an explosion at an Army depot in Nevada on March that killed seven Marines.
WORLD • APRIL 6, 2013
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3/20/13 11:43 AM
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‘I feel highly responsible for his actions.’
‘Nothing but pure political posturing on the backs of these dead Marines.’
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3/20/13 9:25 AM
Dispatches > Quick Takes
Most people who win lotteries end up sending their money down the drain. Mark and Cindy Hill of Dearborn, Mo., are doing so in a different way: In March, they donated , to improve the sewage system in nearby Camden Point, Mo., Mark Hill’s original hometown. The couple struck it rich by winning . million in the Powerball lottery in , and they also have donated funds for a new fire station and a park.
If one newly elected Japanese politician wants to take his place on the city council of an Oita Prefecture town, he’ll first need to take off his mask. Wrestler-turned-politician Skull Reaper A-ji was elected to a city council position in February after campaigning on education reform. But after his election, his fellow councilors informed him they would not allow masks—such as the lucha libre wrestling mask he commonly wears—in official meetings. “My mask is my uniform, I even wear it to weddings, so I will not remove it,” he told the Nishinippon Shimbun. The council has agreed to allow A-ji to use his wrestling name, but the parties are at an impasse until they resolve the mask issue. Since , two other Japanese pro wrestlers have been elected to local office.
The long wait is over for lovers of author Eduard Vilde: An unidentified octogenarian walked into the Tallinn Central Library in Estonia’s capital on March and returned a novel by the Estonian author that he had checked out during the Nazi occupation of the region on the same day in . The man blamed the partial destruction of the library during the war’s bombing campaigns for his late return, but offered to pay the late fee. Library officials waived the fine and returned the book to circulation.
WORLD • APRIL 6, 2013
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Traffic ground to a halt March on damp Interstate in West Virginia when an -wheeler carrying a load of LEGO blocks spilled its cargo. The accident, which occurred in Harrison County in the state’s northern region, littered the highway’s shoulder and right lane with LEGO debris. Highway officials shut down all but the left lane to keep cars from slipping.
HILL: ORLIN WAGNER/AP • CARR: CHIPPEWA COUNTY JAIL • A-JI: HANDOUT • VILDE: HANDOUT • LEGO: KARIDESIGN/ISTOCK • TRAFFIC: NORTH CENTRAL AND CENTRAL WV WORKING FIRES
Some suspects return to the scene of the crime. Jarad Carr allowed his alleged crime to be seen during a different kind of return. Police say Carr, , tried to return a printer to a Walmart store in Lake Hallie, Wis.—with a sheet of counterfeit bills inside the printer. Employees reportedly found the sheet of bills and refused to accept the printer from Carr, who didn’t have a receipt and who refused to leave. When police arrived, they found that Carr had three more counterfeit bills on his person and promptly arrested him.
Worldmag.com: Your online source for today’s news, Christian views
3/19/13 3:02 PM
SCHIAVELLI: DENNIS CLARK/POLARIS/NEWSCOM • BEES: KEN BLEVINS/WILMINGTON STAR-NEWS • ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE • HEADSTONE: ANDREW LAKER/THE REPUBLIC/AP
HILL: ORLIN WAGNER/AP • CARR: CHIPPEWA COUNTY JAIL • A-JI: HANDOUT • VILDE: HANDOUT • LEGO: KARIDESIGN/ISTOCK • TRAFFIC: NORTH CENTRAL AND CENTRAL WV WORKING FIRES
SCHIAVELLI: DENNIS CLARK/POLARIS/NEWSCOM • BEES: KEN BLEVINS/WILMINGTON STAR-NEWS • ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE • HEADSTONE: ANDREW LAKER/THE REPUBLIC/AP
Police in Rockville Centre, N.Y., have cited a local man for disturbing the peace after he was caught laughing too loudly in his own home. Police in the Long Island town say Robert Schiavelli, , made uproarious laughter out his window on Feb. and , allegedly directed at his neighbor. Police say they were responding to a complaint from neighbor Daniel O’Hanion. Schiavelli’s lawyer, Andrew Campanelli, insists that he was only responding to verbal bullying from O’Hanion. If convicted, Schiavelli could face up to days in jail and a fine up to .
There are bad days at the office. And then there’s this. While cleaning up a pile of trash outside a city park on March , two Tampa, Fla., city employees accidentally disturbed a hive of Africanized honeybees— commonly referred to as “killer bees.” Within seconds of flipping an old truck tire with their front-end loader, a swarm of perhaps , bees emerged from the rubble and began attacking the two men. The two employees, David Zeledon and Rodney Pugh, first began swatting at the swarm of angry bees but quickly fled from the cab of the loader. The pair eventually ran far enough away from the hive to escape the swarm, but not before each received an estimated stings. A local hospital treated and released both men.
United States diplomats to the United Nations have a simple request: They would like to stop going to meetings with drunken foreign dignitaries. The deputy U.S. ambassador to the UN, Joseph Torsella, made the official request March . “We make the modest proposal that the negotiating rooms should in the future be an inebriation-free zone,” Torsella told the UN’s budget committee. According to press accounts, dignitaries have attended negotiations after consuming copious amounts of alcohol. Torsella noted that the United States would have to conclude that drunkenness—or tardiness—from ambassadors indicates they are negotiating in bad faith.
Judging a proposed headstone too gaudy for its cemetery, an Indiana church is now facing a lawsuit from a grieving widow. The Rev. Jonathan Meyer of St. Joseph Catholic Church in North Vernon, Ind., said the headstone purchased by Shannon Carr in after her husband’s death was too much for the church’s small, traditional cemetery. At a cost of ,, the marker featured a colorful NASCAR logo, an Indianapolis Colts logo, and pictures of a deer and a dog. Carr’s lawsuit alleges that the church failed to fully disclose the rules for grave markers in the cemetery before she purchased the monument—a claim Meyer disputes in a sworn affidavit.
APRIL 6, 2013 • WORLD
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3/19/13 3:03 PM
Janie B. Cheaney
Peter’s identity crisis
The ‘I am’ meets the ‘I am not’
>>
WORLD • APRIL 6, 2013
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the King of Israel, the Holy One of God? Really? Peter follows his master, possibly in hope of redeeming his grand gesture. Or perhaps he’s hoping that Jesus has more tricks up His sleeve, or perhaps he simply doesn’t know what else to do. We know what happens next. All four Gospels have set us up for it with Peter’s self-confident boast: “All these may desert you, Lord, but I never will.” While Jesus stands before a kangaroo court, Peter faces his own little trial, and before long he hears himself swearing, not once but three times, that he never even knew that man. But John words it differently from Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In John, the question is negative: “You also are not one of this man’s disciples, are you?” And the answer is negative: “I am not.” Think of that. The Gospel of John is all about who Jesus is. But when Peter has to answer to his own identity, he defines himself by what he is not. I am not—this man’s disciple. I am not—destined for glory in a messianic kingdom. I am not—the brave, decisive right-hand man of my fond imagination. While Jesus is being made—coming into His real kingdom by way of the cross—Peter is being unmade. “You must be born again”: a painful process. We are not as we once imagined ourselves in our glowing daydreams, and by God’s mercy we finally know it. Pity the whiz kid or beautiful boy who is flattered and affirmed all his life, feeding his illusions. In the blaze of “I am,” all our pretensions vaporize to cinders. So the wretched man shivering by a fire of sticks finally began to know himself, and in that sublime negation he was remade. Who are you, fisherman? “Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.” A
THE DENIAL OF ST PETER, 1650, BY GEORGES DE LA TOUR/DEAGOSTINI/SUPERSTOCK
T G J is all about who Jesus is. That’s the burning question, asked directly by the Jews, debated among the people, demanded by Pilate: Who are you? Tell us plainly. He did tell them plainly, never more so than in the garden where they came to arrest Him. It’s His last chance—to speak from a human point of view—to escape the dreadful cup of His Father’s wrath. Chapter , verse is the last “I am” statement in the Gospel characterized by them, and the simplest: “I am He”— the one you’re looking for. Early in His ministry there was a lot of looking and finding. Andrew found Peter and Philip found Nathaniel, and they all believed they had found the Messiah. Now the enemy has found Him, and with three words Jesus delivers Himself over to the judgment of men and of God. But there’s more behind that statement than three words. The “I am” who declared Himself to be before Abraham (John :) is in complete control of the situation. He faces a formidable crew: soldiers and temple officers, bristling with weapons and bright with torches, led by a traitor. But now that they’ve reached their goal, they behave like kittens. He’s the one who asks the questions; they can barely answer. Why the curious detail (John :) that “they drew back and fell to the ground” when He identified Himself? Possibly to show that they couldn’t have taken Him by force. “I am” allows them to tie Him up and lead Him away. Only one man took positive action. Like a soldier who boldly charges the enemy with his mouth wide open in full battle cry, Simon Peter probably expected the others to follow when he drew a sword and struck off an ear. Surely something would follow. But like the temple guards, he was rendered powerless by the Lord’s rebuke: “No more of this!” Subdued and stunned, the inner circle—those who (no matter what Jesus said) were sure they were on the fast track to greatness—melt away as their leader submits to capture. They must have been asking themselves, Who is he, again? The promised Messiah,
Email: jcheaney@worldmag.com
3/13/13 9:39 AM
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7 MOVIES & TV.indd 24
3/13/13 1:57 PM
Reviews Movies & TV > Books > Q&A > Music
Charming Croods >>
MOVIE: DreamWorks’ new animated film is perhaps the best the studio has produced for families
DreamWorks Animation
by Megan Basham
When it comes to computer-animated feature films, descriptions like “heartwarming” and “classic” have long been the domain of Pixar. Almost no one would think to apply them to DreamWorks, the studio that gave audiences the snarky fractured fairytales of the Shrek franchise, along with Kung Fu Panda and the Madagascars. But with its latest computer-animated effort, The Croods (rated PG for mildly scary action), DreamWorks may finally be ready to try something other than the frenetic pacing, pop-culture references, and sly winks at adult humor that built the studio brand. The story of a family of cave people trying to outrun the end of the world is surprisingly sincere and charming, with nary a double entendre in sight. Nicholas Cage (who is less cartoony as an animated character than he is as a live action performer) voices Grug, the overprotective
Email: mbasham@worldmag.com
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father of a Stone Age clan that includes his wife, Ugga (Catherine Keener), his teenage daughter, Eep (Emma Stone), his slowwitted son, Thunk (Clark Duke), and his seemingly indestructible mother-in-law (Cloris Leachman), as well as a freckle-faced feral infant. Like any good dad, Grug knows that his No. 1 job is to protect his family, and he takes his role seriously. But when Eep starts to flout his rules (fear anything new and never go outside the cave at night), she meets the biggest threat Grugg has ever faced—the teenage boy. To make matters worse, it turns out the teen, Guy (Ryan Reynolds), has a few things right—destruction is coming and Grug’s tried-and-true methods for keeping his family safe will no longer work. If he wants his brood to survive, let alone thrive, he will have to let Guy lead them out of their dark cave and into a bright new land. It speaks to the wholesomeness of the comedy and the family values the script champions that it would be easy to see Spencer Tracy voicing Cage’s role 60 years ago.
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Reviews > Movies & TV that rivals (and clearly owes a debt to) the effects that blew audiences away in Avatar. Though it would have been easy in a movie about cavemen to throw in some macro-evolution gags, The Croods avoids even this to spoil anyone’s fun. The world we see almost belies any notion that we’re dealing with creatures that ever existed on Earth. Flying piranha birds, dayglo tigers, and alligator dogs are just a few of the fantastical beasts the travelers encounter, and they are so stunningly realized they’re sure to keep even the youngest youngsters’ eyes glued to the screen. A few news outlets have reported that shares of DreamWorks dropped slightly due to early indications The Croods won’t perform as well as some of DreamWorks’ past animated offerings. If so, it would be a shame, because it’s the best film they’ve offered kids (and their parents) to date. A
WORLD • APRIL 6, 2013
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Duck Dynasty
- according to Box Office Mojo
CAUTIONS: Quantity of sexual (S), violent (V), and foul-language (L) content on a - scale, with high, from kids-in-mind.com
S V L 1̀ 2̀ 3̀ 4̀ 5̀ 6̀ 7̀ 8̀ 9̀
Oz the Great and Powerful* PG ................... The Call R .................................... The Incredible Burt Wonderstone PG-13 ............... Jack the Giant Slayer* PG-13 ............................. Identity Thief R ........................ Snitch PG-13................................ and Over R ........................... Silver Linings Playbook* R .............................. Safe Haven PG-13 .................... Escape From Planet Earth PG .......................
D of Louisiana, there lives a clan of burly men and their devoted wives and children. Should you stumble upon them Wednesdays p.m. Eastern on A&E (or in reruns of previous seasons), you’ll want to brace yourself. Their quirky “redneckedness” is amusing enough that it recently took down American Idol in the TV ratings war. While the show mimics “manly man” shows like Pawn Stars and Gator Boys, the Robertson clan’s approach is a lot like the duck calls they manufacture: deceptively unique. First of all, it’s a family affair. The show ostensibly follows hunter Phil Robertson and his three grown sons, Willie, Jase, and Jep as they hunt together and run their multimillion-dollar business. Phil is retired and spends much of his time in a camouflage recliner, while the boys goof off and get into trouble. But it’s just as much about their family life, too, and Phil’s wife—a countrified Aunt Bea—along with the sons’ “yuppie wives” help create tension ripe for comedy. For instance, in one particularly hilarious episode, Willie dons camouflage tights and joins his wife’s yoga class. But in this Dukes-of-Hazard-meets-Seinfeld world, the real secret weapon of funny is Phil’s brother, Uncle Si. A Kramer-like “old coot,” his bizarre antics and insights are utterly captivating. I could try to recount the time he swapped his lackluster hunting dog for a poodle, but—like the bear he claims to have seen “ridin’ a scooter” in Vietnam— you’ll need to see it to believe it. Some viewers might not appreciate the sexual innuendo (in the context of marriage) or the overthe-top selfishness (though tongue-in-cheek). But considering that the Robertsons are Bible-believing Christians, the clean humor and family-focused plot are likely to entertain without offending too much. Perhaps most notably, these men are using their new-found celebrity to preach the gospel in books, speaking tours, and personal relationships with the rich and famous, which means they may quickly become the new face—beards and all—of evangelical Christianity to Hollywood and the rest of the country.
*Reviewed by WORLD
3/20/13 9:12 AM
CHENEY: FRANCIS GASPARINI/SHOWTIME • THE SAPPHIRES: THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY
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DUCK DYNASTY: ART STREIBER/A&E • THE CRODDS: DREAMWORKS ANIMATION
This isn’t to suggest the film is all morality and no fun. The Croods is packed with laughs. More laughs than I ever had from the inappropriate, anachronistic puns in the Shrek movies. The spectacle of Grug grappling with the newfangled ideas of his daughter’s budding prince charming is a timeless setup that works as well in the prehistoric era as it does in the new millennium, and writer/ director Chris Sanders plays it for everything it’s worth. But refreshingly, this doesn’t make Grug the goon we often see fathers portrayed as these days. He may be a little set in his ways, but his heart is clearly in the right Guy (voiced place, and at the by Ryan crucial moment it is Reynolds) dad who keeps his cool and sacrifices himself to shepherd his family to safety. Even better, the relationship between father and daughter, and even father and lonely young man looking for a father figure, takes primacy over any romantic entanglements. We’re clear that Eep is, literally and hilariously, on the hunt for Guy, but its never clear that Guy is hunting back. To only mention the story, however, would do a disservice to the spectacular world-building
MOVIE
The Sapphires
DUCK DYNASTY: ART STREIBER/A&E • THE CRODDS: DREAMWORKS ANIMATION
CHENEY: FRANCIS GASPARINI/SHOWTIME • THE SAPPHIRES: THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY
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T of racial turmoil in America, but there was one medium that transcended class, culture, and race. That medium was music. Motown was in its glory day. Groups like the Supremes and the Temptations were world famous. Their musical influence reached as far Australia, where the Aboriginal people were battling their own racial troubles. That struggle, told through the eyes of four Aboriginal young women, is the basis for The Sapphires. The story begins in a rural Australian mission in when state officials arrive to look for fair-skinned children to remove from their families and place in white homes or religious institutions. (These children became known as the “Lost” or “Stolen Generation.”) The surprise visit throws the mission into chaos and interrupts a concert given by four little girls, singing in beautiful harmony. Fast-forward years to . The girls are grown and ready to participate in a singing competition. They have the best voices, hands down, but lose the contest because they’re black. Washed-up piano player Dave Lovelies (Chris O’Dowd) is the only one who recognizes their talent. He helps them get an audition as performers for the American troops in Vietnam and teaches them how to be soul singers, despite the reluctance of the eldest sister and group leader, Gail (Deborah Mailman). They make the audition and head to Vietnam, completely ignorant of the tumultuous world awaiting them. During their tour, they come face-to-face with the brutalities of war, their own family struggles, and their broken relationships with each other. Two of the girls have a casual view of sex and childbearing, and there’s enough language and kissing to give the movie its PG- rating. Nevertheless, the film has no scenes of nudity, on-camera drug use, or domestic violence, and there is a strong emphasis on the importance of family and the role of parents. Thanks to irresistibly contagious music and a tolerably interesting plot, The Sapphires is a good girls’ night out or date night choice.
See all our movie reviews at worldmag.com/movies
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TELEVISION
The World According to Dick Cheney .
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T W A to Dick Cheney is not an examination of a polarizing former vice president. It is a history lesson molded by the perspective of the man whose history it aims to tell. Director R.J. Cutler has produced what amounts to the film version of Cheney’s memoir. Less politically aware audiences might be better served by Cutler’s Showtime documentary. (Caution: The film includes photos of torture/nudity arising from the Abu Ghraib scandal and profanity during bomb footage from Iraq.) Others will conclude nearly two hours unentertained and with no new intimacy with the subject. It is no revelation that Cheney stands by his vice presidency, which is the focus of the biography, or that he believes he was right about waterboarding, WMDs, and warrantless surveillance. “I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about my faults,” Cheney says early on, and this is the first of many times that Cutler—who logged hours with Cheney and also spoke to his wife Lynne—allows the former VP to give a non-answer. Cheney, for example, acknowledges his “major transformation, obviously,” from a college dropout with two DUIs to a White House staffer years later, but does not draw back the curtain on what that transformation involved. Others—mostly reporters and biographers—guess at major influences in his life, but Cheney does not expound. The film is seeded with doubts about Cheney’s decisionmaking process and does not even try to make Cheney—a man who likes the nickname “Darth Vader”—likeable. It captures both sides of the story in that it raises questions and allows Cheney to respond, but Cheney’s self-defense is simply that he was right and anyone who disagreed— including former President George W. Bush—was wrong. While steering clear of offering an opinion on Cheney or history, this movie may leave audiences no better informed to decide for themselves.
APRIL 6, 2013 • WORLD
3/20/13 9:14 AM
Hardboiled fiction DENNIS LEHANE is definitely not for some readers BY MARVIN OLASKY
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WORLD • APRIL 6, 2013
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the years, I hope we are all willing to make this one of those times when we agree to disagree. Instead of pointing fingers we might examine our own motives. If I’m Christian No. , am I hiding from reality? If I’m Christian No. , am I enjoying evil? Most of my reviews are of books that Christian No. will happily read. But my life these days, with a wife and calling I love, with a home and fellow Worldlings I like, is pretty pleasant. In editing WORLD and tracking the news I read about evil, my tendency when things are personally pleasant is to downplay our desperate need for Christ. Hardboiled detective novels remind me of that. So this review is for No. Christians: If you’re No. , do not read books by author Dennis Lehane. They have evocative titles like Sacred, but also violence and sex, and Lehane shows no awareness of Christ overcoming evil. I wish he did, but I can supply that sense myself. Lehane does remind me of the reality of evil. (And maybe I also like his work
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H two types of Christian readers and movie-goers? Christian No. won’t read or watch a novel or film that contains any violence or especially any sex. Christian No. will put up with some of that if he sees compensating virtues—or what the Supreme Court in Miller v. California years ago called “redeeming social value.” Each type could lord it over the other. Christian No. could say, “I’m pure, never touching what lesser Christians tolerate.” Christian No. could say, “I’m mature, able to eat meat while others need milk.” Each could claim Paul. Christian No. could quote the wonderful passage in Chapter of Philippians: Think about what’s true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, praiseworthy. Christian No. could note that Paul, in walking around Athens, Corinth, and other idolatrous and decadent towns, couldn’t help wallowing in muck. Having witnessed these debates over
because it’s set in the Boston area, where I grew up and was a newspaper reporter.) Lehane shows in novels like Darkness, Take My Hand—how’s that for a title evoking evil?—the ability to describe: “After my last company suffered a coronary on a bleak, forgotten street in Roxbury, I found this ’ nut brown Crown Victoria at a police auction. … I spent money on everything under the hood and I had it outfitted with top-of-theline tires, but I left the interior the way I’d found it—roof and seats yellowed by the previous owner’s cheap cigars, back seats torn and spilling foam rubber, broken radio. Both rear doors were sharply dented, as if they’d been squeezed by forceps.” He shows the ability to portray people, as in this paragraph about a college student: “Jason led a pretty lively existence, but once you got the gist of it—wake, eat, class, sex, study, eat, drink, sex, sleep—it got old pretty quick. … There was something lonely and sad about Jason and his partners. They bobbed through their existence like plastic ducks on hot water, tipping over occasionally, waiting as long as it took for someone to right them, and then back to more of the same bobbing.” Characters like Jason don’t realize it, but they need the gospel. One of Lehane’s private investigators tells another, “I’m tired of dealing with psychotics and deadbeats and scumbags and liars on a continual basis. … We’re still young enough to change if we want. We’re young enough to get clean again.” The second whispers: “Can we get clean, though?” (The novel cries out for a third member of that conversation who will whisper, “That’s why Jesus died.”) And at the end of Darkness, Take My Hand, Lehane’s protagonist hears a radio broadcast about a new gun control measure that will help Boston “be as safe as Eden before the fall. … The city, the announcer assured us, was holding its breath.” A
Email: molasky@worldmag.com
3/12/13 1:52 PM
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Reviews > Books
NOTABLE BOOKS
Four books spotlighting new beginnings > reviewed by
Fatherless Dr. James Dobson and Kurt Bruner Fatherless represents a new beginning for popular Christian author and radio host James Dobson. With the aid of best-selling novelist Kurt Bruner, Dobson’s first novel portrays a dystopian future in which elderly Americans outnumber the young. In , disregard for human life has so progressed that society expects the elderly and disabled to “transition”—i.e., commit doctor-assisted suicide. When a mother dies trying to prevent her son’s transition, the fallout pits Julia Davidson, a liberal journalist looking for a new start, against Kevin Tolbert, a Christian congressman fighting to preserve America’s future. Fatherless lacks polish, and its presentation of married sex is not for immature readers. The book’s depiction of family breakdown and its effects on American culture feels chillingly prophetic. Schroder Amity Gaige In this novel Erik Schroder has a lot to be sorry for— kidnapping his daughter and stealing a friend’s car, for starters. But as the “Erik Kennedy” persona he’s hidden behind since his childhood unravels, Schroder gropes for his real identity, trying to wrench some new reality from a lifetime of lies. Schroder, which includes occasional foul language and brief descriptions of sex, shows one man’s inability to be the father and husband his family needs. Framed as an apology written to a still-loved ex-wife, the novel is sometimes hilarious and at other times heartbreakingly poignant. It will resonate with Christian readers wishing to savor their new lives and identity in Christ.
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Within This Tree of Bones: New and Selected Poems Robert Siegel In December of , Christian author and professor Robert Siegel died of cancer. But not before leaving behind this compilation of his poetry spanning five decades. Published in journals like The Atlantic and Image, Siegel’s work flowed out of a religious awakening during his years at Wheaton College. His work here is both erudite and conversational, addressing topics as varied as deer ticks, ancient English literature, and the rescue of his daughter’s hamster. Perhaps most notably, the new life within his cancerous “tree of bones” grows from a whisper, mostly hinted at, to later poems that are a “shout from the stomach” to “give gladness and joy back to the Lord.”
SPOTLIGHT In , David and Nancy Watters move to a remote village in the mountains of Nepal to learn the Kham language. After David forays into the mountains to scout out a home village, he returns to Kathmandu where Nancy and their two sons ( and less than a year) wait. She wants to know everything he’d seen and experienced. He writes: “I tried my best to describe it. But how could I adequately portray the majesty of the mountains, the beauty of the people, the strangeness of the villages?” Watters does just that in At the Foot of the Snows (Engage Faith, ). Completed by his sons after his death in , the book combines genres: vivid travel writing, revealing spiritual memoir, and perceptive cultural and political analysis. At the book’s center is the extraordinary story of courageous believers who responded to the gospel in their own language—and joyfully endured persecution to follow Christ. —Susan Olasky
One Perfect Life: The Complete Story of the Lord Jesus John MacArthur “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” So opens John MacArthur’s presentation of the life of Jesus created through artful and theologically sound arrangement of Scripture verses. MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, Calif., and author of numerous books including The MacArthur Study Bible, draws on nearly four decades of ministry to create a harmony of biblical accounts about Christ. The presentation looks first to Old Testament references to Jesus and His work as Creator, and from that point works its way through the entire Bible with line-by-line references and copious footnotes. While this portrait of Christ in His own words is at times disjointed, it is compelling enough to rival a novel.
See all our reviews at worldmag.com/books
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APRIL 6, 2013 • WORLD
3/13/13 9:33 AM
Reviews > Q&A
The Technicolor life
Rep. Michele Bachmann on marriage, feminism, Christianity in politics, and the need for conservative candidates to be a virtual Wikipedia By Marvin Olasky
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Our April 6 cover date is Michele Bachmann’s 57th birthday. She is in her fourth term as a Republican member of the House of Representatives, representing a district adjacent to Minneapolis and St. Paul. A founder of the House Tea Party caucus, she won Iowa’s straw poll in August 2011 but left the presidential race after finishing sixth in the January 2012 Iowa caucuses. On Worldmag.com we’re profiling couples with marriages of 35 years or more, so you and your husband have just made the cut. What’s been the hardest thing in your 35 years? We have probably erred more on the side of working than we have on the side of playing, as a necessity. ... I came from a single mom, below-poverty background. My husband also had to work his way through college. We didn’t have anything, and when we got married, my husband made $500 a month. We decided we would only live on one income. It is the best decision we ever made because we learned it’s all about economizing, economizing, economizing. We also made a decision that when the children came, one of us would stay home. It hasn’t always been me. We have tag-teamed as parents, but we’ve tried to make sure one of us was home with the children. Our kids were our priority.
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Feminists would applaud that tag-teaming. What good things has feminism wrought? The idea that women are valuable and should be listened to is very important, but it wasn’t feminism that did that: It was Jesus Christ. He did more to lift up the value and stature of women because it’s very clear in the Bible that, before God, men and women are equal in His sight. Proverbs 31 shows how multifaceted women are. In my case I’m a tax attorney but also a stateswoman. My husband and I started our company together. We hire, we fire, we build our company, but I also started a movement in Minnesota for academic excellence, and nationally to return our country to constitutional principles. On what issues were you able to work together with either feminists or people on the liberal side? In our state we had the longest unfinished bridge project in the history of the United States. No bridge ever took longer to be built. I was able to bring together our Democrat senators. One is Al Franken, a very liberal senator—if you can get Al Franken and Michele Bachmann to agree on a project, you’re doing something. ... I am trying to work with some of my Democrat colleagues on the idea of cures. Scientists believe we can have the cure for Alzheimer’s within 10 years. I have a heart for curing
Parkinson’s disease and juvenile diabetes. Rather than us wasting a lot of the money— we have now in our National Institutes of Health a huge bureaucracy—I would like us to repurpose that money in labs and focus on cures. Where is there an overlap between political conservatism and biblical Christianity in your own experience, and where has there been some tension? When have you as a Christian felt you had to go against what conservatives were advocating? I can’t think of an example because my guide has been an understanding of Scripture. I came to the Lord when I was 16. It was like The Wizard of Oz when the movie starts out black and white and then all of a sudden it’s Technicolor. When I came to the Lord it was like being in Technicolor because I felt for the first time in my life I understood truth. I understood purpose. I understood meaning. ... Voting has not been tough for me for the most part because there are guideposts that lead you on what will bring about the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest amount of people. A lot of students—not here at Patrick Henry but certainly at the University of Texas—associate Christianity with conservative politics and don’t want any part of that. How do you
deal with the complaint that Christianity has become politicized? It’s getting far more politicized on the left today than it is on the right. In the last 20 years there has been a marked decline in Christian conservative involvement in the public square, and a rise of leftists who claim the cover of evangelicalism. When evangelicals are politically liberal, does that suggest to you that they have an inadequate understanding of the Bible? Why do they come at it in a very different way than you come at it? It’s premises. Their fundamental belief will drive other decisions. I encourage students to dwell on the Word of God: Make it your aim to gain wisdom and to gain understanding. There is no better prayer than to every day of your life cry out to a holy God and ask Him to give you understanding. ... The precepts are there in the Word of God, and they are knowable. He is knowable. He is a God of the infinite, and yet He cares about the hairs on our head. ... We have to be humble before the Lord and listen with both ears. We have two ears and one mouth. When you’re in presidential campaign debates and are supposed to respond instantaneously to all kinds of questions, how do you listen? How do you show Christian humility where the idea is to project yourself with a certain
WORLD • April 6, 2013
3/12/13 10:06 AM
amount of arrogance? It’s not necessarily projecting yourself with arrogance, but projecting your view with confidence, and there is nothing wrong with being confident. David was highly confident when he stood before Saul. Peter became confident when he was filled with the Holy Spirit. ... I ran for president because I saw the devastation that would occur to our country if Obamacare remained intact. For those students here: Your futures are being stolen from you quite literally. You could have fully 75 percent of what you make taken away from you. How did your presidential campaign experience change you? If you’re conservative you can never get anything wrong, and I was very proud of the fact that I didn’t get anything wrong during the course of 15 presidential debates. That forces a person to be better. You have to be a virtual Wikipedia. ... It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I would give 10 speeches a day, probably do four fundraisers. I could be up at 4 a.m. and wouldn’t go to bed until after midnight. I had to raise millions of dollars, I’d have to answer questions, and I was a girl so I had to look good at the same time. It is one of the best experiences I’ve had because it forced me to be better. With all the thousands of questions thrown at you, is there one you wish you had answered differently? I wish I had gotten John Wayne’s birthplace right and Elvis Presley’s birthday right. Those are the two things I got dinged for more than anything. Only those two? Yeah, because I was right about all the others (laughter). A Stacy Bengs/AP
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Reviews > Music with the message, but all I knew was it was the church for me.” The song was “Hip to Be Square,” as plainspoken a paean to the perquisites of walking the straight and narrow as has ever graced pop airwaves. The church was the very hip Warehouse Ministries. Little did Yvette know that she, a mere high-school student from Karlstad, Minn. (population: ), would find herself in a congregation that included such CCM trailblazers as Charlie Peacock, Steve Scott, and members of the ’s. She began buying their albums and attending their concerts. Eventually, she started singing during the services and occasionally performing with her heroes. After investing many hours of her childhood in piano lessons and other musical pursuits, she was well prepared to take advantage of the opportunity. Yvette, , has released Heartsong, her first album. It’s a long-overdue culmination of her lifelong attempt to bring together her love for music, her love for life, and her love for her Creator. Heartsong is not your typical vanity-press CD. Two of its tracks, for instance (“Be with You,” “You Make My Heart Sing”), feature the guitar work of well-traveled session guitarist Eddie Martinez (Celine Dion, David Lee Roth, Gato Barbieri, Meat Loaf). And one, “Where There Is Faith,” features celebrated smooth-funk saxophonist Patrick Lamb, who co-wrote and co-produced it. “I learned a lot in some of the writing sessions that we had together,” says Lamb on Yvette’s eponymous website. “I would describe her as a very professional, dedicated, focused, and centered artist and human being.” Becoming a “very professional, dedicated, focused, and centered artist and human being” hasn’t come easily. She’s been a single mother for the past decade after her marriage of years ended in divorce. She began recording Heartsong in . She was not always sure if she could complete it: “Sometimes the finances would be an issue. Sometimes the producers would get other projects and have to put mine on hold.” The trouble was worth it. Unencumbered by the strictures of either secular or CCM major labels, Yvette has crafted an album characterized by a multi-lateral sensitivity increasingly uncommon in these days of The lack of a major label is a major musical homogenization. With vulnerable sensitivity (“Crimson Summer”) and gospel enthusiasm (“Abide in asset for CHRISTINE YVETTE Me”), Heartsong is a st-century Christian analogue to BY ARSENIO ORTEZA Carole King’s Tapestry as sung by a small-town girl with a soulful alto voice. “My ‘target’ audience,” says Yvette, whose formative-years “W ,” singer-songwriter attraction to Amy Grant is audible throughout her music, Christine Yvette told WORLD, describing her family’s “would be people who like light pop music with a little jazz attempt to find a place to worship upon moving to and gospel influence. Sacramento, Calif., in the mid-s. “I am hoping that people who like Colbie Caillat or Norah “But nothing seemed right until we went to a church that Jones will like my music. As a musician, I guess you hope played a Huey Lewis & the News video one Sunday for everyone will like what you do.” A high-school church. It was probably being played to go along
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3/19/13 12:34 PM
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Christian tapestry
NOTABLE CDs
New or recent releases > reviewed by
Live Momentum Neal Morse Recorded before an enthusiastic Big Apple crowd and touching on eight different albums, this nearly three-hour, -song, three-disc, two-DVD document only scratches the surface of what the Christian prog-rocker Morse has been up to since . (There’s nothing, for instance, from the five worship albums he’s released between and .) Of course, with four songs that last over minutes apiece (one a Martin Luther encomium), space is at a premium. Fortunately, the cover of the Osmonds’ “Crazy Horses” made the cut. Nanobots They Might Be Giants Of the songs that last less than two minutes, nine last less than one minute and total just :. Of the that last longer, only “Call You Mom” (a three-minute, six-second examination of “mommy issues”) and “Icky” (two-and-a-half minutes of misanthropy) are instantly irresistible. But the slow, sad “Sometimes a Lonely Day” will comfort the forsaken. The slow, pedagogical “Tesla” will instruct the ignorant. And “Didn’t Kill Me” needs only seconds to call the wisdom of Nietzsche into question. Sacred Guitar Ryan Tilby As acoustic-guitar players of sacred music go, Ryan Tilby falls somewhere between John Fahey and John Michael Talbot. With the harder, faster-picking Fahey, whose Yes! Jesus Loves Me still defines the genre, Tilby shares an affectionate familiarity with American hymnody in general and “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” “For All the Beauty of the Earth,” and “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” in particular. (Also like Fahey, Tilby doesn’t sing.) With Talbot, Tilby shares a meditatively reverential lightness of touch. As such combinations go, it’s potent.
SPOTLIGHT Most of what Richard Thompson recorded when he was married to his first wife Linda still sounds better than most of what he has recorded in the years since the divorce. Enough of the latter, however, has been compelling enough to keep alive the hope that someday he’d turn out a full-length work on par with his youthful folkrock best, and with Electric (New West) he has. He has credited the producer Buddy Miller with greasing the skids, but it was Thompson himself who wrote the Richard-and-Lindaworthy “Another Small Thing in Her Favour” and “Good Things Happen to Bad People” (“but only for awhile”). He also played the junkyard organ on the garagerocking “Straight and Narrow” and had so many good songs he needed a “deluxe edition” bonus disc to accommodate them all. And while Alison Krauss’ cameo is OK, it’s Siobhan Maher Kennedy’s five harmony turns that really recall the old days.
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Work Hard, Play Hard, Pray Hard Various performers Subtitled “Hard Time, Good Time & End Time Music -,” this thematically organized, three-disc set of proto-country-folk will prove to future historians that—contrary to the laziness, malaise, and secularism of the USA’s decline and fall—work, play, and prayer were once a recipe for seeing folks through a Depression. And coming as they do between the “work hard” songs and the “pray hard” songs, the (often) hilarious “play hard” drinking songs hint at the futility of Prohibition and one’s need of redemption simultaneously.
See all our reviews at worldmag.com/music
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APRIL 6, 2013 • WORLD
3/19/13 12:30 PM
Mindy Belz
Droning on
Like other parts of the Middle East, the U.S.-Saudi alliance needs its own democracy movement
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T U.S. to provide “non-lethal” aid to rebels in Syria is by most accounts a faint gesture, an offer coming—two years into Syria’s raging civil war—too little, too late. After U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry promised food, medical supplies, and about million for “security” and “education” last month, Syrian rebel commander Abdul Jabbar Akaidi was blunt: “We have no need for medical supplies or for food stuffs,” he told NPR from his base camp. “We need more than this.” It would be foolhardy, though, to miss the underlying importance of Washington openly and actively siding with Syria’s rebel factions. Beneath what appeared a kind of footnote decision is tacit linkage with Saudi Arabia—the lead supplier of lethal aid to the rebels—in its bid to oust President Bashar al-Assad from Syria. In the aftermath of the Iraq War and the Arab Spring, the Obama administration has resuscitated ties to Saudi Arabia, returning to the pragmatic “oil diplomacy” of the s rather than adapting to the realities of a post-/, post-Saddam, post-Mubarak Middle East. That’s ironic, given Obama’s pledge in his Cairo speech “to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect.” Obama, like his predecessors, has overlooked decades of autocratic rule and export of statesanctioned Islamic extremism to stand by the Sauds, even as U.S. dependence on Saudi oil is in decline. The news earlier this year of a secret U.S. drone base in the Saudi desert ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US: is the latest and most dramatic evidence A satellite image of an of a tightening bond. According to news airstrip deep in the Saudi accounts the U.S. military built the base Arabia desert that may be two years ago, just as it was abandoning a secret U.S. drone base.
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billions of dollars worth of built-up U.S. military bases in Iraq, easily capable of launching drone attacks. The pact to expand U.S. drone warfare from the Saudi desert also got its launch in the midst of “Arab Spring” revolutions moving rapidly across the region. The Saudi regime prominently has supported revolutions and power takedowns where they benefit the spread of Sunni and Wahhabi influence—most notably in Syria. But it actively intervened to protect the Gulf emirs facing street protesters, as in Bahrain. U.S. policy has followed a similar course, ignoring the protest movements in Gulf States and Saudi allies like Yemen, while siding with revolutionaries in Egypt, Libya, and now Syria. Saudi support for the Syrian opposition is an obvious effort to drive a wedge in the longstanding alliance between Syria and Saudi Arabia’s lead rival, Iran. Be certain of this: The Saudis will not care when fighting in Syria spills over into Iraq, because there too they would like to halt the march of Iraq’s Shiite majority government with its ties to Iran. In the United States, where Iran has become the bogeyman for everything that’s wrong in the Middle East, it’s a common but sloppy read of history to say if it’s bad for Iran it must be good for the United States. Before the Iranian revolution, Iran was arguably among our best allies in the Muslim world, with a Persian culture more inclined to Western ways. Should a “Persian Spring” ever happen, it’s more likely to end favorably to Western interests than any Arab Springs have so far. The Sauds’ long-ruling monarchy is autocratic and absolute. The government bans all forms of public religious expression besides Wahhabi Islam and outlaws all non-Muslim places of worship. It distributes in schools—and exports to its Saudi-supported schools in America—textbooks that teach intolerance of other religions and incite violence. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has since named Saudi Arabia a “country of particular concern,” which should make it open to economic sanctions and other U.S. punishment, except for an indefinite waiver in place since . Siding so closely with the Saudis plays into the hands of those who say the U.S. view of the Middle East is myopic. It also makes the United States complicit in the way Saudi Arabia deals with Christians, other minorities, and non-Wahhabi Muslims. In other words, it’s undemocratic. A
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Christian Leadership to Change the World
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Cities of refuge The immigrant legacy and the welcome refugees receive in the United States offer relevant lessons in the debate over immigration reform and how to pave a way for foreign newcomers by jamie dean in Clarkston, Ga. p h oto s b y R o b i n N e l s o n /G e n e s i s
When the congregation of Clarkston International Bible Church (CIBC) meets on Sunday mornings, black and white Americans squeeze into pews with Africans and Asians from places like Sudan and Burma. It wasn’t always such a diverse hour. Less than 20 years ago, the Southern Baptist congregation was almost entirely white. As the town of Clarkston, Ga., changed—including a massive influx of refugees—the church floundered: Many white members moved away, and some resented efforts to reach the new population.
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welcome: A refugee from Nepal in Clarkston, Ga.
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Attendance dropped from 600 to 100. The church began holding one worship service instead of two. To pay expenses, church leaders leased space to a handful of ethnic groups holding their own worship services on the large campus. But slowly, another dynamic developed: A handful of churchgoers adapted. They invited local youth to a basketball program. They held ESL classes. They opened a computer lab for residents. And they changed the church’s name: Clarkston Baptist Church became Clarkston International Bible Church—a deliberate sign that refugees were welcome. On a recent Sunday morning, some 300 churchgoers from at least three different continents filled an old-fashioned sanctuary for an English-language worship service. Midway through a sermon on Christian identity, Pastor Phil Kitchin read from Ephesians 2: “You are no longer foreigners and strangers …” It’s an arresting passage for a tiny city where foreigners abound.
during earlier shifts: In the 1970s, the small city built a large stock of apartments to attract middle-class workers drawn to the area by Atlanta’s new international airport. As some of those workers moved to homes in nearby suburbs in the 1980s, lower-income families moved into the apartments, including a significant number of blacks. Refugees followed in the 1990s and filled much of the vacant housing. Today, the town that once was nearly 90 percent white has dropped to about 14 percent white. The city’s unusual demographic shift has brought national attention: Stories in The New York Times led to a book about the Fugees, a local soccer team for refugee youth founded by an ambitious volunteer. A PBS documentary last fall noted some of the challenges of settling refugees in a small town with a limited budget.
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tour of Clarkston doesn’t take long. The city situated 11 miles northeast of Atlanta measures about one square mile. But it’s a packed mile: The population of 7,500 includes thousands of refugees from all over the world. A visit to Clarkston Village shopping center reveals the diversity: The strip includes an Asian market, an Eritrean restaurant, an Ethiopian café, and a Middle Eastern grocery store. A small Southern town that once hosted the Ku Klux Klan may seem like an unlikely place to send refugees from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, but the U.S. State Department saw opportunity as it began settling refugees in the Atlanta area in the 1990s: Officials noticed Clarkston’s abundance of cheap apartments and its access to Atlanta’s public transportation system. Many of the 60,000 refugees that enter the United States each year settle in large cities like New York or Los Angeles. But the State Department and resettlement agencies also send refugees to mid-size cities like Minneapolis and Portland, and even smaller cities like Bowling Green, Ky., and Utica, N.Y. The resettlement process is often complicated, but the attraction of smaller cities is simple: They usually have more available housing and a lower cost of living. Over the last 20 years, dozens of towns across the United States have become cities of refuge for some of the most vulnerable people in the world. Many refugees in Clarkston eventually move to other towns, but new refugees continue to arrive. Out of some 16,000 who arrived in Georgia since 2007, more than 2,300 came to Clarkston. Some locals call Clarkston the “Ellis Island of the South.” The growth has also brought strain, and many white residents followed others who moved away
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But another story lies beneath: While refugees are legal immigrants with special status granted by the U.S. State Department, their experience offers lessons relevant to the nation’s current immigration debate. For example, questions of how immigrants assimilate into American life largely hinge on personal determination, but they also often depend on how communities receive them. Churches and other Christian groups in Clarkston are demonstrating the fruit of relationships with sojourners seeking a new home. And while the current immigration debate is a critical discussion for lawmakers and American citizens, refugees in places like Clarkston remind us the reality of immigration is a far larger story than what to do about those who come here illegally. Pastor Kitchin of CIBC relishes the bigger story of many backgrounds in Clarkston, and despite the substantial
hallenges, he tells other Christians: “If you don’t like it here, c you won’t like heaven.”
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he U.S. Census Bureau reports some 40 million foreign-born residents live in the United States. That number includes everyone from naturalized citizens to permanent residents (known as “green card” holders) to workers and students with temporary visas to immigrants without any legal status. In a significant shift, the number of new arrivals from Asia outnumbered new Latino immigrants in 2010 for the first time, according to the bureau: More than 430,000 Asians arrived in the United States—about 36 percent of new arrivals. Latinos comprised 31 percent of new arrivals. A much smaller number of refugees arrive each year—about 60,000. But along with other new arrivals, and some longtime residents, their transition raises questions, including how well they assimilate into American life. A recent study by the conservative Manhattan Institute found most major immigrant groups were more assimilated in 2009 than they were in 2000. (The study included factors like English skills, home ownership, and employment.) There were notable exceptions: Immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador showed far less progress over the same period of time, according to the study. Manhattan Institute scholar Jacob Vigdor says factors like poverty and lack of education slow progress for Mexicans and similar groups. But he also notes immigrants who plan to stay longer often assimilate better. Indeed, Vigdor says many Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s had few English skills and little money when they arrived, but many assimilated well: “When they know they can’t go home again, they realize they have to do whatever it takes to fit in.”
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or refugees in Clarkston, fitting in happens in stages. The U.S. State Department defines a refugee as someone who has fled his home country and cannot return because of a well-founded fear of persecution. The United Nations estimates there are some 15.4 million refugees worldwide today. Most refugees seek shelter in another country until they can return home. A smaller number become citizens in the country to which they fled. Less than 1 percent, usually the most endangered, settles in a third country after applying through
no longer foreigners and strangers: Welcome to Clarkston; Karen Burmese youth sing at CIBC; CIBC members arrive for church; an Ethiopian café (clockwise from top left).
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the UN—a process that can take years. The United States accepts over half those refugees. When they arrive, the State Department matches refugees with one of nine nonprofit groups–including the evangelical World Relief–and gives the groups , per refugee. The daunting challenge: Place individuals or families in an apartment, and try to settle them in about days. For many, truly resettling can take years. Take job-hunting: In a small room on the second floor of Clarkston International Bible Church, eight refugees from at least four different countries sit behind a row of computers looking for work. The job center is a project of Friends ASSIMILATION: The Friends of of Refugees, a local Christian group that Refugees job center offers services including classes for (above) and ESL pregnant refugees navigating a complex classes (below). healthcare system, and a “Mommy and Me” ESL class to help mothers and their small children learn English together. For those seeking work, the job center provides help with writing resumés, learning how to use email, and networking. Even those with extensive work experience find the challenges formidable. At a reception desk on a recent afternoon, center employee Lauren Mitchell asks an Iranian refugee with limited English a series of questions: How long have you been in the United States? “Two months.” Are you working now? “No.” Do you have a car? “No?” Do you have any family or children with you? “No.” Are you available full-time? “Yes.” In a follow-up conversation, the -year-old Iranian tells me he worked as an architect in Tehran. A member of the heavily persecuted Baha’i religion, he fled to Turkey when locals threatened his life. Since his parents remain in Iran, he doesn’t want to give his name. He spent two years in Turkey, and he says finding work is difficult for refugees. When he struggles to explain in English, he grabs a blank sheet of paper and quickly draws a detailed sketch that looks like a blueprint. He points to windows and stripped walls to illustrate his job in Turkey: He installed insulation. While his work skills seem evident, his English skills pose a serious challenge. When Mitchell asks what kind of work he would like to do, he haltingly replies: “My problem is I need money. My English isn’t so good. I’ll do any job.” It’s a common refrain among refugees who want to work, but don’t know where to begin. In the Clarkston area, jobs are limited, and many refugees take minimum wage work at chicken factories or warehouses up to two hours away. After returning home from long shifts at grueling work, tackling a project like learning English is overwhelming to many.
But it’s a vital project, according to Kebede Haile, a volunteer at the center. The retired human resource officer is originally from Ethiopia, but is now an American citizen, and has lived in the United States for years. He volunteers here because he’s grateful for how Americans helped him find entry-level work when he arrived. “I was just like them,” he says of the refugees at the center. “It’s really uncomfortable for them.” But Haile encourages refugees to push through discomfort: When an Eritrean man approaches and asks a question in Amharic, Haile answers him in English. “It’s the most important thing for them,” he says. In a small room next door, Adam Hoyt directs the job center, and he says the range of work experience is vast: “Everyone from folks who have lived in the jungles of Burma and have never worked for a company, to pediatric surgeons from Iraq.” For any refugee, Hoyt encourages English classes, but he also notes the importance of relationships in the community.
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Having an American friend can play a critical role in navigating a new life and adjusting to a new culture—a role he and his family particularly enjoy as Christians: “This is where we’ve found the Lord’s delight.” And while Hoyt says challenges remain—including differences across refugee cultures—he says it’s encouraging to watch so many live in the same community. “The fact is that every day thousands of Christians and Muslims and Eritreans and Somalis and Iraqis and Kurds are going to school together—and they get along,” he says. “It’s the unexciting story of everyday mediocrity that is probably one of the best signs that assimilation is happening.”
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L agrees. She’s lived in Clarkston since and now serves as a city councilwoman. When other residents fled the city in the s and s, Leonetti and her husband stayed. Over lunch at a local Ethiopian restaurant, the councilwoman says she loves Clarkston’s diversity, but also acknowledges the strains on the small town. For example, though refugee children usually learn English quickly, they often have difficulty with standardized tests. That has left some area schools with abysmal achievement records, and has kept families with children from settling in Clarkston. Crime is high in Clarkston, with out-of-towners often preying on vulnerable refugees. Leonetti says the town has
hired more police, but hasn’t received federal funds to help add the new officers. The per capita income in Clarkston is , a year, and drawing new businesses to town is difficult. That makes finding jobs difficult for refugees. Similar strain has led a handful of other U.S. cities that host refugees to plead for a break, and Georgia Governor Nathan Deal asked the federal government to send fewer refugees to his state this year. The U.S. State Department agreed to reduce the number of refugees settled in Georgia by percent. Despite the challenges, Leonetti says Clarkston leaders are working on improvements to the city (like better streetscapes, parks, and business development) they hope will attract more residents to the town. Meanwhile, her church and other groups offer the kind of assistance that helps refugees adjust—everything from obtaining identification to reading letters from landlords to learning to trust local police. “I believe God doesn’t want the worst for people, He wants the best—including for municipalities,” she says. “He wants us to thrive.” Leonetti acknowledges not everyone in the city has embraced the changes. “But we have to move forward,” she says. “Change is not always about feeling comfortable, but it is for the good.”
2012 refugee arrivals to United States TOP 10 COUNTRIES
Bhutan ............, Burma ............, Iraq .................. , Somalia............ , Cuba ................. , DR Congo .........., Iran ....................., Eritrea ..............., Sudan ............... , Ethiopia ..............
*SOURCE: U.S. OFFICE OF REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT
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or Jay Taylor, embracing change is a daily reality. The pastor of Mosaic Fellowship (a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America) has lived in Clarkston more than a decade. For the first 10 years, Taylor worked in sales, and his family lived in an apartment complex filled with refugees. He tutored students, led a Bible study for interested residents, and formed friendships with neighbors. Eventually, some of those neighbors embraced Christianity, and Taylor became a pastor. He and a group of Christians from another local church launched Mosaic nearly three years ago. Starting a new church offered an opportunity for a new approach: From the beginning, Taylor has encouraged everyone to worship together, instead of breaking into ethnic groups.
He hopes that kind of unity will help keep cultural differences from dominating the church community: “The farther you move away from the Tower of Babel towards the wedding supper of the Lamb, that becomes less and less the priority of people’s lives.” Luca Peh is one of Mosaic’s attendees. Peh fled political unrest in Burma more than two decades ago, and lived in makeshift homes and refugee camps in Thailand until he came to America with his family about three years ago. These days, Peh lives in a modest apartment with his wife and four children near Clarkston, and helps other refugees resettle through his work as a translator for World Relief.
good neighbors: Mosaic Fellowship volunteers meet at an apartment complex to help refugee students with their homework.
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During an afternoon visit, Peh explained some of the hallenges: It’s hard for older refugees to learn English, and c some likely never will. Long hours of work in factories include little interaction with others, and limited opportunities to learn the language. Another challenge: Refugees miss home. Cultural differences make it difficult to adjust, and Peh says befriending Americans isn’t easy for reserved outsiders. Going to an English-speaking church helps, he says, though refugees still struggle with feeling unequal with Americans. (Taylor, who’s also visiting, leans forward in his chair and tells Peh: “We need you as much as you need us. We’re not the church without you.”) Peh says he encourages other refugees to observe American life and try to follow customs. And as much as refugees miss their home countries, he reminds them: “It’s a new life, and we’re in a new country. There is no other best place.” Across town, Rose is learning the same lesson. The African mother of four speaks good English, but still finds adjusting to America a challenge. In the apartment she shares with her husband and children, Rose says she fled war-torn South Sudan with her family in the 1980s. She grew up in a refugee camp in Uganda, but she worked hard and became a nurse. (Because of family back in Africa, she prefers to give only her first name.) These days, a stack of flash cards with colorful diagrams of intestines sits on her couch: She’s going to school here. Since her nursing credentials don’t transfer, she’s enrolled in science classes at a community college and plans to pursue a nursing degree. When Rose talks about Africa, she grows emotional: “There’s nothing that I don’t miss.” But she says relationships with local Christians help. A woman she calls her “American mom” from Clarkston International drives Rose and her children to church every Sunday: “It makes me feel like I am at home.”
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ack at Clarkston International Bible Church, Pastor Kitchin hopes that dynamic continues. During a recent Sunday morning service, the audience is diverse, but the worship is similar to traditional services in other small Southern Baptist churches. At the congregation’s weekly potluck lunch after the service, Kitchin says when he focuses on preaching from the Bible, he doesn’t worry much about cultural differences. Indeed, his sermon this morning echoed what he tells his congregation often. “When you do life together you are much stronger than when you do it apart,” he said. “That’s what f ellowship is.”A
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BUILDING A BUSINESS: Santos Andrade prepares to sharpen lawnmower blades on March 10, near Houston, Texas. Andrade, a legal resident, runs a landscape business with his wife and four sons. He came to the United States illegally from Mexico in 1986.
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Here to work The passage of immigration reform may stumble on a path to citizenship that illegal immigrants don’t necessarily want by J.C. Derrick in League City & Houston, Texas p h oto b y J o h n n y H a n s o n /G e n e s i s
It wasn’t easy when Mario Hernandez illegally crossed the U.S. border with Mexico in 1997: He paid a human smuggler—called a coyote—$800 to help him make the trip, a two-day trek without food or water that included facing snakes, coyotes (the animals), and U.S. Border Patrol agents. He got so thirsty he drank water from a cattle trough. Hernandez says crossing the border is even more treacherous today. He would know: He did it this year. Instead of making arrangements with one person he had to talk to five. The coyote price has quadrupled to $3,200 (others pay twice that much), and there’s no way to avoid the drug cartels, which demand $500 for the right to swim across the Rio Grande. “If you love your life, you pay them,” Hernandez told me in February while sitting at a rustic seafood restaurant outside Houston. Hernandez recounted his story to me with a furrowed brow: He spent five days without food or water—or significant sleep—in a dry river bed under a railway bridge in south Texas, waiting on the perfect moment to leap aboard a train car en route to San Antonio. He lost 10 pounds during the 10-day ordeal that ended Jan. 24 when he arrived safely in Houston.
Hernandez is an example of the roughly 11 million illegal immigrants scattered around the United States, real lives that hang in the balance as politicians in Washington toss around immigration reform like a political football. Most of the Capitol Hill dialogue has been focused on border security and the fates of millions of illegal immigrants, but any effort at real reform must do what the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act didn’t do— provide a solution for the future flow of immigrants into the country. People become illegal immigrants for many reasons, but the ones who spoke with me in Texas had one thing in common: They reached a point of desperation. When the gap between U.S. opportunity and their own situation grew large enough, they were willing to take extraordinary risks. For many, the reasons are economic, but for Mario Hernandez, his daughter needs a bone marrow transplant. Doctors in Mexico’s government-run healthcare system told Hernandez last year they couldn’t treat his 6-year-old daughter, Fatima, until her illness turned into leukemia—which is 80 percent more likely for her than for the average person. The stocky
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grow the business if I don’t have workers?” she asked. Andrade said those who will work don’t have papers, and those who have papers won’t work—alluding to native-born Americans who often turn down jobs requiring hard physical labor. That problem isn’t isolated to Texas: Larry Wooten, president of the North Carolina Farm Bureau, told me farmers are desperate for workers, but the ones who will work can’t pass E-Verify—an Internet-based government program for
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Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
amnesty in 1986. The Andrades purchased a 2,200-squarefoot brick home in 2001, and their business grossed more than $140,000 in 2012 with two full-time employees. Andrade pays employees between $11 and $12 an hour— more than 50 percent above minimum wage—but still can’t find enough labor. “How does the government expect me to
Greg Schneider/Genesis
father of three went to the U.S. consulate in Monterrey to request an emergency medical visa. When he was denied, he decided to cross the border illegally and then send for Fatima—who, Texas-born, is an American citizen. Hernandez, who first came because he couldn’t find work in Mexico, found American life smooth for a decade: He worked 16-hour days as a carpenter’s assistant by day and a dishwasher by night for five years, then bought a lawn care business in 2002—and later a house. But in 2008 his wife, also undocumented, was caught with a fake ID and deported. Hernandez sold his business, sold his home, and moved back to Mexico with his daughters in 2009. Hernandez isn’t unique: Around the globe migrants leave their homelands and enter another country illegally for a variety of often complex reasons. Finding work is a big reason for many: During the economic boom of the 1990s, millions of Latin Americans— mostly from Mexico—flooded across the U.S. border to enter the plentiful job market. Now, as the U.S. economy lags in a sluggish recovery, roughly the same number of Mexicans are coming and going across the border as the Mexican economy has flourished (family income rose 45 percent from 2000 to 2010). If economic trends reverse, however, so will the migration trends. Illegal immigrants in Texas told me stories of death, divorce, sickness, and extreme poverty that prompted their trek north, and they—along with business owners—said as long as jobs are waiting on the other side, people will always find ways to cross the border. Although most native-born Americans believe every immigrant wants to stay permanently, most of them would prefer to work temporarily and return home, according to Mexican immigrant Balbina Andrade. “We love our country,” she said. Andrade, who received her citizenship in 2011, left behind her two young children to cross the border illegally in 1987. She worked in housekeeping for 15 years before purchasing a lawn care business with her husband, who was granted
employers to confirm a worker’s status—and the ones who pass E-Verify won’t work. “Farmers don’t want to break the law,” he said. “Give us immigration reform and a guest worker program that works, then bring on E-Verify.” If lawmakers made E-Verify mandatory without dealing with the realities of the economy, Wooten said, farmers would be put out of business: He estimated more than half of North Carolina agriculture workers are undocumented. Current immigration policy is geared toward family reunification, which accounted for two-thirds—about 688,000—of the 1.06 million immigrants granted legal residence in 2011. Those numbers include many
Greg Schneider/Genesis
Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
Hanging in the balance: Fatima and Mario Hernandez (left); Jeb Bush autographs copies of Immigration Wars in Simi Valley, Calif. (right).
n on-immediate family members, a result of policy that should change, according to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Arizona lawyer Clint Bolick in their new book, Immigration Wars. Bush and Bolick present a six-point plan to replace today’s “cumbersome and irrational” immigration laws with an all-new approach that would use, among other things, increased state involvement and a revamped visa system to help achieve border security. “Strong border security does not go hand in hand with suppressing immigration,” Bolick wrote. Similarly, allowing illegal immigrants to stay and work legally does not necessarily mean granting citizenship. Under the plan Bush and Bolick present in their book, released March 5, adult illegal immigrants would have a path to permanent residency, but without the opportunity to earn citizenship. “It is absolutely vital to the integrity of our immigration system that actions have consequences,” they wrote.
Bush and Bolick would allow immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children—so-called “DREAMers”— to receive a green card and have a clear path to citizenship once they complete high school without a criminal record, but that didn’t prevent a media firestorm over the idea of granting some people residency without citizenship. Bolick told me the controversy is “frustrating because the book presents a comprehensive plan” that “only works as a whole.”
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hat do illegal immigrants want? “People just want to work,” Balbina Andrade said. “Ninety percent of the immigrants don’t care about the citizenship.” Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, placed the number even higher: He told me that at a 2011 gathering of 1,000 undocumented immigrants in Phoenix, 99 percent said they would be satisfied with legalization without an option to become citizens (although Rodriguez advocates for a path, with penalties, to citizenship). History suggests many do not want to become citizens: More than half of the illegal immigrants granted residency in 1986 did not apply for citizenship. One of them is Rafael Gutierrez, who illegally entered the United States from Mexico in 1982 at age 16. Gutierrez, whose wife is still undocumented, has been content to maintain his legal status for the last 27 years while working at a restaurant and raising three children near Houston. He said it’s illegal status—not the lack of citizenship—that causes problems for immigrants, millions of whom drive without a driver’s license and cannot obtain health insurance. Cynthia Huerta, 19, came at age 7 to the United States with her parents on a travel visa and never left. Huerta’s aunt, an American citizen, petitioned for the family’s permanent residency in 2000, and they’ve been waiting 13 years for an answer. “I can’t get married or else the process will start over,” she said in soft-spoken but flawless English. Huerta, who works part-time at a law office, graduated in the top 10 percent of her high-school class in Houston last year, but she had to opt for a community college instead of Texas A&M University, because undocumented immigrants do not qualify for government financial aid. Financial aid and other entitlements are a sensitive issue for conservatives, who believe illegal immigrants, if legalized, would overburden an already bloated system. Advocates on both sides have cited studies indicating the 2007 proposed immigration reform law would have added or subtracted from the country’s bottom line, but ultimately it was the issue of a
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persistent problem: Honduran immigration detainees sit in a holding cell before boarding a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flight in Mesa, Ariz., bound for Honduras on Feb. 28.
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guest worker program that derailed negotiations. Talks fell apart after then-Sen. Barack Obama cast the deciding vote (49-48) on a labor-union-backed amendment that would end a new guest worker program after five years. Obama made no mention of a guest worker program when unveiling his plan in January, focusing instead on an eight-year path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and more enforcement measures—neither of which will fundamentally change the way immigration works in the future. But in a March 8 meeting at the White House with 14 faith leaders, including Samuel Rodriguez, Obama expressed an eagerness to address future flow issues, though he wants to strengthen the current visa system instead of creating a new one. In Congress the “Gang of Eight,” a group of bipartisan senators, released a framework for immigration reform, but Republicans like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio first want the borders secure. The problem, critics say, is how to define border security when illegal immigration is already down sharply, deportations are at record highs, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has an $11.84 billion budget. ICE has most of its 20,000 agents on the southern border, and it placed nearly 1 million “detainers”—holds issued to local law enforcement—on suspected non-citizens between 2008 and 2012, according to the Transactional Records Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. Of those, more than three-fourths had no criminal record, only 8.6 percent had committed “serious” crimes (traffic violations were included), and more than 28,000 were legal U.S. residents. That’s inefficiency at its best, says Mark Shurtleff, Utah Attorney General from 2001 to January 2013. “You simply can’t hold them all,” he told me, adding that after consulting with local law enforcement agencies, ICE recently enacted a new policy to detain only criminals. Shurtleff said most local
law enforcement resists harsh policies because illegal immigrants are “the first line of defense, and they’re very cooperative with law enforcement.” He said 90 percent of all confidential informants are undocumented, with only a “small percentage” of them criminals, so harsh state laws meant to drive out immigrants “hurt public safety.” It’s still unclear how far the Senate plan would go to overhaul the legal system of entry, but a bipartisan group of House members, led by Tea Party favorite Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, is squarely focused on comprehensive reform that would address the future flow of immigrants. The idea of a guest worker program has worked before: Illegal immigration declined sharply in the 1950s when the Bracero visa program—a robust guest worker program— funneled hundreds of thousands of immigrants into a legal system. But details make all the difference, and special interest groups like organized labor or homosexual activists, who want to include same-sex partners in family reunification policies, could unravel the entire reform effort. The situation is a win-win for Obama, who received 71 percent of the Hispanic vote last November and will likely take credit for a sweeping political victory if immigration reform passes. Some polling suggests immigration reform may not help Republicans with Hispanics, who tend to favor larger government, but Texas immigrants told me their support for Democrats is a direct result of immigration policy. “Republicans don’t leave us any choice,” said Balbina Andrade, who is active at Alvin Seventh Day Adventist Church and voted for the first time in 2012. For Mario Hernandez, politics are the furthest thing from his mind: His daughter, already underweight for her age, is not eating enough, and evenings bring tears of loneliness without her mother and sisters. “I’m trying to take good care of my baby,” he said. Hernandez and his two other daughters, Dhamar, 9, and Leslie, 7, have been tested to see if they are potential matches for Fatima, but results won’t be known until the end of March. In the meantime, Hernandez and his American friends are petitioning area congressmen and even Texas Gov. Rick Perry to get him protection: “I’m trying to become legal.” A
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N at i o n a l Li brary Month
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llibraries The library establishment is ideologically committed to providing inappropriate material to children, but citizens are not powerless to stop it It’s a scene lodged in collective memory: afternoons at the neighborhood library. Grandparents remember checking out stacks of picture books with sturdy bindings and smudged pages, working up to Betsy-Tacy and Hardy Boys novels. Add a few banks of computer screens, and the library looks much the same today, with its comfy chairs and cheery Kid Zones. But picture a mom who has dropped off her kids at the sparkling new branch while she runs to the mall for two hours of shopping. On her return, while waiting for her children to use up their allotted computer time, she pages through the books her 12-year-old has already checked out. Some shocking words jump out from the text: Can you say that, in a children’s book? Another novel falls open to a scene of teenagers exploring sex for the first time. And this book on art photography is more graphic than an R-rated movie! What were they thinking at the checkout desk?
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And she thought the library was safe. What happened? The American Library Association, chartered in Philadelphia in 1876, began with a modest aim: “to enable librarians to do their present work more easily and at less expense.” At that time the organization held firmly to middleclass values. Arthur Bostwick, elected president of the ALA in 1908, proudly stated in his inaugural address that, even though sin-glorifying books might tempt the general public, “Thank heaven they do not tempt the librarian.” What did tempt the librarian was political ideology. In 1938, while Nazi book bonfires were burning in Germany and The Grapes of Wrath was outraging readers in the United States, Forrest Spaulding, director of the Des Moines Public Library, wrote a list of anti-censorship principles. These became the “Library Bill of Rights,” adopted by the ALA the following year. Though only one page long, it’s a formidable
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by janie B. Cheaney
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EASY ACCESS: Students use Kindles to check out books at public libraries.
document: It has undergone five revisions and acquired its own interpretative adjunct—the Office of Intellectual Freedom—and its own legal arm, the Freedom to Read Foundation. The ALA in 1967 added one little word to Article V (“A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, background, or views”). That word, inserted between origin and background, was age. There’s the rub: the public library’s long-standing association with children. It’s where big-city immigrant kids learned about America and small-town American kids broadened their horizons. As children’s publishing carved a bigger slice of book sales, libraries created larger children’s sections. The ALA’s Newbery Medal, established in 1921, was the first children’s book award in the world. When the exploding social mores of the ’60s and ’70s introduced themes of sex, suicide, and substance abuse to the
juvenile stacks, parents suited up for action—only to find the ALA already armed with Article V and the intellectual muscle to enforce it. But enforce what, exactly—and how? The Library Bill of Rights has no power of law, and the ALA itself is only a professional organization with voluntary membership. Nevertheless, many individual librarians, especially those who are conservative Christians, believe it favors social activism over community standards. For example, the expansion of computer access in public libraries led to CIPA, the Children’s Internet Protection Act: Bill Clinton signed it into law in 2000. CIPA requires schools and public libraries receiving government funds to block pornographic internet sites on their public-use computers. When the ALA (along with the ACLU) challenged CIPA, a 2003 Supreme Court decision upheld the constitutionality of the law. But blocking software can be disabled upon an adult
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Building rapport with the local librarians is one way to tug the local library in a more family-friendly direction. patron’s request, leading to reported incidents of pornography being visible “over the shoulder.” The bestseller status of Fifty Shades of Grey bumped “intellectual freedom” to a new level. The three-volume series about a sadomasochistic affair is soft-core porn, of the sort that public libraries have traditionally eschewed. But as sales figures zoomed into the stratosphere, libraries gained notoriety for not buying the books. When the Brevard County, Fla., library system removed its copies, the National Coalition against Censorship (which includes the ALA) went into action with a strongly worded letter to the Brevard County Library Board. Strong words had their effect, and Fifty Shades returned to the shelves. In Maryland’s Harford County, the director’s decision not to purchase the trilogy stirred a firestorm of criticism on library websites, but she stood her ground—in part. Fifty Shades remained unordered in print form, but the electronic version is available, which might be even more of a temptation to a 12-year-old who can quietly download it to her Kindle.
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LISA MASSEY/Express-Times/Landov
That takes us back to the concerned mother flipping through her preteen’s reading stack at the local branch. She marches to the circulation desk with three books in hand and makes a complaint. A librarian hands her a form: “Request for Reconsideration of Library Materials.” Besides identifying the objectionable materials and specifying her concerns, the form asks, “Can you suggest other material to take its place?” (That question seems beside the point, and according to Dan Kleinman of SafeLibraries.org, it is: “It makes the process personal—puts you [the patron] on the
spot, makes you look like an idiot.”) What happens after she turns in the form? Lisa Sampey, Collection Services Manager for the Greene County (Mo.) library system, says the staff reviews all requests and recommends one of three actions: (1) removing the item, (2) moving it to a different location, or (3) retaining it. No. 3 is by far the most common. Occasionally librarians move items— from the children’s to young adults’ section, for example. But they almost never remove them. “Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library Materials,” a handbook on the ALA website, includes no guidelines for determining whether materials are inappropriate, only talking points to deflect objections. What if a young teen brought Fifty Shades of Grey to the checkout desk—wouldn’t the librarian be obliged to set it aside tactfully? At Greene County, they leave that up to the parents. That’s also policy at the neighboring, and much smaller, Polk County library, although if checkout personnel know the family, they might say something. In loco parentis (in place of the parent) is another traditional principle that conflicts with the ALA’s commitment to intellectual freedom. Why not tag books with a content label, like the MPAA rating for movies? The ALA’s “Statement on Labeling” claims that would be “an attempt to prejudice attitudes and as such, it is a censor’s tool.” The Statement also takes on groups or individuals who offer to set criteria for evaluating content: “Injustice and ignorance rather than justice and enlightenment result from such practices, and the American Library Association opposes the establishment of such criteria.” At this point, concerned parents are likely to throw up their hands in dismay. What can they do? Dan Kleinman says, “Get informed, get ready for long-term attacks, rely on legal precedent, get organized in educating people, then make a stand.” When it comes to adding materials (as opposed to removing them), Christian have a say, even in larger systems where the main branch does all the ordering. Lisa Sampey estimates that Greene County acquires about 95 percent of materials requested by patrons. Betsy Farquhar, online book reviewer, Library Science student, and homeschool mom, recommends “positive library activism”: “There’s a heavy emphasis these days on the ‘user’ and the ‘user community.’ The homeschool community is talked about fairly respectfully in some circles because they tend to be ‘heavy users.’” Besides requesting books, Betsy repeatedly checks out wholesome titles to bump up their status in library records: Books that circulate remain in the collection, even if they’re anything but PC. Public libraries need funding, and they justify funding by usage. Building rapport with the local librarians, suggesting positive additions to the collection, and supporting worthwhile material are all ways to tug the local library in a more family-friendly direction. A
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The National Center for Family-Integrated Churches Presents
FATHERHOOD The Ma ster’s Pla n fo r
LISA MASSEY/Express-Times/Landov
We need a new kind of father. Join us in a city near you for a weekend event that will offer an in-depth examination of the great biblical texts on fatherhood. We will be delivering 15 expositional studies of great fatherhood passages that will help you understand what kind of father you need to be. Fathers, join us to discover The Masters Plan for Fatherhood. Don’t be content comparing yourselves to the fathers around you. Go to the gold standard of fatherhood—the Bible itself. Nothing short of God’s Master Plan will prepare you to fulfill your calling as a father. See you there,
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3/15/13 2:08 PM
Powerful o Robert Doar may not be well-known, but he made welfare reform a reality in New York City by EMILY BELZ in New York
D, , puts on a suit and leaves for work from his Brooklyn home every morning at :. Sometimes he’ll walk across the Brooklyn Bridge to his office in lower Manhattan. He usually has a series of meetings, and sometimes he’ll make an appearance at an event or give a speech. Then, usually around : or p.m., he’ll take the subway home. It’s an unglamorous life, but Doar is one of the most powerful officials in New York City government. Doar, a Republican, serves as the commissioner of the city’s Human Resources Administration (HRA), where he oversees the city’s social services and its ,—yes, ,—employees. (When I expressed awe at the number of people under him, he reminded me that New York is a city of million people.) He oversees a billion budget, which covers welfare benefits, food stamps, and other smaller safety net programs. The agency provides health insurance to . million people, mostly through
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Medicaid. HRA is the country’s largest municipal social services agency. Doar self-deprecatingly says he only got the job because the line of Republicans who want to manage social services is short. Over Doar’s five-year tenure he has won admiration from welfare-reform advocates as he has kept welfare caseloads percent below what they were when Mayor Michael Bloomberg took office in . A slice of the reduction in welfare recipients is probably thanks to the city’s overall increasing prosperity— home values in the city climbed percent from to , according to Zillow—but there’s been a recession in the midst of the increasing prosperity. (New York City’s unemployment rate is . percent, more than a point higher
FAMILY SUCCESS: Doar proposed a marketing campaign that highlights the importance of work, family, and personal responsibility.
than the national average, even as it has added jobs furiously over the last couple of years.) Doar has also publicly and controversially insisted that healthy families—two-parent households—are key to reducing poverty. New York state is unique in that it delegates administration of welfare to local authorities. Under Doar, New York City has implemented big aspects of welfare reform: He has introduced anti-fraud measures, strict work requirements, and incentives for families to stay together. Child support collections have risen. The city previously paid its contracts with job placement services per head, instead of based on whether the placement services found jobs for the unemployed. Now the city pays based on job placement. HRA has helped place more than , people a year in jobs. Doar insists on coupling work requirements with “work supports,” so the city provides subsidies even after people find work. Doar explains the subsidies as work incentives: “If you do work, we will make your earnings go farther.” Families coming off welfare get the Earned Income Tax Credit as well as food stamp support. Accordingly, food stamp enrollment is up, even though welfare enrollment is down. The work subsidies are small commitments, he said, compared to the bigger outlays for entitlements, which he said are the real budget busters. The Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, recently honored Doar with an award for his work as a local reformer at a lunch in the Princeton Club. The room was filled with city administrators, donors to the Manhattan Institute, and academic experts on welfare and poverty. “I like
your reference to my position as a relatively obscure public official,” said Doar to America Works’ Peter Cove after he introduced Doar at the lunch. “You’re correct.” Obscure public officials across the country have made welfare reform successful. Since the passage of welfare reform in , the number of those receiving cash welfare benefits has dropped from a monthly average of . million to around . million, as of . The central change in the reform was the allocation of cash: The federal government now gives states welfare funds in block grants instead of paying them based on their caseload. So states now have the incentive to reduce the number of welfare enrollees, because they keep the money they don’t use on welfare benefits. The reforms also instituted work requirements for those receiving welfare benefits, to ensure that recipients were moving toward employment. Last summer the Obama administration announced that states could receive waivers from the work requirements, eliciting outrage from those who crafted welfare reform, like the Heritage Foundation’s Robert Rector. The administration quickly trotted out former President Bill Clinton, who signed the reform, to say that the waivers would only be issued if they required “more work, not less.” It’s still unclear how the administration’s waiver proposal will work. Doar thought the administration’s defensiveness over work requirements showed how popular welfare reform had become. “I believe that the welfare reform policies that were implemented in ,
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1996, and 1997 were the most significant social policy change in America since the civil-rights movement,” said Doar.
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Seventy-one percent of low-income families are headed by single parents, according to U.S. Census data compiled by the Heritage Foundation. For families with children that live above the poverty line, the numbers reverse: 73 percent are married. For families with children that live above the poverty line, the numbers reverse: 73 percent are married. Doar, a practicing Catholic with a wife and four children, thinks the absence of fathers in families in New York is a huge factor in poverty, and he thinks public discourse avoids the topic. “The media can’t seem to ask their subjects the important question: Where is the father?” he said. Doar’s administration has increased child support collections, but has also pressured absent fathers to be emotionally involved in their children’s lives through marketing campaigns and citysponsored parties. He has also pushed for a marketing campaign in the city that highlights the consequences of having a baby out of wedlock, but he said there was “discomfort” with the idea in the agency. “It’s not the same level of consensus as anti-obesity or anti-smoking,” he said. But on March 3, his plan came to life: The city posted a slew of ads in subways and bus shelters across the five boroughs. The ads aren’t explicitly about marriage, but explain the consequences of single teenage motherhood. One of the posters reads: “If you finish high school, get a job and get married before having children, you have a 98 percent chance of not being in poverty.” Another poster says, “Are you ready to
raise a child by yourself? 90 percent of teen parents don’t marry each other.” New York City’s Planned Parenthood condemned the ads, saying without a hint of irony that they created “hostility” toward teen pregnancy. Planned Parenthood further rejected the connection between teen pregnancy and poverty. I had my own question for Doar: Would an ad campaign showing the consequences of pregnancy encourage abortion? “I do worry about that,” said Doar. “But I don’t think it will communicate that.” He said the campaign would offer a picture of the “consequences of households where there aren’t two parents.” Doar understands that the “cultural forces” are strong against marriage and childbearing, but he sees his daily meetings and programmatic changes, however boring, as baby steps in the right direction. He resents that Democrats have the reputation as the party that cares for the poor, when he thinks his agency’s emphasis on work, family, and “personal responsibility” has brought more people out of poverty. Even as a Republican, he thinks government’s work in this area can be valuable: “I do feel there is a role for an effective government in America,” he said. “I much prefer city government. You’re just a lot closer to the people. This is where the action is.” A
Isaac L Koval/istock
hat is an especially meaningful statement because of Doar’s roots. He is the son of John Doar. “The John Doar?” said one person when he spotted the elder Doar at the luncheon honoring his son. John Doar was assistant attorney general at the Justice Department in the 1960s overseeing civil-rights cases. He successfully prosecuted members of the Ku Klux Klan for murders of civil-rights demonstrators before a white jury. He escorted James Meredith to the University of Mississippi several times until the school accepted Meredith as its first African-American student. And John Doar oversaw enforcement of the Voting Rights Act when it went into effect in 1965. Robert Doar demurs from drawing any parallel to his father’s work—he says he’s just continuing his father’s legacy of public service. Working for the government “is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be,” he said. Doar was born in Washington, D.C., but his family moved to Brooklyn when he was young, and he considers Brooklyn home. He attended Princeton University where he studied American history, then he became an editor at The Washington Monthly, then moved to work for a local newspaper in upstate New York where he got to know Gov. George Pataki. He became a local bank manager, then in 1995 joined Pataki’s administration working on social services. He worked his way up to be the state’s social services commissioner, and implemented welfare reform at the state level. When federal welfare reform became law in 1996, conservatives like Rector at the Heritage Foundation urged the federal government to recognize the importance of marriage in solving poverty. Rector, who helped craft the legislation, still thinks federal benefits incentivize single motherhood over marriage. Broken families are a central feature in poverty. Seventy-one percent of lowincome families are headed by single parents, according to U.S. Census data compiled by the Heritage Foundation.
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3/18/13 4:49 PM
Automatic
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Manufacturers say robots and automation, far from hurting workers, can save American jobs in the face of global competition by DA NIEL JA ME S DEV INE in New Troy, Mich., and Des Plaines, Ill. /
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at Vickers Engineering don’t sleep. They drill, grind, and move iron parts incessantly, hours a day and seven days a week. Yet none complain of being tired. They are robots. Human employee Sam Siriano, , used to wake up in the middle of the night with sore arms from a job working manual lathes and mills. Now he babysits a yellow, robotic arm—bolted to the floor and about feet tall at its elbow—that feeds automotive parts into three machines. “What’s ironic about it is I was always reluctant to deal with computers, and now I deal with four of them in unison,” he jokes. The robot swivels at six different joints. With movements sometimes slow and fluid, sometimes quick and jerky, it picks up an iron casting—a hand-sized part made for a major automaker and shaped something like the letter “D.” The robot swings and places the casting into one of two automated mills, which drills precise holes in the part. Once the mill is finished, the robot transfers the casting to a third machine that installs bushings, then drops it onto a conveyor for human inspection. MAN AND MACHINE: Siriano insists no person A workman monitors a robotic ladle moving could outrace this robot: “This is molten zinc at definitely the future. … It’s the only ArcelorMittal Steel’s hot way we’re going to compete with dip galvanizing line in other countries.” Cuyahoga Heights, Ohio.
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faster, we can do things more consistently, we can do things with better quality when you take human error out of product flow.” Walking through his southwest Michigan plant, where the atmosphere smells slightly greasy and echoes with a cacophony of drilling, zipping, and bursts of air, Tyler proudly showed a robotic arm that makes 25,000 automotive parts each week— small iron castings with two holes tapped in the center: “A human couldn’t keep up with what this robot does. It picks up four parts at a time and it’s constantly moving.” Robots aren’t just doing millwork. At the Albanese Confectionary Group’s candy factory in Merrillville, Ind., gray robotic arms pluck bags of Gummi Bears from a conveyor and drop them into cardboard boxes. Another robot stacks boxes of candy neatly on pallets. At a Dillard’s distribution center in Maumelle, Ark., 167 orange rovers scoot along the floor, retrieving portable shelves of merchandise by wireless command. At the University of Chicago’s new library, five motorized cranes in an underground vault retrieve books by patron request, navigating towering steel racks and pulling out bins that hold about 100 books apiece.
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Daniel James Devine
The robots at Vickers, a precision metal machining company in New Troy, Mich., are part of a surge in automated manufacturing. North American companies bought a record 22,598 robots last year, worth $1.48 billion, according to the Robotic Industries Association. These robots and automated machines can cut parts, move boxes, and package goods more efficiently than the humans they’re replacing. Some people wonder whether machines have become a little too helpful. Businesses have discovered it’s often cheaper in the long run to buy a robot than to pay a human to do a single, repetitive task. With robots going to work while U.S. unemployment remains high, some economists argue robots are the ultimate job killers. But business owners and workers who use automated machines say they’ll actually be job makers, by keeping U.S. companies competitive on the global playing field. Vickers Engineering president Matt Tyler is one of the optimists. His company bought its first robot in 2006 and has added five others since then. He plans to buy 12 more in two years. Tyler says the robots have made his company costeffective against foreign competitors: “We can do things
measuring device Iverson’s company, Chicago Dial Indicator, designs and manufactures. Twenty machines are a modern breed known as CNC (“computer numerical control”) machines and are automated: After programming them to perform precise, repetitive tasks, Iverson says he can turn off the lights and lock up his shop at night leaving many of them running. He paid , last summer for one particular machine that runs unattended seven hours a night, shaping brass casings: “When I come in, in the morning, I’ve got parts done.” Because of automation, Iverson can keep up production without adding a night shift of workers, which would increase his labor costs. Grasp an oily office door handle, brave a small, snarling (though friendly) Boston terrier, and Iverson will sit at his desk beneath a blackand-white photo of his grandfather—Chicago Dial Indicator has been family-owned since —and explain why automation is essential, not harmful, to jobs. “If you’re out of business, what good are you?” he asks. Iverson’s company has competitors in the United States, Switzerland, Germany, China, and Japan. Automation has enabled him to produce more parts at a lower cost: In years he METAL TECHNICIAN: A robotic hasn’t raised his prices more than percent, arm at Vickers Engineering feeds although the cost of raw materials has increased automotive parts into milling machines; brass parts for a CNC dramatically. As long as he can stay competitive, machine at Chicago Dial Indicator; he argues, he’ll be able to keep employing his Sam Siriano inspects or so workers. manufactured parts at Vickers (clockwise left to right). Iverson bought the , machine from his brother Terry, who is part owner of the company. Terry is president of a business of his own, Iverson & Company, also in Des Plaines, which sells the that computer and modern CNC lathes and mills manufacturers rely on to create robotic innovation is precision parts. upsetting the job Terry Iverson says manufacturing’s problem is not automamarket. They say tion, but a lack of skilled labor: “For years now I’ve knocked automation has conon doors and dealt with customers, and everywhere I go, tributed to the jobthey’re like, ‘Terry, I can’t find enough skilled people. Do you less recovery—even know where a good machinist is? Do you know where a good eliminating some CNC programmer is?’” white-collar jobs, as A report by the Manufacturing Institute found that up secretaries and tax to , manufacturing jobs were unfilled, with companies accountants are replaced by software. complaining they couldn’t find enough skilled workers to hire. In January, the Associated Press published a gloomy report That was in spite of a percent unemployment rate at the time. claiming millions of middle-class jobs were being “obliterated Terry Iverson says automation isn’t eliminating all job by technology.” But manufacturers using automation say that openings, it’s just increasing the skill set employers are lookview is too pessimistic. Jobs are available, they say, and simply ing for. Instead of hiring a worker to load parts, a company require some advanced training. might need someone to program the CNC machines. Or repair them when they break down. That may mean a worker has to E I’ in Des Plaines, Ill., a go back to school to learn additional skills. cluster of machines—some the size of phone booths—cut, When Erik Iverson needed a skilled worker last year, he grind, drill, and ream metal parts. The room is filled with called a local technical school and asked to interview a graduate. whirring, buzzing, and a subtle fog. Peering through the He found and hired David Kartom, an Iranian immigrant who clear plastic windows on these machines, you can watch left his job exchanging Canadian currency, transferring car titles, shavings peel off of slender steel shafts and aluminum rings and cashing checks to spend six months learning programming like long curly fries, and see jets of cooling oil squirt from language for CNC lathes and mills. “I was tired of working in a flexible tubes. cage,” Kartom explained to me. The machines are making components for a sensitive
DANIEL JAMES DEVINE
The word robot conjures an image of a machine with human characteristics (the ability to talk or grasp objects, for instance). But automation more broadly—any computer or mechanism that can take over a human task—is penetrating more and more of the workplace. Two researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson, argue in their book Race Against the Machine
I
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even promote manufacturing among elementary-school youngsters using a mobile lab. Jeff Burnstein, president of the Association for Advancing Automation, says robots help prevent manufacturing jobs from going overseas to countries like China or India, where labor is cheap. By adopting automation, companies lower production costs enough to manufacture on U.S. soil and employ American workers. “It’s a question of, are we going to create jobs in Asia or are we going to create them in the U.S.?” adds Henrik Christensen, a robotics researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology. When manufacturing jobs stay in the United States, there is a ripple effect on local businesses. Tyler of Vickers Engineering noted his company buys many raw materials locally, from companies in Indiana and Michigan. If he had moved his plant to another country, he’d likely be buying those materials there. “We’ve never laid a single person off, ever, due to automation improvements,” says Tyler. Vickers currently employs about 175 workers in three shifts, and expects to grow to 225 in three years: “We expect our revenues to potentially double by then. … And that’s primarily due to automation.” Vickers hosts internships with students from two local universities, Notre Dame and Kettering. The company hopes to draw younger workers into the field—such as 27-year-old Robert Rowles, a bearded employee I met at the New Troy plant. Fear that technology will destroy livelihoods has been Rowles told me he “bounced around for generations. In the early 19th century, around” various labor and Englishmen frustrated with low wages began smashing manufacturing jobs, including textile machines, which were sometimes viewed as a a dirty job making cinder threat to traditional jobs. They acquired the name Luddites blocks, before settling at and become symbols for anyone resisting technological Vickers in 2011. He never went to school to learn how to run progress. robots, write code, or fix drill Technology proponents argue progress doesn’t destroy bits in computerized mills, jobs, but creates new ones: In 1900, 41 percent of Americans but has learned all three skills were employed in the agricultural industry, yet now only 2 on the job. To demonstrate, percent are, thanks to tractors and combines. The rest are Rowles held up a small iron not unemployed but are working as airline pilots, software part, one of 300 he had finprogrammers, computer technicians, and a host of other ished milling hours earlier— jobs that would have been unimaginable before. the product of his first Some sectors, such as the automobile and electronics attempt at writing CNC code. industries, are deeply dependant on robotics technology He likes the job because today. The International Federation of Robotics claims of the math involved: “As each robot currently in use has created three to five new nerdy as it sounds … I think it jobs. The organization estimates 1.6 million robots globally is p henomenal.” A will be operating by 2015.
Now 32-year-old Kartom, wearing a gold chain beneath a blue work shirt, writes arcane code. A single, short line looks like this: “X12.25 Y3.3” Each letter and number instructs the CNC machine’s automated tools to move up, down, left, right, or perform a function like grinding or cutting. Programmers like Kartom read blueprints for a part, then translate the dimensions to code. Shaping a single aluminum part may take five printed pages of code, Kartom said. Not all the jobs in Erik Iverson’s shop require advanced skills. Some of his workers don’t speak English, but can easily load a machine and push a button. Erik says those low-skill manufacturing jobs are slowly disappearing: “If you do not continually learn, whether formally or informally, the times will pass you by and you won’t be efficient at your job. Or you won’t have a job.” Erik is paying one employee to attend night school to learn CNC programming.
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©Mary Evans Picture Library/TOM MORGAN/The Image Works
.s. manufacturing faces a chronic problem: As baby boomers retire from manufacturing careers, few young people seem eager to replace them. Terry Iverson says many students, prompted by parents and teachers, view manufacturing with a 50-year-old stereotype of being “dark and dirty and dangerous.” Terry has made it his mission to dispel that stereotype. He sits on two educational advisory boards that promote manufacturing technology and regularly visits schools to assure students of the hightech job opportunities available in manufacturing. He fears too many jobs are going overseas: “In order for this country to be great, we have to manufacture.” The U.S. Department of Labor agrees. Last year in Illinois the agency invested $12.9 million to expand advanced manufacturing training to about 20 community colleges. The grant money will fund a statewide job placement program and
WORLD • April 6, 2013
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Notebook
Lifestyle > Technology > Science > Houses of God > Sports > Money > Education > Religion
Old lives, new life
How three men came to reject Christianity and what we can learn about the importance of a faith that delights in Jesus
HANDOUTS
>>
C K, , grew up in Las Cruces, N.M., as a Pentecostal Christian. He remembers being “freaked out” by sermons about the “end times.” He regularly witnessed people speaking in tongues: “I remember being enthralled with the theatrical aspect of church.” Christopher Ellison, , grew up in a home headed by a single mom who wanted him “to have a solid basis of beliefs,” so she dropped him off at the Lutheran church each Wednesday and Sunday, but did not attend herself except to see him perform in church plays: Church “was like babysitting.” Marco Garcia, , grew up in a Catholic home. Although he attended catechism class and was confirmed at
age , Christianity didn’t play a significant role at home. His parents dropped him and his siblings off at Mass each Sunday: They rarely went, and he doesn’t recall any Bible reading, except when bad things happened. Kincaid, Ellison, and Garcia all grew up with some connection to the church—and a complex cocktail of beliefs, experiences, and desires led them COMPLEX: to reject Christianity, Christopher although one has now Kincaid, returned to it. A Christopher closer look at their Ellison and his daughters, stories shows what Marco Garcia they rejected was with his dog something other than Bentley (from Jesus and His church. left to right).
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BY DAVID FISHER Kincaid’s faith fractured at age . He says “everyone was constantly watching each other for ‘backsliding,’” and church felt “very accusatory—like you need to work every day to wash away the stain of sin.” He told his parents, “I don’t want to go to church anymore.” To his surprise, they didn’t push back. Kincaid served in the U.S. Army in Bosnia in his mid-s. There he witnessed deadly, religion-based sectarian violence. Ellison entered the U.S. Marine Corps after high school, got involved with a church, and “was living like a monk—I didn’t drink, was not sexually impure in any way.” He noted that many church members, such as a young woman with what seemed like a
APRIL 6, 2013 • WORLD
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Notebook > Lifestyle Garcia, faith was a personal lifeline to return. But then he heard a story of a new boyfriend every week, did not use only when trouble came. None had woman’s commitment to Christ despite meet his standard but regularly grown up with a faith that delights in deep personal hardships: “I started responded to altar calls, “crying her Jesus, the faith Paul described in comparing myself to her and thought, eyes out.” In college he taught Bible Philippians :: “I count everything as ‘What a weakling you are!’” A fellow studies but, on a summer trip, met a loss because of the surpassing worth of student invited him to a men’s confer“Hindu dude” who didn’t follow any of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” As Bill ence at a local church. Garcia summathe Christian rules: “It was amazing to St. Cyr, executive director of Ambleside rized his story on a notecard, appended me that he could be so happy.” Schools International who has a Ph.D. a question about homosexuality, and Garcia was when he held an open in pastoral counseling, says, “It is rare gave the card to an usher. bottle of prescription painkillers in that someone walks away for whom The pastor, not knowing who wrote one hand and an open bottle of Corona Jesus is a real presence … one who the card, read it aloud to the group and in the other: An “in the closet” cares, one who loves.” then “apologized to me on behalf of homosexual, Garcia “had taken LSD Ellison and Kincaid may never have Jesus … for having to endure hypocrisy and didn’t want to live a gay lifestyle, experienced Jesus this way. But Garcia in the past.” Garcia says, “That started so I decided that taking my life would eventually did through the influence of to change my heart.” He returned to probably be a better idea.” At the last other Christians, and that led him back Christianity and committed to a life of moment, he says, “the Holy Spirit got to the faith. My conclusion: We should celibacy: “I’ve done a complete —I’m to me and convinced me not to do it.” treat sinners as Jesus did, teaching reading the Bible now, and what’s Later, he attended churches in right doctrine and being relentlessly shocking is that I’m understanding it. … California but wondered why preachers gracious without compromising truth. I think I’m finally back on the right were “always picking on homosexuals? Those who experience a real relationship track, headed in the right direction.” They’re not the only ones sinning.” At with Jesus come to prize it above Before they left the faith, all three one church the pastor, buoyed by everything else, and that keeps them men had a warped view of Christianity. congregational laughter, was “bagging going when trouble comes. A For Kincaid, Christianity was a scare on homosexuals about how all of them tactic to make Christians “fall in line.” want to put on dresses.” Garcia bolted —David Fisher is studying at Reformed For Ellison, it was a set of rules. For and vowed, “I’ll never go back to Theological Seminary-Washington church again.” Kincaid, stressing his lack of faith in institutional religion, his personal experience with how faith Michael Cook speculates on the MercatorNet blog that the next frontier after same-sex “marriage” will divides, and his likely be polyamory—“consensually nonmonogamous relationships.” Academics gathered in California satisfaction in life in February for the first-ever International Academic Polyamory Conference. A February Scientific without faith, says he is now an agnosAmerican article, “New Sexual Revolution: Polyamory May Be Good for You,” suggested that adultery tic. Ellison calls “may even change monogamy for the better.” —Susan Olasky himself an atheist: “I don’t need a God in my life to explain the way the world works.” After leading Bible studies and diligently following Christian tenets, he says he knows “more about Christianity than most Christians do. … I’ve realized it was all bogus.” And Garcia? For years after walking out of church he kept his vow never to
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Worldmag.com: Your online source for today’s news, Christian views
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ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE • SYRIAN WOMEN: JOHN CANTLIE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Why stop at two?
Notebook > Technology
Stop, frisk, and scroll
Police in some jurisdictions have the right to search a suspect’s cellphone during an arrest By daniel james devine
Evidence map As Syria enters the third year of a brutal civil war, a project called “Women Under Siege” is using crowdmapping technology to track incidents of sexual violence against hundreds of men and women. Crowd-mapping allows Syrian civilians to file online reports of rape and sexual attacks, compiled in a map at womenundersiegesyria.crowdmap.com.
Larry Washburn/getty images
illustration: krieg barrie • syrian women: John Cantlie/AFP/getty images
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Suppose you were arrested— heaven forbid—for picketing an abortion center or absentmindedly bringing a pocketknife into a courtroom. If a police officer, after patting you down, began browsing private texts and photos on your cellphone, would you feel violated? In some states police have every right to do so, even without a warrant. U.S. privacy laws are still catching up to the digital age. The Fourth Amendment protects Americans from “unreasonable searches and seizures” of their “persons, houses, papers, and effects,” but judges have ruled police may take wallets, weapons, papers, cigarettes, and other items found on a person’s body during an arrest. Usually, the amount of information gleaned from such items is quite limited. A smartphone, on the other hand, can contain massive amounts of personal information not related to the arrest, such as family photos, work documents, and years’ worth of email correspondence. Last fall a Michigan drug case demonstrated the ability of law enforcement to obtain info from mobile phones using digital extraction tools. After obtaining a warrant to seize and search the iPhone of a suspected drug dealer, immigration officials extracted call records, voicemails, photos, hundreds of text messages, a video, eight passwords, address book c ontacts,
Email: ddevine@worldmag.com
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and other data indicating where the suspect had traveled. Although a warrant was involved in that case, they aren’t always required. In 2011 the Supreme Court of California ruled 5-2 that police could search a cellphone discovered on a person during an arrest. (Oddly, if the phone was stowed elsewhere, such as in a piece of luggage, searching it would then require a warrant. A lock screen could also stymie police since they can’t force an arrestee to give up the password.) Courts across the United States are inconsistent, though: Ohio’s Supreme Court in 2009 ruled that police cannot routinely search a person’s phone when making an arrest. A Rhode Island court held that text messages are potentially “intimate” and therefore protected, while a Washington court said texts shouldn’t be considered private. The U.S. Supreme Court has yet to weigh in. In many cases police need only a subpoena—a court-approved document requiring less evidence than a warrant—to obtain a wealth of mobile information: phone call logs, geographic location data, or texts more than 180 days old. Law enforcement agencies are putting the info to energetic use: Mobile service providers fielded 1.3 million requests for data in 2011 from local and federal officials—thousands each day.
Allegedly, government forces have perpetrated most attacks, including gang
keeping track: Syrian women walking in Aleppo.
rapes, though they remain unverified since Syria has barred foreign journalists. The Women’s Media Center, whose co-founders include Gloria Steinem and Jane Fonda, runs the project. The documentation of assaults by Women Under Siege may provide evidence in future war crimes trials. —D.J.D.
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Notebook > Science
Raising the Dead Sea
>> Overblown boson Number-crunching scientists at Europe’s Large Hadron Collider said in March the evidence continues to mount they have discovered the Higgs boson, a subatomic particle that explains, under the Standard Model of physics, why electrons, people, and planets all have mass. Physicists first announced the presumed discovery of the particle last July, but have been checking their measurements ever since. (There remains a slim possibility the particle they discovered is not the Higgs boson but a graviton.) Grandiose claims about the Higgs boson suggest it explains the Big Bang, and that the boson’s size “could determine the fate of the universe,” as The New York Times put it. But the so-called “God particle” isn’t the Alpha and Omega: It leaves many physics mysteries unsolved and won’t annihilate evidence of the Creator. —D.J.D.
A baby’s birth route could shape his or her future health, a growing body of research suggests. Babies born by cesarean section have smaller populations of certain beneficial bacteria species in their guts, compared with babies born naturally, report scientists in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The researchers say “good bacteria” acquired from the mother’s birth canal and from breastfeeding may prime an infant’s developing immune system, making the child less susceptible later in life to allergies or asthma. —D.J.D.
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Jordanian officials are specially supportive of the e idea. Jordan is the fourth most water-deprived nation in the world, and an influx of 320,000 refugees from war-ravaged Syria since 2011 has made the situation worse. Some Middle East environmentalists oppose the Red Sea link, though, arguing that an earthquake in the region could break a pipeline or canal and contaminate groundwater with saltwater. They worry about the unknown effects of pumping ocean water into the Dead Sea. (It could create an algal bloom, or cause a chemical reaction turning the surface of the sea white.) Environmental concerns might not be the biggest hurdle. Building the conduit would cost $10 billion, and it’s not clear the funding is available. Half the money would have to come from international gifts. Also, the three parties to the project— the Jordanians, Israelis, and Palestinians—would have to do something unusual for the region: Sign a treaty.
float on: A Palestinian woman swimming in the Dead Sea.
dead sea: Maya Hitij/ap • Higgs boson: Rex Features/ap • baby: Felipe Dana/ap
Bacterial benefit
Usually what’s dead can’t get any deader. The exception is the Dead Sea, a salty body of water lodged between Jordan, Israel, and the West Bank that has sunk over 100 feet in the past 8 decades and continues to recede 4 to 5 feet per year. The Jordan River used to bring about 340 billion gallons of water to the Dead Sea annually, but adjacent nations have tapped the river so heavily it carries a mere 25 billion gallons today. Much of that is sewage. At public forum meetings in Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian territories in February, officials from the World Bank outlined several proposals to solve the problem. Under the most ambitious plan, engineers would use canals, tunnels, or pipelines to link the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, pumping ocean water 100 miles downhill from the Gulf of Aqaba to the Dead Sea, the lowest place on earth. The water’s descent would power a hydroelectric desalinization plant, providing fresh water to the arid region.
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Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll Call/newscom
Will an ambitious water project revive a sinking salty sea? By daniel james devine
Notebook > Houses of God
Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll Call/newscom
dead sea: Maya Hitij/ap • Higgs boson: Rex Features/ap • baby: Felipe Dana/ap
Milo Waterfall, 3, of Alexandria, Va., explores the
Lutheran Church of the Reformation, near the U.S. Capitol. The church was built in 1869.
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Notebook > Sports
Lost in the Woods?
If Rory McIlroy isn’t ready for life at the top, his predecessor will happily reassume the role BY MARK BERGIN
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Woods
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McIlroy
ment prematurely. Who’s Brian Davis, you ask? Exactly. McIlroy has a decision to make: Keep pursuing greatness and learn to carry the attending pressure and responsibility or step aside and enjoy a quieter life in the shadow of the man he grew up idolizing. That man, Tiger Woods, appears ready to reclaim the mantle of world’s best golfer, and the spotlight that goes along with it. Woods knows just how hot the glare of that light can be. He faced its worst as details of his many extramarital trysts were exposed during a very public divorce. But if five PGA Tour victories over the last calendar year is any indication, Woods has made his choice. He won’t be fading from view. Beginning April , the demanding greens of Augusta National will provide a prime occasion for McIlroy to make his choice just as clear. Woods will be out to reassert his dominance and claim his fifth Masters Tournament crown. For McIlroy, every poor shot will be scrutinized, every reaction to a missed putt closely examined. The young Irishman has the swing to challenge Woods, to prove that he is truly the world’s new No. . But that role brings pain—and quite a bit more than aching teeth.
—David Mathis, executive editor of Desiring God Ministries
MCILROY: STUART FRANKLIN/GETTY IMAGES • WOODS: MIKE EHRMANN/GETTY IMAGES • WILLINGHAM: HANNAH FOSLIEN/GETTY IMAGES
W ’ N. ranked golfer walked off the course during the second round of the Honda Classic March , critics pounced. Rory McIlroy had faced fevered international scrutiny before, especially after his final round collapse at the Masters in . But this was different. Headlines dubbed him “petulant” and mocked his supposed toothache as “teething,” a notso-veiled charge of immaturity. Such scorn stemmed from what seemed apparent to onlookers: In the face of a triple-bogey, double-bogey, and two bogeys, McIlroy had simply quit. Disjointed statements about being “not in a good place mentally” and later complaining of wisdom tooth pain smacked of lame excuses. Fans traveled long distances and bought tickets to see the -year-old prodigy play. He owed it to them to finish the round. Of course, McIlroy is not required to face such a life in the proverbial fishbowl. The way out is simple: Be mediocre. No criticism hounded England’s Brian Davis after he withdrew from the same tourna-
When his brother died in a car accident almost four years ago, Josh Willingham became a better hitter. Now with the Minnesota Twins, the -yearold outfielder hit home runs last year and batted in runs, the third-highest total in the American League. In , though, he had to leave his team for days, in the middle of the season, to return home and mourn with family. Willingham says God used the death of his brother to get his attention and put his priorities back in order: “It put everything in perspective. To be honest, baseball was number one in my life before that happened. It wasn’t number one after. It was right where it was supposed to be—number three or four.” The best two months of Willingham’s career came when he returned to baseball after those days—not because he was any better physically, he says, but because his spiritual priorities had been adjusted. Freshly freed from the enslaving idol of baseball, he was now ready to enjoy the game in its proper place. Injuries have also taught a lesson to the slugger from Florence, Ala. At one point he was “one injury away from back surgery,” which could have meant the end of his career: “It puts things in perspective. You have to lean on God.”
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Notebook > Money
Pinch at the pump Market forces and Fed policy will likely keep gasoline prices high
BY WARREN COLE SMITH
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F NFL Nick Barnett is an automotive enthusiast, who regularly posts photos of his tricked-out vehicles on social media sites. His latest is a custom camouflage Ford F- with a gallon-capacity tank. At the national average price of . per gallon (as of March ), that’s more than per fill-up. Despite an injury-plagued -year career, Barnett made a reported million with the Green Bay Packers and Buffalo Bills, so he can afford it. But the rest of us are wondering: What is causing the spike in gas prices, how high will prices go, and how long will the spike last? The cause is certainly not scarcity. The global supply is strong, and the United States is in the midst of an energy boom, aided in part by hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and other
Marion, Ind.
new technologies for extracting gas and oil. Refining capacity is the bottleneck. Because of a mild winter, some refineries “are switching over from winter to summer fuel, which is more expensive to produce,” says Jacqueline Leo of The Fiscal Times. A Hess refinery in New Jersey closed down this month, adding to the list of older refinery closings. Because of environmental regulations and the billion to billion needed to bring a new refinery on line, not one new refinery has been built in the United States since . Another likely culprit is U.S. monetary policy. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s Quantitative Easing program has eroded confidence in the dollar. The International Monetary Fund’s Commodities Price Index has
more than doubled since . Crude oil prices are up nearly percent since December. The good news is that another reason for the price rise is increased demand. Demand rises when economic activity grows—and that’s a good thing. For , aggregate global oil demand is forecast to average . million barrels per day, an increase of about percent over levels. When refinery maintenance and switch-over are complete, supply will go up. But the summer driving season typically increases demand. So prices will probably not go much above current levels, but we’ll likely stay near where we are now until at least Labor Day. That means Nick Barnett had better get used to his fill-ups.
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GAS: JEFF MOREHEAD/CHRONICLE-TRIBUNE/AP • AIRLINES: MATT YORK/AP
MERGING AND ACQUIRING One reason for the slowness of the economic recovery has been the reluctance of corporate leaders to invest the estimated trillion to trillion on their balance sheets. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway broke the thaw on Feb. when it said it will buy food company Heinz for billion. But the merger that received the most attention was the one between US Airways and American Airlines. US Air’s CEO Doug Parker will lead the combined entity, which will be the world’s largest airline and will retain the American name. The airline merger is worth about billion. These deals indicate capital is moving off the sidelines and back into the game. The retail industry, for example, saw . billion in global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in , up percent over , according to research firm Dealogic. This year looks to be even bigger. “In terms of overall M&A transactions, we’ve seen the fastest start to the year since , and retail looks to be a bright spot for deal-making this year,” said Stephen Wyss, partner in the Retail and Consumer Products practice at BDO USA, LLP. “Steadier markets, renewed interest in international growth and the desire for omni-channel capabilities are fueling the investment rebound in retail and consumer businesses.” —W.C.S.
Email: wsmith@worldmag.com
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APRIL 6, 2013 • WORLD
3/18/13 2:12 PM
Notebook > Education
What billions buy
Bill Gates is reshaping American education with his pocketbook BY JOY PULLMANN
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T B M G Foundation is the world’s largest philanthropy, and one with increasing influence on American K- education. It has heavily funded the Common Core, a national initiative that is reshaping textbooks, replacing most state tests, overhauling teacher training and effectiveness measurements, and creating national data repositories for student grades and behavior. Gates jump-started the Core by giving million to the Chief Council of State School Officers to write the education standards that states have now adopted. Gates gave the group another million to support the Core, and , to help develop corresponding national tests. Gates has paid Georgia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Albuquerque, New York, and Louisiana departments of education to revise teaching, curriculum, and tests to fit the Common Core. It is funding books, games, videos, and other instructional materials that thousands of children will use, and research on ways to make educational data easier to share among schools, governments, and companies. Of the million Gates has spent on Common Core, . million went to persuading politicians, teachers, and business leaders to support it. “The Gates Foundation completely orchestrated the Common Core,” said Jay Greene, who directs the department of education reform at the University of Arkansas. Gates hasn’t been as effective in promoting other policies, like tying teacher evaluations to student test scores, Greene said.
State legislatures get busy in the spring, and nearly half are considering legislation that would expand school choice. From Texas to Wisconsin, and South Carolina to Nevada, at least states are considering new or bigger voucher programs, and another six the same with charter schools. Perhaps the most-watched state is Texas, where no voucher program exists and about , students sit on charter school wait lists. Senate Education Committee chair Dan Patrick, R-Houston, has introduced legislation to lift the state’s limit on charter schools (now ) and has promised to propose vouchers for poor children. Parents across the country are also examining their education options. In Milwaukee, GreatSchools helps some , families each year find a school that fits them in a city with vouchers, online, magnet, and charter schools. Sometimes the decision is easy, but that’s not the case for one mother, Mindy Hansen, with nine children, six adopted and several with special needs. They attend four different schools. Hansen started adopting kids she mothered in foster care. Several whizzed through elementary-school math and are now taking geometry online. Another cannot focus in large groups, so she moved him to a smaller school. “She’s practically a professional bus driver,” said Jodi Goldberg, a friend. —J.P.
WORLD • APRIL 6, 2013
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Ohio homeschool graduate Sarah Fowler, , wasn’t planning to run for elected office last summer. Then she discovered the man running for her region’s state school board seat only supported traditional public schools. She thought someone who favored voucher programs and charter schools would be better, so last August— days before the election—she announced her candidacy. Fowler has an entrepreneurial spirit: At age she began an egg-selling business. She campaigned hard on a platform in favor of parental rights, shifting education funding from property taxes, and reviewing the history curriculum for accuracy. After appearing at some events and distributing , fliers, she beat out a lawyer and a heavily degreed scientist, with percent of the vote. Fowler hoped her first state school board meeting “would be a transition time,” but “that did not happen.” At her first meeting, Fowler voted on Ohio’s student restraint and seclusion policies. She now reads hundreds of pages of documents on state policies between meetings. Attending trade shows, doing graphic design for the family farm, and learning independently have helped her acclimate, Fowler said: “These things were not huge hurdles because I’ve done them almost all of my life.” —J.P.
GATES: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • FOWLER: HANDOUT • CHALKBOARD: RONTECH2000/ISTOCK
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Notebook > Religion
A choice and an echo
Tight security, much advice accompany papal selection BY THOMAS KIDD
>>
portable chemical toilets inside the chapel itself. Commentators offered no shortage of advice on the pick, with one Vatican observer joking that given all the controversies the church faces, the best choice might be “Pope Rambo I.” Some American evangelicals weighed in, as well, with Timothy George of Beeson Divinity School saying in First Things that the next pope “should be Catholic.” The comment was not entirely tongue-incheek, as George argued that the new pope would best serve the interest of global Christian unity by maintaining strong convictions, not by introducing liberal accommodations. For more on the new pope, see p.
Bishop battle South Carolina has become an epicenter of legal struggles between The Episcopal Church and its breakaway dioceses and congregations. After most of the Diocese of South Carolina broke away over concerns related to gay marriage and the ordination of homosexuals as priests and bishops, Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori installed Rev. Charles vonRosenberg as provisional bishop. He represents those Episcopal churches in eastern South Carolina remaining within the national denomination. Now vonRosenberg has filed suit against Bishop Mark Lawrence, the leader of the breakaway parishes, requesting that vonRosenberg alone be declared the legitimate bishop. This is the second suit related to the seceding diocese, which won a temporary injunction in January giving it the exclusive right to use the name “Diocese of South Carolina.” VonRosenberg, however, is trying to prevent Lawrence from using that name, contending that by using it Lawrence “falsely suggests” that he “acts in accordance with the values of The Episcopal Church.” The national denomination is also requesting an “accounting of Bishop Lawrence’s profits obtained in connection with his false and misleading usage of the diocese’s marks.” —T.K.
WORLD • APRIL 6, 2013
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CARDINALS: L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO/AP • JAMES: FOX 5 SAN DIEGO/TRIBUNE BROADCASTING COMPANY • LAWRENCE: BRUCE SMITH/AP
T of Catholic cardinals chose Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, as the new pope, replacing the retired Benedict XVI. The cardinals selected Bergoglio, now Pope Francis I, in the heavily secured confines of the Sistine Chapel, famous for Michelangelo’s biblical frescoes. Pope John Paul II, who in decreed that papal conclaves should transpire in the chapel, said the majestic artwork was “conducive to an awareness of the presence of God, in whose sight each person will one day be judged.” Workers jammed cellphone signals and swept the chapel to detect any electronic video or recording devices. Catholic News Service even reported that cardinals would not be allowed to use nearby Vatican restrooms; instead, they apparently used
Cardinals enter the Sistine Chapel to start the conclave
A former employee of San Diego Christian College has enlisted celebrity attorney Gloria Allred to sue the school for unlawfully firing her. College administrators dismissed Teri James in fall when the unmarried financial aid specialist became pregnant. San Diego Christian College, founded in by Tim LaHaye and Henry Morris, requires employees to sign a community covenant in which they promise to avoid “sexually immoral behavior including premarital sex, adultery, pornography and homosexuality.” James’ case is the latest in a series of lawsuits by former employees of Christian schools, who have challenged those schools’ right to terminate employees on moral grounds. Kathleen Quinlan, a Catholic schoolteacher, sued the Archdiocese of Cincinnati in late for dismissing her when she became pregnant out of wedlock. Quinlan argues that the landmark Hosanna-Tabor Supreme Court decision, which shields churches and religious schools from discrimination lawsuits, does not apply to her case because she is not a minister or religious leader. She also contends that the school discriminated against her, because administrators only enforce the premarital sex policy against women, since men do not become pregnant. —T.K.
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REAL ESTATE EMPLOYMENT I The Baptist Convention of Maryland/ Delaware, Columbia, Md., is now accepting resumés for Executive Director through April , . The right candidate will be a Southern Baptist man and will lead the Convention, as chief executive officer, with vision and sensitivity through planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and utilizing all resources to fulfill the mission of the BCM/D. To apply, visit bcmd.org/executive-search. I Associate Pastor at Reformed Church in Baton Rouge, LA: The associate pastor will work closely with the senior pastor and Women in Ministry director to shape an overall program of formation in Christ for our adult congregation. The associate pastor will have particular responsibility for the young adult segment of our church, which we define as roughly ages -. Thus, the associate pastor will also work closely with our So Loved nursery program and our Kingdom Kids children’s program. Under the direction of the senior pastor, the associate will shape and lead our newest worship expression, the Acoustic Communion service. This includes preaching twice monthly, writing liturgy, leading worship and working with other worship leaders. This position allows an associate pastor to be mentored by a senior pastor while still having significant worship and program leadership of his own. We work cooperatively as a large staff which includes four ordained pastors, a ministry executive and three full-time program directors. Please contact us by email if interested in receiving more information fpcbatonrouge@gmail. com. Please also send your resumé for further consideration. I TEACHERS URGENTLY NEEDED IN VIETNAM! ELIC has an urgent need for teachers of English in Vietnam. This is an outstanding opportunity for singles, couples, families and second-career adults. Two-year commitment. Opportunities to return to North America. Serve on a vibrant team. Teach at the university level to future leaders in every sector. Previous teaching experience not required. Complete training provided. Thirty years of sending and caring for teachers in Asia. Additional strategic opportunities in Mongolia, China, Laos & Cambodia. We can get you there. www.elic.org. () -.
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Mailbag ‘Loaded questions’
Feb. I agree that little in legislation so far proposed would stop the kind of violence that happened at Sandy Hook. “Gun-free” zones contribute to that kind, and it is not at all clear that the mental health data will be available for effective gun control. —C. G, Maineville, Ohio
‘Running scared’ Feb. As a Christian adult female and an avid video gamer, I agree that insular behavior and victim complexes aren’t terribly uncommon and some games are gratuitously violent. But most are not, and in blaming video games for this tragedy a frightened society is giving a wonderful industry a black eye. —J D, Knoxville, Tenn.
‘Where “little lies” lead’ Feb. I largely agree with Joel Belz but would take it a step further. The Apostle Paul warns that a time will come when the ungodly, wanting their ears “tickled,” will “turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” Our society does not just tolerate lies; many prefer falsehood. Naturally this desire in the individual heart spills over into every aspect of our lives, including the government. —D S, Lansing, Mich.
Some time ago my son and I were discussing how lying is accepted in our culture, and it reminded me of Isaiah , where the prophet warns that “justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.” —E N, Otis Orchards, Wash.
When you pronounce a plague on both their houses (Republican and
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Democratic), it suggests that you don’t perceive the difference between the authoritarian, dissembling left and the irresolute, stumbling right in national politics. The tactics of the left have come to resemble those of despots. —D H, Arcadia, Mo.
‘The cavalry is not coming’ Feb. I appreciate Kay Coles James’ work but am a bit baffled. Is she saying that the black community will vote for Obama even if his policies hurt them, harm others, or destroy this country? How sad. —B K, Garland, Texas
Is James suggesting that the only response Republicans need is to offer candidates of color? Would Herman Cain have done better than percent among blacks against Obama? My point is that it’s not just color; it’s policy. And am I the only one who sees the ugly irony of our first black president, who belonged to a racist church, being inaugurated on MLK day? We face a spiritual crisis, not a political one. —G H, Clear Lake, Iowa
I hear in this interview James’ frustration with “color blindness,” as MLK described it, in that it fails to appreciate the history and differing experience of African-Americans and ignores the covert racism that still abounds. But I and many sincere white Christians
who reject the racism of the past would welcome suggestions for what we can do to fulfill Dr. King’s ideal. —J R. V, Damascus, Ore.
‘Seeking and saving the lost’ Feb. Another great column. What struck me about that Muslim missionary’s strategy was the phrase, “develop a lifestyle of caring relationships.” That’s the difference between real Christianity, built on a relationship with Jesus, and a Christianity built on worldly techniques. —W A. B, Fort Belvoir, Va.
Christianity is not expanding in America because we convince ourselves that we have it all together. Of course, we do not. This column called me to pray for the expansion of the gospel in my life at home, and not just overseas. —M C, Dallas, Texas
So many of our churches reflect “branding” and centralizing control— the opposite of the missionary you described. It reminds me of a sociological theory: McDonaldization. —S T, Loughborough, U.K.
‘The existential life’ Feb. As a natural planner, I have never handled spontaneity very well. However, this column makes me want to be more attentive in following the simple leading of the Spirit. —J G, Richardson, Texas
Thank you for expressing these timeless truths so clearly that I grasped the
APRIL 6, 2013 • WORLD
3/14/13 9:58 AM
Mailbag possibility of actually living in the moment. And, finally, an explanation for “Jesus’ most baffling behaviors.” —H G, Appleton, Wis.
‘Mixing the military’ Feb. Putting women in combat is an unwise policy. It is not a question of equal opportunity to serve; women don’t have an equal opportunity to survive. Also, the physical inability to carry wounded male soldiers off the battlefield will cost lives. The feminist response is to lower the standards, but war is life and death: If we “gender norm,” we lose. —A W,, Racine, Wis.
‘Early maturity’ Feb. I loved what Robert Walter said about how having children matures you. When we started having children a few years ago, my husband decided
SOUFFRIER, HAITI submitted by Omega and Kelly Tarnoviski
‘“Haters” and the hated’
to stop being, as he said, a “man-child” and take responsibility for his family. So many don’t allow their children to spur them on to maturity, but God was the outside cause that made the difference in our lives.
Feb. I too still shudder hearing the verb hate, especially when told I must be “filled with hate” to oppose abortion, or that my outspoken opposition to homosexual behavior is “hate speech.” But it chills my soul to realize
—M P, Ammon, Idaho
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that the Apostle Paul calls my verbal persecutors and my president, in giving approval of those who practice sin, “haters of God.” I pray for my repentance and for those who appear to hate the Holy One. —W S, Chelsea, Ala.
‘A little hypocrisy, please’ Feb. This column is disturbing. Jesus taught against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, while his acceptance of prostitutes and tax collectors reminds us that the gospel impacts those who have lost all false respectability. We should not recommend the vice of hypocrisy as an antidote to the vice of lawlessness. Instead, if our society would be honest about itself, it might recognize its need, not for morality, but for Christ. —W R. B III, Natchitoches, La.
‘Here they stand’ Feb. Regarding the HHS contraception mandate: Don’t “they” get it? If the freedom of religion is reduced to freedom of worship, what about all
the other ways we “practice religion” in the public sector? No one seems to object to honesty, trustworthiness, patience, courage, cheerfulness, or kindness. —M H, Newton, Iowa
Corrections The Lamoille Valley Fish and Game Club is in Morrisville, Vt. (Quick Takes, Feb. , p. ). CURE International employed Dr. Paul Lim (“Places to see,” Feb. , p. ). Albert Pujols has a -year contract with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (“Money for nothing much,” March , p. ).
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
Our daily bread God’s promises are bigger than insufficient funds
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KRIEG BARRIE
P. for a year and is on parole. The Lord provided a temporary home on a lovely farm owned by an elderly couple, Don and Betty, for whom he cooks, cleans, paints, repairs the ravages of age, fells trees for the wood-burning stove, and mends jewelry. He found work with the contractor his brother is with. When that came to an end, the elderly widow next door had him renovate her kitchen. Another widow neighbor liked it so well that afterward he did hers. The pay has always been just enough to cover his expenses, but P. is grateful for the jobs and trusts God for his daily bread. The daily bread issue came up pointedly as we rounded the bend into February and P. had fees and bills to pay, and insufficient funds. He wasn’t white-knuckling it. He told me the Lord has always provided—and then we didn’t mention the matter again in our conversations. But I kept the date in mind and was waiting to see what would happen. On the day itself I was like Nebuchadnezzar nervously broaching the lions’ den and crying out, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you?” (Daniel :). Late in the afternoon on Monday, February th, I got a text that P. had a happy story to tell me. What follows is what he shared that evening: In the morning when P. awoke he had in cash. Then he emptied the change jar where he always throws spare coins and counted in silver, for a total of . He needed for his parole supervision fee, for another bill, and for car insurance, for a total of . It just so happened that Monday mornings are Betty’s ladies’ prayer meeting times, and the widow next door is a regular attendee. As she was leaving Betty’s around noon, she called upstairs for P. and handed him a thank-you note for the help he had rendered on a frigid afternoon one week earlier, unclogging the badly angled run-off pipe that was
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compacted with mud. When P. got around to opening the envelope, he discovered . With the he already had, this was enough to cover the first two bills with remaining, but not nearly enough for the car insurance. P. phoned his car insurance agent about the payment due that day and got the secretary. He was on a monthly pay schedule and recalled that at some point in the past when he had switched from a six-month plan, the company had collected a month’s premium in advance. He asked if it were possible to apply that deposit toward this particular month’s obligation. The secretary replied that it was not possible, then asked his name and pulled his file. At that point in the conversation, she inexplicably reversed course and said his proposal was fine, “Not a problem.” P. does not know what might account for the secretary’s turnabout. But a few weeks earlier, the agent had contacted him for a “Meet and Greet” in his office. The first thing the agent had asked was, “Tell me about yourself.” P. answered, “Well, I’m a Christian man.” This provided a way for P. to share his testimony and what God had done in his life in prison. The agent grew more excited as P. spoke, the minutes turned into an hour, and the meeting concluded with an invitation to a small group fellowship. So P.’s bills and fees were paid for February. What will happen in March he does not know, but he always assures me that God’s provision is promised (Matthew :-). Jesus forbids concern about tomorrow except to do today’s sound planning for it. “Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (v. ). There is work lined up for him in another state, when his interstate transfer compact finally comes through after months of inexplicable delay. P. believes his time in Michigan is drawing to a close. All I know is that on February th in the morning, P. did not have the money to pay his debts, and that on February th in the evening he did. A
APRIL 6, 2013 • WORLD
3/14/13 10:02 AM
Marvin Olasky I said this. We need to do something NOW about these! • At first I didn’t care about the stink bugs. But then one fell in The teleology of a dive-bombing ‘devil’ insect my cup of milk. I now declare war. Probably as a joke, someone set up a “I love stink bugs” Facebook site. One woman H . bit, writing that “stink bugs are harmless. They have Here’s one from among thousands of internet an interesting look about them. I love ladybugs and murder tales: I don’t kill him at first. I torture lightning bugs … good memories of childhood. Now, I him. I crush his legs one by one. Then I drown him. add stink bugs to the list, although, they’re new to The object of such personalized wrath—“him,” not me. They are not enemies of ours like the dreaded “it”—is the six-legged, triangle-shaped, flying brown/ mosquitoes and ticks.” green people-harasser known as The Stink Bug. To be That produced a sarcastic response: “Thank goodformal, the /-inch tall halyomorpha halys, of the ness for your sweet spirit. Our world needs more phylum Arthropoda and the class Insecta. wonderful souls just like you! Speaking of more, I But few humans are formal concerning these gifts have extra-large garbage bags filled with live stink of globalization. (Stink bugs came to Pennsylvania bugs. May I have your address, please?” from East Asia during the s and have since then Another was angry: “Dear Christians … I have read spread over the eastern and southern United States.) that ‘God has a reason for everything in creation.’ Judging from press accounts and numerous “I hate EXPLAIN [EXPLETIVE] STINK BUGS!!!!!!!!!” stink bug” pages on Facebook, many people just want So what is the teleology—the purpose, if we prethem dead: suppose God’s intelligent design—of stink bugs? One • They are so ugly. I don’t like using that word Asheville exterminator told me of his fondness for “hate,” but there is no other way to describe how I feel. ladybugs but couldn’t think of any useful purpose for • I just flicked a stink bug straight in the head as hard stinkers. (He did say they were evidence of global as I could and it died :) … now only bazillion left :( warming because only recently had they come north • I’m terrified of them they make me panic when they of Georgia, but that’s not correct.) fly near me. Speaking of Georgia, one mash-up of stink bug • In my house we have the STINK BUG CUP OF hatred with a famous Charlie Daniels song begins, DEATH. A coffee can filled with ice cubes sprayed with “The devil bug came from Asia, he was looking for a Lysol in the freezer. See one, gingerly pick it up with a plant to steal.” But while stink bugs are probably one napkin, drop it in the cup. Seal and freeze. It’s GREAT! result of the Fall, viewing them as satanic seems like • I don’t know what I hate more, stink bugs, or my overkill. husband when he won’t kill a stink bug for me. I’ve found three reasons to be cheerful. First, it Stink bugs earn their name by having scent glands could be much worse: Stink bugs dive bomb for no located on their abdomens and thoraxes: When reason but they don’t bite. crushed, they stink. They have no natural predators in Second, some entrepreneurs have benefited. You the United States except for small wasps that lay eggs can buy “I hate stink bugs” T-shirts, bumper stickers, inside stink bug eggs and kill them. Stink bugs suck hats and caps, sweatshirts and hoodies, baby bodysuits, juice from apples and peaches, causing tens of millions and pet apparel. One previously unemployed of dollars in agricultural losses in the Mid-Atlantic Pennsylvanian, Andrew Strube, now works overtime region, according to the U.S. Apple Association. turning out Strube Stink Bug Traps. • Stink bugs ruin my life. The third and most important reason: Life provides • Whoever brought them to the United States should training in patience and perseverance. Major in the be sentenced to death. majors. Don’t let irritations ruin your day. If you want • I try to sleep, AND THERES A STINK BUG free tuition in the school of self-control, don’t waste CRAWLING ON MY PILLOW!!! your stink bugs. A • This is a plague just waiting to happen. Remember
Don’t waste your stink bugs
>>
WORLD • APRIL 6, 2013
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VAL THOERMER/ISTOCK
Email: molasky@worldmag.com
3/14/13 10:02 AM
At Worldview Academy we don’t teach ARROGANCE. We challenge students to think with DISCERNMENT and to weigh EVERY IDEA against the TRUTH. We train students to ENGAGE with all kinds of people and ask the questions that bring LIGHT to life. We help students understand the worldviews that CAPTURE MINDS and CHANGE THE WORLD. Worldview students are CONFIDENT in faith BOLD in their actions SERVANT hearted and they LAUGH often.
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