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Contents , / ,
34 Here they stand
Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate forces businesses to cover abortion-inducing drugs for employees. It has sent several evangelical and Catholic business owners to court to fight for their religious liberty—with varying degrees of success
44 Soldiering on
culture battles
Armed by three decades of combat duty, retired Lt. Gen. William Boykin takes on Washington’s
54 Prayer and politics
A worldview split leads to sharp differences on how to fight oppression in North Korea
48 Dry counties
Crops and cattle hang in the balance as drought in the Great Plains extends into winter
52 Herr professor
Religious freedom advocates, often ignored, find a friend in UN representative Heiner Bielefeldt
5 14 16 18
58 The silent treatment
For over four months, authorities jailed and beat Iranian-American Saeed Abedini in Tehran with no trial or U.S. intervention
23
:
News Human Race Quotables Quick Takes
23 Movies & TV 26 Books 28 Q&A 30 Music
28
61 Lifestyle 63 Technology 64 Science 65 Houses of God 66 Sports 67 Money 68 Religion
48
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3 Joel Belz 20 Janie B. Cheaney 32 Mindy Belz 71 Mailbag 75 Andrée Seu Peterson 76 Marvin Olasky
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“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein.” —Psalm 24:1 EDITORIAL editor in chief Marvin Olasky editor Mindy Belz managing editor Timothy Lamer news editor Jamie Dean senior writers Janie B. Cheaney, Susan Olasky, Andrée Seu Peterson, John Piper, Edward E. Plowman, Cal Thomas, Gene Edward Veith, Lynn Vincent reporters Emily Belz, Daniel James Devine, Angela Lu, Edward Lee Pitts correspondents Megan Basham, Mark Bergin, Anthony Bradley, Alicia M. Cohn, John Dawson, J.C. Derrick, Amy Henry, Meghan Keane, Thomas S. Kidd, Michael Leaser, Jill Nelson, Arsenio Orteza, Tiffany Owens, Stephanie Perrault, Emily Whitten mailbag editor Les Sillars executive assistant June McGraw editorial assistants Kristin Chapman, Katrina Gettman
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Prayers for the future
How should believers respond as First Amendment liberties come under assault?
>>
KRIEG BARRIE
N here at WORLD magazine is more stimulating and rewarding than to monitor your responses. That’s why, when the new issue first arrives here at our office from the printer, I always turn first to the “Mailbag” section toward the back (p. of this issue). Even before Marvin Olasky and Andrée Seu Peterson? Yah, even before Marvin and Andrée. I can predict them— a little. You folks I can’t predict at all. I love the surprises you send our way. But it wasn’t the surprise that grabbed my attention in a letter today from a WORLD reader who asked me to keep his name quiet for now. It was his thoughtful and earnest eagerness to let what he believes shape his behavior. From the time we launched WORLD years ago, we’ve probably had no more lofty goal. So it’s gratifying when someone writes the way this young father did: I read your article, “All but over,” and I think your assessment of the environment surrounding the First Amendment is correct. I have two young children ( years and months) and the possibility for more in the future, who will grow up in a vastly different America than I did. Part of me is saddened when I consider this likely reality. The other part of me is grateful because I know that whatever trials they (or we) walk through will only come under the hand of our Sovereign God who controls all things and to whom all authority will one day report. The biggest question I have with the current issue is what do I do? I’d ask that you keep my identity confidential, but I serve as an officer in the U.S. Armed Forces. I have sworn an oath to “support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. …” When our own government so blatantly disregards our most sacred national document, one I’ve sworn an oath to protect, where does that leave me? Where does that leave our military men and
Email: jbelz@worldmag.com
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women? What am I to do in my role as public servant and Christian? These questions need answering, but the answers are not easily found. Thoughts? How can you not appreciate the clear-eyed determination to focus on the real issues—and not the peripheral distractions? So let me wade in boldly with a few of the thoughts he asked for to guide a generation perhaps destined to live in the United States with a diminished First Amendment: . Don’t be a Lone Ranger. The history of various “causes” includes lots of well-intentioned people who would have represented their Lord and their cause more effectively if they’d surrounded themselves with wise, principled, practical, and straightforwardly honest counselors. . Pray that when any showdown comes, we as God’s people might more typically be found speaking for and defending the rights of others than our own privileges and prerogatives. . Pray that when any showdown comes, the main issues clearly revolve not around money but around freedom to worship. . Pray that when any showdown comes, the issues at stake might be clearly and unambiguously stated. God’s people need to focus on pivotal and crucial issues. They need to resist the temptation to make mountains out of molehills. . Pray that our causes not be eclipsed because of the moral failure of those people who represent them. How many more news accounts do we need about our one-time heroes who couldn’t even honor their own marriages? . Pray that our causes not be diluted or confused by our own clumsiness. How many more news accounts do we need about our one-time heroes who didn’t know what they were talking about on a particular subject—or simply didn’t have the good sense to stop talking when they ran out of something helpful to say? . Pray that God’s people learn to welcome the loss of their own freedoms if such loss can enhance the proclamation of the good news of salvation in Jesus. . Pray that God’s people, when their freedoms are threatened, will never be whiners, but people instead who glory in the privilege of giving up a gift they had never deserved in the first place. OK, good friend. Is that enough to keep this conversation going? A
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Dispatches News > Human Race > Quotables > Quick Takes
Left ahead >> Partisan inaugural speech signals an aggressive liberal agenda for the president’s second term
Win McNamee/ap
by Edward Lee Pitts in Washington
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell sounded a hopeful note after President Obama’s second inaugural address on Jan. 21, stating that Obama’s second term represents a fresh start for “dealing with the great challenges of our day … the transcendent challenge of unsustainable federal spending and debt.” But little in the president’s speech suggested that dealing with those challenges is on the administration’s second-term agenda. In the first 580 words, Obama uttered the word together seven times. But, in the midst of this plea for solidarity across party lines,
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Obama ignored his own advice. Launching into a partisan defense of liberal polices, Obama foreshadowed a second term that threatens to drive a bigger wedge between the divided lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Obama pledged to take on climate change. He became the first president to support gay rights in an inaugural speech. He drew battle lines on gun control, immigration, tax reform, and healthcare. He defended the entitlement programs that are adding to the massive national debt. He argued for putting aside the debate over the role of government and then proceeded to outline an array of expanded government initiatives. In giving fiscal issues short shrift, Obama may have hoped to signal that spending debates are over. But fiscal deadlines are looming: On March 1 deep automatic spending cuts in defense and domestic programs kick
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Dispatches > News
Men’s Soccer Team continues its quest to make the FIFA World Cup on Feb. when it opens the last round of qualifying games with a contest against Honduras. If the U.S. team can finish with one of the top three spots in its final qualifying group, it will be assured of a spot in the World Cup in Brazil.
LOOKING AHEAD National Prayer Breakfast
Leaders of religions and the leaders of the nation will gather at the Hilton Washington International Ballroom in Washington, D.C., on Feb. for the National Prayer Breakfast. The president will speak, along with another speaker who will remain unidentified publicly until the morning of the breakfast.
Grammy Awards
Rapper/actor LL Cool J will host the th Grammy Awards at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Feb. . Performers will include Rihanna, Taylor Swift, and Carrie Underwood.
Valentine’s Day
Feb. marks Valentine’s Day. Last year, Americans reportedly spent . billion on gifts and cards for the holiday. This year, the European Union plans to release on Feb. a heart-breaking report on fourth-quarter gross domestic product in the euro-zone.
NBA All-Star Game
Kobe Bryant will lead the West and LeBron James will the lead the East as the top players in the NBA travel to Houston for the annual All-Star Game on Feb. . Houston Rockets sensation Jeremy Lin lost out in the fan vote to Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers to start at one of the guard spots for the West team.
SOCCER: MIGUEL TOVAR/GETTY IMAGES • GRAMMY: WADE PAYNE/INVISION/AP • OBAMA: CHARLES DHARAPAK/AP • VALENTINE: SHARAPAANDRIY/ISTOCK • PAUL: RALPH FRESO/AP
in, while the authority to keep the government running expires on March . This best reflects Washington’s disconnect. As the president makes unapologetic appeals to his liberal base on non-fiscal issues, Republicans keep pressing the nation’s urgent debt problem. Obama spent one sentence calling for “hard choices” to reduce the size of the nation’s deficit. But he didn’t outline those choices and, with his next line, suggested entitlement reform would remain more rhetorical than actual. “We reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future,” Obama said. Such words are not encouraging to fiscal conservatives who see the nation’s debt at . trillion and counting (nearly trillion more than when Obama first took office in ). But acute observers did not need a candid speech to learn that Obama’s second-term liberal ambitions may look similar to his first term—but on steroids. Four years ago Obama tapped a rival (Hillary Clinton) and a Republican (Robert Gates) for his cabinet. Today, Obama has appointed trusted insiders to his new cabinet, including former White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew as treasury secretary and former debate prep partner John Kerry as secretary of state. When Obama announced an ambitious gun control agenda on Jan. , he included with his legislative proposal executive orders that attempt to change the gun rules in the country while continuing his firstterm preference for bypassing Congress. But it was not Obama’s policy promotions that rang the loudest on inauguration day. Instead it was the reaction of the gathered crowd that launched into robust boos whenever a Republican appeared on the Jumbotrons placed throughout the crowd. They booed former GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan. They jeered former GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich. “I thought that was really sad,” said attendee and Obama supporter Lynetria Johnson, , from Tulsa, Okla. “[Obama] talked about us coming together and stopping this political infighting, and everybody was booing. It just shows the state of the country.” A
Soccer spectacle The United States
WORLD • FEBRUARY 9, 2013
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Dispatches > News
Crossing the red line
Military spike
Israeli military commanders also have A classified State Department cable and a shared intelligence with the Pentagon spate of firsthand videos posted on suggesting the Syrian government could YouTube from hospitals in Syria suggest be engaging in chemical warfare: “Syrian that the Syrian government attacked nontroops appeared to combatant citizens be mixing chemiin December and cals at two storage more recently used sites, probably the chemical weapons. deadly nerve gas utgoing But o sarin, and filling Defense Secretary dozens of 500Leon Panetta denied pound bombs that the allegations. could be loaded on The cable, signed airplanes,” the by the U.S. consul Israelis said, general in Istanbul according to a Jan. 7 and forwarded to report in The New the State York Times. Department in Last August Washington in midPresident Barack January, said the CHEMICAL THREAT: Residents wear gas masks Obama said use of consulate’s investias they search for bodies after shelling by government forces in Aleppo Jan. 3. chemical weapons gation concluded would represent a there was “a com“red line” in Syria’s civil war, and necessipelling case” based on reports inside Syria tate military intervention. that chemical weapons had been used in But on Jan. 17, Panetta told ABC News the city of Homs on Dec. 23. Rebels fightthat Syria has not used chemical weapons ing the government of President Bashar against its citizens “as we would imagine al-Assad told al-Jazeera on Dec. 24, “The chemical weapons being used in that kind situation is very difficult. We do not have of battle.” Panetta added, “We have not seen enough facemasks. We don’t know what intelligence that they have deliberately used this gas is but medics are saying it’s this against their own people.” something similar to Sarin gas.”
The Defense Department could classify a record 349 U.S. military deaths last year as suicides. That’s up from the 301 military suicides in 2011 and more than the 295 service members who died in combat in Afghanistan in 2012. The Pentagon has confirmed as suicides the deaths of 239 U.S. service members last year with an additional 110 deaths still being investigated as probable suicides. The 349 deaths would be the highest annual total since the military began tracking detailed suicide statistics in 2001. Most of the suicides occurred in the Army, which suffered 182 such deaths last year. But all the armed services experienced an increase in suicides in 2012 compared to the year before, with the Marine Corps suffering a 50 percent jump in the number of its suicides. Congress in 2009 created a Task Force on the Prevention of Suicide in the Armed Forces.
Flu season surprised health officials this year, arriving a month early and reaching “epidemic” status by early 2013. On Jan. 18 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said influenza was widespread in 48 states and had hospitalized over 5,000 people since Flu activity levels October. Although the CDC (as of Jan. 12) doesn’t publish a running total ` High ` Moderate of adult flu deaths, it reported ` Low ` Minimal 29 flu-related deaths among children. In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a health emergency as the number of flu cases there approached 20,000. This season vaccine makers have distributed about 130 million doses of flu vaccine, which is 62 percent effective at preventing a severe case of flu. Last year only two out of five adults got the vaccine. Flu cases usually peak in midwinter, so hopefully the season is winding down.
{
SOURCE: U.S. CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL
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WORLD • February 9, 2013
SYRIA: MUZAFFAR SALMAN/Reuters/Landov • SUICIDE: Amanda Rohde/ISTOCK
Flu’s grip
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Egypt cracks down on converts
FREEDOM FIGHTERS: A rally in Cairo for religious liberty.
Religious freedom is alive in Europe, but trumped by same-sex rights, according to rulings handed down Jan. by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The court issued decisions in four cases applying to member states in the Council of Europe—one went in favor of religious freedom while three were against. Nadia Eweida, a British Airways check-in clerk, challenged workplace rules forbidding her from wearing a small cross around her neck. The human-rights court ruled Eweida was entitled to wear the cross, noting that freedom of religion is “an essential part of the identity of believers and one of the foundations of pluralistic, democratic societies.” In a similar case, it ruled against allowing nurse Shirley Chaplin to wear a confirmation crucifix, even though she had worn it for years, saying barring the cross was necessary to preserve the health and safety of patients. The court upheld the firing of Gary McFarlane, a Christian relationship counselor who was ousted for “gross misconduct” when he said he objected to counseling same-sex couples, even though no clients actually were turned away. The ECHR also ruled that Lillian Ladele, a registrar, must conduct same-sex ceremonies instead of referring couples to someone who would not object to same-sex unions. “Where an individual’s religious observance impinges on the rights of others, some restrictions can be made,” the court said. All three Christians who lost plan to bring appeals to the Grand Chamber of the ECHR.
FALSE START A new Health and Human Services report shows the Head Start program fails to accomplish its core mission. The HHS findings indicate the program might even be doing harm, despite billion spent on the program since its inception in . Two studies followed cohorts of children who did and did not have Head Start access from first grade to third grade. The two groups showed “little to no” change in “cognitive, social-emotional, health, or parenting outcomes of participating children,” according to The Heritage Foundation. In some cases, outcomes worsened. The federal government has spent an average , on more than million children enrolled in the program during the last years. A Hurricane Sandy relief bill introduced in January included an additional million in Head Start funding.
Marching to win After years of rallying in Washington, D.C., to protest Roe v. Wade, participants in the annual March for Life can count some victories: Since the number of U.S. abortion centers has declined percent, to , according to Operation Rescue. State pro-life legislation has multiplied, and the overall number of abortions has dropped percent. With an estimated . million abortions committed in , though, marchers still have plenty of reason to congregate. This year’s event, scheduled for Jan. , was to be the first march without the movement’s founder, Nellie Gray, who died in August at .
EWEIDA: ALASTAIR GRANT/AP • HEAD START LOGO: HANDOUT • EGYPT: DANIEL BEREHULAK/GETTY IMAGES • MARCH FOR LIFE: PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AP
Despite promises from President Mohamed Morsi that Egypt’s Christian minority won’t face persecution under his Islamic-based rule, a family of eight discovered a different reality: An Egyptian court in January sentenced a widow and her seven children to years in prison for converting to Christianity. Nadia Mohamed Ali grew up in a Christian home, but converted to Islam when she married a Muslim years ago. After his death, Ali changed her family’s religious status to Christian on their state-issued identity cards. When officials discovered the change, they arrested Ali, her children, and the clerks who processed the documents. A criminal court miles southwest of Cairo sentenced Ali and her children to years in prison for illegal conversion. Samuel Tadros of the Hudson Institute for Religious Freedom said the case highlights that converting to Christianity could grow even more dangerous under Morsi’s rule, and he called the country’s new constitution “a real disaster in terms of religious freedom.”
European liberty
WORLD • FEBRUARY 9, 2013
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VINCENT YU/AP
Dispatches > News
In their dreams Newspaper protests reveal Chinese hopes for free speech
By daniel james devine
Eweida: Alastair Grant/ap • head start logo: handout • egypt: Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images • march for life: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/ap
Vincent Yu/ap
>>
Millions of Westerners got a rare glimpse inside the Chinese government’s propaganda machine in January, when journalists at Southern Weekly, a popular newspaper based in Guangzhou, revolted against Communist Party oversight. In an internal standoff that lasted a week, newspaper staff threatened to strike unless government officials agreed to relax censorship of their work. News of the conflict brought hundreds of protesters into the streets—either to support the paper or criticize it—illustrating a growing tension in China between free speech advocates and Party loyalists. The standoff arose after Propaganda Department officials reviewed drafts for Southern Weekly’s New Year’s edition and demanded changes. Unhappy with an editorial calling for a national reemphasis on constitutional rights—titled “China’s Dream, the Dream of Constitutionalism”—the censors ordered revisions transforming the editorial into a eulogy to Party leadership. The title became “We Are Closer Than Ever Before to Our Dreams.” After the edition went to press, newspaper staff complained and leaked word of the unusual intrusion and censorship. A group of former Southern Weekly journalists posted a letter online demanding the removal of Tuo Zhen, the provincial propaganda chief. Internet censors quickly blocked access to the letter and deleted web posts expressing support for the newspaper on Sina Weibo, a Chinese version
of Twitter. Outside the Guangzhou headquarters of Nanfang Media Group, owner of Southern Weekly, protesters gathered and held yellow and white chrysanthemums in symbolic mourning of the death of free speech. Plainclothes police eventually carried some protesters away in vans. Communist officials tried to stop pro-reform sentiment from spreading. They instructed Chinese newspapers to reprint an editorial published in the state-owned Global Times that criticized Southern Weekly. Some did so only with a disclaimer explaining the editorial didn’t reflect their views. Meanwhile, Southern Weekly staff reached an agreement with propaganda officials that allowed them to go to press on schedule: In exchange for promises of somewhat looser censorship, the editors agreed not to write about the standoff in the upcoming edition. Tuo, the propaganda chief, kept his job. The fracas highlighted the thin line Chinese journalists walk every day. China has about 2,000 newspapers, some state-run and others merely monitored. Editors avoid forbidden topics and must sometimes submit article drafts to local officials to ensure nothing contravenes Party interests. Problematic material often leads to reprimands or forced resignations.
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Southern Weekly is a 29-year-old paper that built a reputation for bold, investigative reporting. Former editor Qian Gang, who directs the China Media Project in Hong Kong, said censorship of the paper increased seven years ago. The problem became stifling last May, when Tuo was installed in Guangdong Province and insisted on reviewing the theme of each upcoming edition. For news staff, Propaganda Department controls “are like a nightmare that goes on day after day, month after month,” Qian wrote in a commentary on the situation. Qian was the paper’s executive deputy editorin-chief for three years, until government officials forced him out in 2001. “Southern Weekly is a commercially operating enterprise whose boss ultimately is the Chinese Communist Party.” Progressive Chinese hope Xi Jinping, the Communist Party chief installed in November, will loosen restrictions on free speech in newspapers and online media. Xi has spoken in favor of economic reforms, but his Party’s attempt to squelch support for Southern Weekly, along with new internet restrictions the government introduced in December and January, don’t make free speech reforms very promising. A
confrontation: A policeman points to a protester near the headquarters of Southern Weekly.
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Dispatches > News
Global leveling
ARTIC
ANTARCTIC
SHIFTING LINES: Artic 2012 photo with a line indicating average sea ice minimum from 1979 through 2010; Antarctic 2012 photo with line indicating median sea ice extent from 1979 to 2000 .
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WORLD • February 9, 2013
Questions linger over ‘plentiful’ death threats against retired gay bishop by warren smith
>>
Newly retired Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, The Episcopal Church’s first openly homosexual bishop, often refers to his own courage in the face of danger. At his 2003 consecration as bishop of New Hampshire, he talked about wearing a bullet-proof vest. When he announced his retirement in 2010, he said death threats “have been a constant strain” and factored into his retiring seven years before the church’s mandatory retirement age. In a January interview, he told National Public Radio, “The death threats were plentiful, almost daily, for a couple of years.” But New Hampshire State Police have no record of any death threats against Robinson. The Concord Police Department, where Robinson worked for seven years, said it has reports on five threats: two in 2004, one in 2005, and two in 2009. In public appearances, Robinson tells the vivid story of a man arrested in Vermont with a shotgun, ammunition, and a photo of Robinson on which he had scrawled, “Save the church, kill the bishop.” Stephanie Dasaro, a spokesperson for the Vermont State Police, told WORLD a “cursory search of our database” indicated “Bishop Robinson does not seem to appear in our records.” The Concord Police Department did confirm that one of its five reports was a referral from Vermont, but would not release additional information. Ann Hall, archivist for the Diocese of New Hampshire, said there was “no special security” at the Diocesan House, the Concord headquarters of the diocese: “I don’t think there were any indications that the office was in danger.” Robinson, now a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress (CAP), did not respond to requests for an interview made through CAP and through the Diocese. Five death threats are five more than most people face in a lifetime, and few would blame Robinson for erring on the side of safety and taking all threats seriously. But death threats—especially in the internet age—are a reality for public figures: While president, George W. Bush received about 3,000 death threats a year, and President Barack Obama receives as many as 10,000 a year. Security experts, though, say publicizing threats attracts attention and encourages copycats. Michael Brown said his book on the history of homosexual activism, A Queer Thing Happened to America, made him the target of death threats. “There are lots of wacky people on both sides,” he said. “If you stand up and speak out on controversial topics, you just have to know that this unfortunately now goes with the territory. But if Robinson is suggesting that those of us with thoughtful, biblical objections to homosexuality are the source of these threats, that’s just wrong.” Brown said he isn’t surprised that Robinson attempts to portray himself as a victim and conservative Christians as victimizers. “That’s been a common strategy of pro-homosexual activists for decades.”
ice: Jesse Allen/ Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio and NASA Earth Observatory/nasa • Robinson: Jacquelyn Martin/ap
NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Jan. 15 reported temperature readings ranking 2012 as the ninth (or 10th, depending on the dataset used) warmest year in modern record books. Yet the temperatures were notable for what they didn’t show: an upward trend. The average global temperature has remained flat for the past decade, suggesting forces of nature are keeping warming in check. In the contiguous United States, where 2012 proved to be the hottest year on record, it brought the worst drought in half a century. Arctic ice cover also melted to a record low. But other regions such as Alaska, Central Asia, and the southern Atlantic Ocean were cooler than usual, and Antarctic ice cover was above average. A NASA scientist said natural ocean cycles like El Niño and La Niña probably kept the average temperature level.
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Dispatches > Human Race
UNSILENCED Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas broke a seven-year silence on Jan. during oral arguments at the nation’s highest court. As the other eight justices, all of whom graduated from Yale or Harvard, discussed whether a defendant had adequate representation with his Yalegraduate lawyer, Thomas, also a Yale grad, reportedly said the defendant must not have received competent counsel.
WORLD • FEBRUARY 9, 2013
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SENTENCED A federal judge in El Paso sentenced Christopher Tappin to months in prison after he pleaded guilty last November to selling weapons parts to Iran. Tappin, , faced up to years behind bars after being extradited to the United States from England, but reached a deal with prosecuAbigail Van Buren (center) with her husband Morton Phillips in . tors to serve an abbreviated Fellow Hall of Famer Earl DIED Pauline Friedman sentence in the Weaver, the legendary and Phillips, known to millions by U.K. Tappin must combative manager of the her pen name Abigail Van turn himself in to Baltimore Orioles, died the Buren, or “Dear Abby,” died authorities by same day. He was . Weaver Jan. at . Phillips began in March . screamed at one umpire, “I’m what today remains the going to check the rule-book world’s most syndicated on that,” and the ump replied, advice column. She embraced OVER“Here, use mine.” Weaver the sexual revolution, including TURNED An retorted, “That’s no good—I support for abortion, while at Egyptian court can’t read Braille.” the same time dispensing ordered a retrial for domestic wisdom until turning former President the column over to her daughMubarak, DIED Eugene Patterson, Hosni Mubarak ter Jeanne Phillips in . a Pulitzer Prize–winning who was sentenced journalist and civil-rights to life in prison for advocate, died on Jan. at his role in the deaths age . A World War II veteran, of hundreds of Patterson was an editor at protestors in . The judge, who issued the Atlanta Constitution, the ruling without explanation, Washington Post, St. also overturned convictions Petersburg Times, and for several Mubarak allies, Congressional Quarterly Musial Weaver including his two sons. during a -year journalism career. He was most famous DIED The gentlemanly Stan for his editorial writing, includ“Stan the Man” Musial, who ing “A Flower for pitched then fielded seasons the Graves,” a for the St. Louis Cardinals, poignant died Jan. at age . The commentary Hall of Famer played in following the All Star games—a record—won three Birmingham, National League MVP Ala., church awards, and was arguably the bombing that killed four greatest and most popular African-American girls. Cardinal in baseball history.
NAGIN: GERALD HERBERT/AP • MUSIAL: DILIP VISHWANAT/GETTY IMAGES • WEAVER: ROB CARR/GETTY IMAGES • THOMAS: CHARLES DHARAPAK/AP • TAPPIN: JUAN CARLOS LLORCA/AP • ABBY: ROBIN PLATZER/TWIN IMAGES/TIME LIFE PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES MUBARAK: AP • PATTERSON: ST. PETERSBURG TIMES/NEWSCOM
CHARGED A federal court indicted former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, , on charges that he accepted bribes for personal gain during the devastated city’s grueling recovery from Hurricane Katrina in . The indictment accuses the Democratic mayor—who gained a national reputation for slamming federal officials, including President George W. Bush, for doing too little in Katrina’s aftermath—of helping himself to more than , in bribes and payoffs in exchange for promoting the interests of contractors working to rebuild the city.
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Dispatches > Quotables
‘No one was actually doing anything. A few scrolled or clicked, but the rest just stared.’
‘The last time the Senate has passed a budget, the iPad wasn’t even invented yet.’ House Majority Whip KEVIN MCARTHY,, R-Calif., on the U.S. Senate not having approved a budget for the federal government in four years. Congress has funded the government through continuing resolutions.
WORLD • FEBRUARY 9, 2013
SOPHIE SCHMIDT, daughter of Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt, describing a room of about North Koreans ostensibly studying on computer terminals at a university. The Schmidts witnessed a variety of apparently staged scenes during a January trip to North Korea.
‘Our grief and sense of betrayal are beyond words.’ Archbishop STANLEY NTAGALI, of the Anglican Church of Uganda, on the Church of England’s decision to allow gay bishops (see p. ).
‘The North Korean believer enslaved in the gulag can’t speak. The Iraqi nun fearing for her life cannot speak. Will we be their voice?’ U.S. Rep. FRANK WOLF, R-Va., in a January letter to Protestant and Catholic leaders calling for religious leaders to speak out on behalf of the persecuted church, and announcing his intent to reintroduce legislation for a special U.S. envoy for religious minorities.
McCARTHY: KEVIN DIETSCH/UPI/LANDOV • GIBBS: ANDREW BURTON/GETTY IMAGES • NORTH KOREA: DAVID GUTTENFELDER/AP • NTAGALI: CHURCH OF UGANDA • WOLF: ANDREW HARNIK/THE WASHINGTON TIMES/LANDOV
Former White House press secretary ROBERT GIBBS, before Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office to President Obama. Roberts, who cast the deciding Supreme Court vote in favor of Obamacare, botched the wording of the oath of office for President Obama’s first term in .
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‘Given healthcare, I don’t care if he speaks in tongues.’
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1/22/13 2:09 PM
Dispatches > Quick Takes
How much would you pay for a Lincoln Futura concept car? At a Scottsdale, Ariz., auction on Jan. , Rick Champagne paid . million for one. The reason: It was the car used as the Batmobile during the s Batman television series. “I really liked Batman growing up and I came here with the intention of buying the car,” Champagne, , told the Reuters news service. “Sure enough, I was able to buy it.” The insurance premiums on the car will reportedly be ,.
While New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been trying to reduce gun violence in his state, New York City park workers perhaps cleared out the biggest gun of all. City employees removing a Revolutionary War–era cannon from Central Park on Jan. made the unsettling discovery that the cannon had been loaded and ready to fire for the more than years it had been kept at the park. The workers were refurbishing the artillery piece, a gun off a British frigate that had been on display in the park from the s until , when they discovered the cannon was loaded with a ball, cotton wadding, and grams of black powder that was still capable of firing, even though capped with concrete. “We silenced British cannon fire in ,” the NYPD said in a statement, “and we don’t want to hear it again in Central Park.”
Within hours, Sabine Moreau should have known she wasn’t in Belgium anymore. But misplaced trust in her GPS direction system turned what should have been a -mile trip to Brussels into a -mile, two-day odyssey to Croatia. On Jan. , Moreau, , left her home in Erquelinnes, Belgium, to go pick up a friend from the train station in Brussels. To navigate the trip, Moreau flipped on the GPS system in her car and dutifully followed the directions as she drove southwest hour after hour. First she saw signs written in French. Then German. Then in other languages. All this, she says, didn’t make her realize something had gone terribly wrong. “It was only when I ended up in Zagreb [Croatia] that I realized I was no longer in Belgium,” she told the UPI. During the -mile journey, Moreau stopped for gas twice, got into a minor accident, and even pulled over to sleep for a few hours. When she arrived in Zagreb, she phoned home to find her family had filed a missing person report and police were preparing a manhunt for her.
WORLD • FEBRUARY 9, 2013
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BATMOBILE: GEORGE BARRIS/COURTESY BARRETT-JACKSON/AP • UNDERWEAR: RICHARD B. LEVINE/NEWSCOM • CANNON: NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT • MAP: PAWEL GAUL/iSTOCK • MOREAU: EURO PICS/NEWSCOM
What Alvin Rogers does before showing up to serve jail time for shoplifting is his own business. That is, unless he shoplifts again. Told that he needed to bring with him two sets of underwear before reporting for a weekend stint in jail in Eastville, Va., the -year-old from Painter, Va., was caught stealing the required underwear from a dollar store. After being convicted on the underwear heist, Rogers was sentenced to more than two years in prison.
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THE RICHTERS: BARBARA P. FERNANDEZ/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX • SCHNEIDER: CHRISTIAN ABRAHAM/CONNECTICUT POST/AP • GUITAR: HANDOUT • ORLANDO: JILL INSLEY • WALTHERR-WILLARD: HEIDI FALLON/COMMUNITY PRESS/AP
BATMOBILE: GEORGE BARRIS/COURTESY BARRETT-JACKSON/AP • UNDERWEAR: RICHARD B. LEVINE/NEWSCOM • CANNON: NEW YORK CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT • MAP: PAWEL GAUL/iSTOCK • MOREAU: EURO PICS/NEWSCOM
THE RICHTERS: BARBARA P. FERNANDEZ/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX • SCHNEIDER: CHRISTIAN ABRAHAM/CONNECTICUT POST/AP • GUITAR: HANDOUT • ORLANDO: JILL INSLEY • WALTHERR-WILLARD: HEIDI FALLON/COMMUNITY PRESS/AP
No one is certain exactly how, but the cat came back. After bolting from her owners during a loud fireworks display at Daytona Speedway Park on Nov. , Holly the cat trundled into West Palm Beach, Fla., on Jan. after walking miles back home down the coast of Florida. The cat, in characteristic cat fashion, didn’t actually arrive at its home, but instead walked into Barb Mazzalo’s garden. Mazzalo took the weak and skinny cat to a vet who checked the animal’s microchip and arranged to return her to her owners Jacob and Bonnie Richter, who live about one mile from Mazzalo.
Considering the details divulged in her lawsuit against Mariemont City Schools, perhaps Maria Waltherr-Willard should have chosen a different profession. The -year-old former highschool teacher is suing the school district, which serves Cincinnati’s eastern suburbs, for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by discriminating against her because she had a rare phobia: fear of school-aged children. According to the lawsuit, the district was trying to force her out of a job by transferring her from her high-school position to teach th- and th-graders— an age group that she says caused her blood pressure to spike and anxiety to soar.
It’s the thing every musician fears. While flying from Buffalo, N.Y., to Detroit in December, musician Dave Schneider, lead guitarist for the Hannhukah-themed rock band The LeeVees, tried to carry his prized Gibson ES- semihollow-body guitar onto a Delta flight as he had many times before. But this time the Delta crew told him he would have to check the rare Schneider vintage with his new instrument. Gibson guitar Upon landing in Detroit, the musician said he had a bad feeling and asked the flight crew if he could check in on his guitar as Delta’s Detroit ground crew unloaded his axe. As soon as he got close enough to see, his guitar was being crushed in a loading elevator. The damage to the guitar was estimated at nearly ,—but Gibson later gave Schneider a replacement ES-.
Who wins in an investment contest between several financial professionals, a class of investment students, and a cat named Orlando? Orlando, of course. London’s Observer newspaper pitted experts from three London investment firms against students at a British school and a cat in a year-long investment contest. Each of the three teams was given a hypothetical , to invest at the beginning of . Leaders from the financial firms as well as the students pored over possible choices. But the choices of Orlando the cat were divined only when the feline tossed his toy mouse at a randomly numbered grid. When the year was up, Orlando’s portfolio had grown to ,—better than the students or the financial experts.
A passer-by in Munich, Germany, knew something was wrong on Jan. when he spotted an elderly man at a subway station with an intravenous needle attached to his arm. The concerned citizen escorted the unnamed -year-old to transit officials who then called the police. “After several calls, it emerged that the pensioner had bolted from a Munich clinic,” police said in a statement. “He himself said he was on his way to a beer hall to have a belated birthday celebration.” After the man was returned to the hospital, officials there told him they would buy him a beer of his choosing.
FEBRUARY 9, 2013 • WORLD
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1/22/13 4:07 PM
Janie B. Cheaney
A little hypocrisy, please In a healthy society, two faces may sometimes be better than one
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WORLD • FEBRUARY 9, 2013
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on the Constitution.” Seidman’s main argument is that this archaic document, cobbled together by dead white guys two centuries ago, can’t possibly meet the needs of an evolving culture. To pretend it does forces politicians at all points on the political spectrum to genuflect toward the Constitution while stretching, twisting, and blatantly disobeying it. The stretching, twisting, and disobeying don’t disturb the writer, but the false reverence does. Policies should be judged on their merits, not on their conformity to an outdated document. To pretend otherwise is unbecoming to a free people—hypocritical. But does failure to meet a standard mean we should ditch the standard? “Hypocrisy is the tribute vice pays to virtue,” said François duc de la Rochefoucauld, th-century master of le bon mot. It’s the homage given by sinful people to the idea of rectitude. Truth be told, we’re all hypocrites to some degree, and that’s not always bad. The boss doesn’t have to know how you really feel about him, and every acquaintance who asks, “How are you?” needn’t be burdened with your personal baggage. If we were completely honest with everyone all the time, society would collapse in a primal scream. Sometimes lip service is better than no service. For people to pretend to be virtuous, when they’re anything but, means that they at least have some notion of virtue—and might someday aspire to the real thing. We wisely tell a child that if he acts brave he may become brave; a disgruntled wife that if she treats her husband in a loving manner, she may come to love him. Nobody admires a two-faced schemer, and when a two-faced schemer uses false piety to gain impious ends, that’s wicked. So is lying under oath or lying to one’s self or lying to God, who demands truth in the inner being (Psalm :). But when a whole society swears off cant, everyone is left to do what’s right in his own eyes, as in the days when Israel had no king (Judges :)—a “solution” with an extremely bad precedent. A
KRIEG BARRIE
I ’ , it’s how much we despise hypocrites. Whether left or right, religious or secular, the thing that really gets under our skin is the pious canting of those who say one thing and do another—or worse, expect others to conform to a standard they don’t embrace themselves. It’s ugly in an individual. But in a society? Maybe not always. Not long ago, for instance, to dissolve a marriage required proof that one side of the marriage was “at fault.” The most obvious faults were adultery, desertion, and abuse, but the difficulty lay in proving—it wasn’t always easy to convince a court, and convincing lawyers cost money. To make the process easier, a feuding couple might resort to playacting: One of them would agree to a fake tryst in a hotel room with an understanding accomplice, and the other would arrange for a detective or other third party to “discover” them in flagrante delicto. The third party’s testimony would secure the divorce, but at the cost of someone’s reputation. Another option was physically moving to a state or country that would grant an easy divorce to anyone who established residence. The state of Nevada, with an eye open for the main chance, relaxed its divorce laws in the s and allowed newcomers to claim residency after a mere six weeks. When unhappy spouses (usually women) left home for extended periods on vague pretexts, the suspicion that they’d gone to get a Reno divorce was often correct. This kind of disingenuousness greased the skids for the passage of no-fault divorce laws nationwide, starting with California in . Nearly years later, as we debate the effects of illegitimacy and broken families and same-sex “marriage,” I wonder if perhaps a little hypocrisy was necessary to help maintain the integrity of the institution. Here’s another example: A few weeks ago, constitutional scholar Louis Seidman wrote a provocatively titled editorial for The New York Times: “Let’s Give Up
Email: jcheaney@worldmag.com
1/17/13 10:08 AM
photo courtesy of Mary Anne Morgan
“Upholding the Highest Ethical Standard and Accountability!”
“There has never been a more critical time in the history of the church when the larger public is suspicious of ethical standards practiced by the church. However, being a member of ECFA holds a ministry to the highest ethical standard and accountability. Through the work of ECFA I believe these suspicions can be eliminated and the name of Christ exalted as all ministries respond to the ECFA opportunity. ” krieg barrie
Jo Anne Lyon, General Superintendent The Wesleyan Church Indianapolis, IN
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Reviews Movies & TV > Books > Q&A > Music
JoJo Whilden/The Weinstein Company
Faulty Playbook MOVIE: Surprise Oscar contender eviscerates one cultural fad but falls prey to another by Megan Basham
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Nearly every awards season a small(ish) indie film with a small(ish) budget, originally released to only a handful of large cities, begins picking up buzz and winds up beating movies with much bigger pedigrees for Oscar’s highest honor. In 2012, it was the French black-andwhite silent film, The Artist, which dominated entries by Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Woody Allen; in 2011, it was the charming stuttering story, The King’s Speech, which took out Christopher Nolan’s behemoth
Email: mbasham@worldmag.com
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Inception; and in 2010 it was The Hurt Locker, which trounced the highest-grossing movie of all time, Avatar. Given the Golden Globes and critics’ choice awards it’s already racked up, and its slow but steady climb up the boxoffice charts, this year that film could very well be Silver Linings Playbook (rated R for language and brief nudity depicting infidelity). Through the story of Pat (Bradley Cooper), a former high-school history teacher who’s spent the last eight months in a mental DIRTY, SLOPPY institution for nearly PASTS: Lawrence beating his wife’s lover and Cooper.
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Reviews > Movies & TV
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that is sometimes even parroted from the pulpit. Rather than trying to will herself to change like Pat, Tiffany chooses to embrace who she is. Except that it’s perfectly MOVIE clear that she doesn’t really like that part of herself—the part that fills her loneliness with empty sexual encounby Michael Leaser ters—or she wouldn’t work so hard to change it. Amour is the first foreign-language film to There’s an immense difreceive a Best Picture Oscar nomination in six years, and ference between accepting it admirably showcases the deep and tender love forged by the grace that can wash decades of marriage and a spouse’s impending demise. Yet away a dirty, sloppy past for all the love Amour’s aged couple shares, the world and claiming to accept and writer and director Michael Haneke creates for them is a celebrate our dirty, sloppy godless, nihilistic, soul-draining void. selves. Throughout it all, Retired music teachers Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) neither Pat nor Tiffany (nor and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) live quiet, contented lives in any of the troubled friends their Paris apartment, when one morning over breakfast, and family members surAnne suffers a stroke. A surgical procedure to fix an artery rounding them) hit on the results in paralysis through most of her body, save her head only real solution to their and one arm. crises—submitting to the Faced with these new circumstances, Georges tenderly One who can transform the takes care of his wife’s needs. (Some partial nudity in a dirty, sloppy old man into bathing scene and some brief coarse language account for someone clean and new. the film’s PG-13 rating.) Even so, Anne becomes increasingly Thanks to some truly frustrated with her debilitated condition, in an exceptional, terrific acting and amusing painfully real performance by Riva, telling her husband at subplots with Pat’s parents one point that she does not want to continue living. (Robert DeNiro and Jackie Despite the deep feelings expressed between them, Haneke Weaver), the story works. frames their story in quiet, sterile, almost despairing tones. Yet the fact that Tiffany For starters, the film has no musical score, save for the classisupposedly exemplifies the cal music Georges and Anne occasionally listen to. Viewers healthier mental state sugnauseated by the recent shaky cam craze may be happy to gests that Silver Linings know that Haneke goes in the polar opposite direction, setPlaybook isn’t ting a fixed camera on a scene for quite as dubiabnormally long stretches, thereby ous of fluffy creating an almost lifeless effect psych trends along with straining the meaning For the weekend of Jan. 18-20 as it pretends. of the term “motion picture.” according to Box Office Mojo In the end, it For those averse to spoilers, cautions: Quantity of sexual (S), violent offers a feelstop reading now. Normally a (V), and foul-language (L) content on a 0-10 good solution review would not describe a scale, with 10 high, from kids-in-mind.com to both Pat and climactic event, but readers S V L Tiffany’s probinterested in seeing Amour 1̀ Mama PG-13.................................4 7 5 lems that is as should be forewarned that, in a 2̀ Zero Dark Thirty* r................4 7 9 warm, fuzzy, poignant moment when Anne 3̀ Silver Linings and utterly can barely communicate that Playbook* r...............................5 4 10 fantastical as she’s in pain, Georges smothers 4̀ Gangster Squad r...................5 9 7 5̀ Broken City r............................ 7 6 10 the faulty her with a pillow in a drawn-out 6̀ A Haunted House r................9 6 7 methods they scene. Would that Haneke had 7̀ Django Unchained r..............6 9 7 rely on early in done the same to his screenplay 8̀ Les Misérables* PG-13...........5 6 4 the film. A before it saw the light of day. 9̀ The Last Stand r.....................2 8 7 10 The Hobbit* PG-13.................... 1 6 2 `
Amour
Box Office Top 10
*Reviewed by world
1/23/13 9:55 AM
West of Memphis: Olivia Fougeirol/Sony Pictures Classics • Nashville: Chris Hollo/abc
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sONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT INC.
to death, Silver Linings Playbook subtly explores our American affinity for selfimprovement programs. True to the pop-philosophies of the Norman Vincent Peales and Tony Robbinses, Pat looks at every crumbling foundation in his life as an opportunity to find the winner within. His wife is having sex with another man? Why, that’s the perfect motivation to work on his physique! She sold their house and took out a restraining order against him? What better way for them to develop greater love for one another than to have some time apart! Pat deeply absorbs all the catchphrases of positivity— “Excelsior” (in Latin, forever upward) is his mantra—yet his determination to find the up-side to every situation leaves him stagnated, refusing to acknowledge that his wife has abandoned him. The explosive cracks we soon see in his optimistic armor suggest his personal affirmations are actually feeding his bipolar obsessions rather than relieving them. But when Pat runs (literally) into his recently widowed neighbor, Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), he finds all his notions about life and how to live it challenged. Brash, bold, and seemingly at ease with herself, Tiffany represents the other end of the psychological spectrum. “I was a slut,” she explains of her promiscuous past, “and there will always be a part of me that is dirty and sloppy. I like that about myself.” Of course, “liking that about herself” reveals the new cultural wisdom
DOCUMENTARY
Britton (left) and Panettiere
West of Memphis by emily belz
sONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT INC.
West of Memphis: Olivia Fougeirol/Sony Pictures Classics • Nashville: Chris Hollo/abc
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In 1993, searchers for three missing 8-year-old boys found their bodies in a drainage ditch in West Memphis, Ark. Investigators believed that because of the injuries to the boys’ bodies, the murders were the result of a satanic ritual. A year later, a jury convicted three West Memphis teenagers, one of whom had journaled about the occult, of the murders. The court sentenced Jessie Misskelley Jr., 18, and Jason Baldwin, 16, to life in prison, and Damien Echols, 19, to death. As years passed, new evidence showed the crimes were likely not satanic. Witnesses recanted, more evidence appeared, and it became clear that local authorities had botched the case at key points. The release of the “West Memphis Three” became a cause célèbre. In 2011, the three were released from prison. West of Memphis is the fourth major documentary on the crime, but this time the filmmakers have the benefit of new DNA evidence. The film convincingly depicts who the real killer was, but because of the special plea deal the West Memphis Three took for their release from prison, the case is officially closed. (Warning: the film includes graphic crime scene footage of the boys’ bodies.) HBO’s documentaries on the crime—Paradise Lost, Paradise Lost 2, and Paradise Lost 3—depict the wrongful convictions as partly a result of a Bible Belt community looking for the occult under every rock. But West of Memphis notes that everyone in America was obsessed with the occult at the time—even Oprah. Director Amy Berg shows that these convictions could have happened in any town, not just a Southern evangelical one. But the film has a major weakness: Berg allows the self-congratulatory celebrities who made the case their cause onto the screen. The filmmakers interview Peter Jackson, the film’s producer, about his generous investment in the case. Later Eddie Vedder, the lead singer of Pearl Jam, talks about the “endurance” he needed for this cause. Good for Vedder, but who cares? You leave the film wanting healing not just for the victims’ families and the wrongly accused, but also for West Memphis, where you see poverty, abuse, and broken families. The celebrities didn’t sound like they were sticking around for that.
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TELEVISION
Nashville by Emily Whitten
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Now in its second season, ABC’s romantic comedy Nashville (Wednesdays, 10 p.m. Eastern) may not be burning up the charts, but it is turning heads. In many ways a country version of Glee, stars of the show Hayden Panettiere and Connie Britton recently earned Golden Globe nominations. And with 500,000-plus downloads of original songs, the show is resonating well beyond its rising Nielsen ratings. Still early in its second season, though, it’s hard to predict where its storylines are headed. If Nashville creator Callie Khouri’s film Thelma and Louise is any indication, it may not be a happy ending. While the divas of Nashville may not take up cliff-diving, they do display destructive tendencies similar to those of Khouri’s first heroines. When Rayna, an older singer played by Britton, releases her latest album to a collective yawn, her record label asks her to headline for younger artist Juliette (Panettiere). The result is a cut-throat battle for the spotlight, eclipsed only by the ever-present concern of who is or isn’t sleeping with them. Add to that a love triangle between budding songwriters as a subplot, and the words “soap opera” readily come to mind. That’s not to say the show is without virtue. Rayna is a mom of three fighting to save her marriage. Loyalty in the music business may be scarce, but it’s certainly valued in characters like Deacon and Scarlett. And perhaps most promising, Juliette’s love interest, Sean Butler (Tilky Jones), is a Tebow-like Christian. But Sean’s parents embody every negative stereotype of conservative Christians. And because the redemption Sean offers Juliette has nothing to do with Christ, he is unable to save her. Not surprising then that in a recent episode, her quickie marriage to Sean is annulled, potentially s idelining him for good. Music City is known for both saints and sinners. But in Callie Khouri’s Nashville, it’s the sinners who have more fun.
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Reviews > Books
Changing history The role of individuals, and other treadmill books BY MARVIN OLASKY
WORLD • FEBRUARY 9, 2013
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Other books on the role of individuals in history: Ronald Utt’s Ships of Oak, Guns of Iron (), a readable history of the War of , shows the importance of entrepreneurial captains (and the mediocre leadership of James Madison). James Humes’ Churchill: The Prophetic Statesman () shows how the great British leader saw not only that Hitler and Stalin had to be stopped, but that Islam could well breed terrorism and that military innovations would breed a terror of their own. Joseph Epstein’s Essays in Biography (Axios, ) includes wonderfully written looks at leaders (and followers) ranging from George Washington, T.S. Eliot, and Michael Jordan to Alfred Kinsey, Susan Sontag, and Isaac Rosenfeld. I’ll conclude with three more wellwritten books that illuminate fascinating, real-life characters. David Horowitz’s Radicals: Portraits of a Destructive Passion (Regnery, ) includes incisive stare-downs of Christopher Hitchens, Cornel West, and Saul Alinsky. Thomas Kessner’s The Flight of the Century: Charles Lindbergh and the Rise of American Aviation (Oxford, ) shows how and why the Lone Eagle made his historic flight to Paris, and later came across as a vulture. Michael Neiberg’s The Blood of Free Men: The Liberation of Paris, (Basic, ) shows how a city eaten by darkness came back to life. A
WORLD MAP: HANDOUT • LINCOLN: ALEXANDER GARDNER • CHURCHILL: AP • LINDBERGH: BETTMANN/CORBIS/AP • HITLER: AP • WASHINGTON: HANDOUT
) displays useful historical research on the early th century’s Genesisgeology debate. All three books, like Bergman’s, show the consequences of ideas. That leads me to Robert Kaplan, who has written wonderfully evocative ground-level books about wars and rumors of war, and now—in The Revenge of Geography (Random House, )—gives us the view from , feet. Kaplan’s subtitle suggests the strengths and limitations of his worldview: “What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate.” Like George Friedman, head of the organization Kaplan now works for, Stratfor, Kaplan is largely a geographical determinist, but what if “Fate” does not exist? What if a personal God, not an abstract fate, raises up kings and smashes kingdoms? What if ideas sometimes level mountains? Analyses of leadership are particularly important to those who are not geographical determinists. The principles for leadership that Albert Mohler offers in The Conviction to Lead (Bethany, ) have street cred: Mohler accomplished the almost impossible task of transforming an academic institution, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, over the objections of most of the professors on duty when he arrived. Peter Lillback’s George Washington & Israel (Providence Forum, ) succinctly shows how America’s essential leader was philo-Semitic.
Email: molasky@worldmag.com
1/21/13 11:41 AM
GERAINT LEWIS VIA AP
>>
W do in changing history, and what role does God play in changing them? Stephen Mansfield’s Lincoln’s Battle with God (Thomas Nelson, ) lucidly captures the scholarly debate about whether and when the Greatest Emancipator delivered a fatalistic skeptic from spiritual stupor into new life. It’s a good book for others walking the twisting path toward thoughtful faith. Feb. is not only Abraham Lincoln’s birthday but Charles Darwin’s as well. Several authors, including Richard Weikart, have shown the road from the quiet British scientist to a roaring German dictator, and Jerry Bergman’s Hitler and the Nazi Darwinian Worldview (Joshua Press, ) clearly describes the markers. Adolf Hitler apparently never read Charles Darwin, but Ernst Haeckel imported into Germany Darwin’s racist ideas. Haeckel, reared as a Christian, became “Darwin’s chief apostle” and gave pseudo-scientific underpinnings to Hitler’s ravings about Aryan supremacy: German anti-Semitism plus Darwinism equaled mass murder. The Magician’s Twin: C.S. Lewis on Science, Scientism, and Society, edited by John G. West (Discovery, ), undercuts the claims of some Darwinists that Lewis was one of them. Carl Wilson’s True Enlightenment: From Natural Chance to Personal Creator (Andragathia, ) is a thorough textbook for homeschooling parents who want to be well-informed from a young-earth perspective on questions involving the material world, the origins of life, human uniqueness, and much besides. Terry Mortenson’s The Great Turning Point (Master Books,
NOTABLE BOOKS Four nonfiction books > reviewed by
Grace, Gold, and Glory Gabrielle Douglas with Michelle Burford When -year-old Gabby Douglas won the all-around gold medal in women’s gymnastics at the Olympics, she tweeted, “I give all the glory to God.” Now she has teamed up with Michelle Burford— founder of Oprah’s Magazine, O—to share more of her story. From her early days as a sickly infant to her adolescence with fellow gymnasts who joked she was their “slave,” Douglas’ resilience is compelling and inspiring. Her family’s Word of Faith beliefs are a big part of the story. As such, her declarative prayers are occasionally more about personal fulfillment than glorifying God: “I will stick each landing because I have the God-given talent and the intense desire to do it.” Approached with discernment, it’s still a rich read.
Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work Timothy Keller
Mortality Christopher Hitchens When outspoken atheist Christopher Hitchens discovered he had esophageal cancer in June , he declared it wouldn’t change his mind about God. His admirers hoping for a deathbed conversion will find this slim volume on his last days disappointing. Those looking for an incisive—even humorous—description of his passage through “Tumortown” will find plenty to appreciate, including his take on the medical establishment, tactless fans for whom he prescribes a cancer etiquette book, and so-called Christians who wager on his eternal destiny. As he loses his voice and ability to write, his idolatry is both haunting and cautionary: “I often grandly say that writing is not just my living … but my very life … I feel my personality and identity dissolving.”
GERAINT LEWIS VIA AP
WORLD MAP: HANDOUT • LINCOLN: ALEXANDER GARDNER • CHURCHILL: AP • LINDBERGH: BETTMANN/CORBIS/AP • HITLER: AP • WASHINGTON: HANDOUT
In his new treatise on work, Keller explores a perennial subject in his intellectual yet pastoral way. First, he explains “God’s Plan for Work,” outlining the God-created dignity and design of our labor. From there he moves to“Our Problems with Work,” where he explores why people often experience frustration and discouragement in their callings. In his final section, “The Gospel and Work,” Keller shows how Christ’s work transforms His people so that “every good endeavor ... pursued in response to God’s calling, can matter forever.” The narrative loses some momentum as he delves into specific disciplines, but the book overall is a good endeavor. With quotations from artists like John Coltrane and theologians like John Calvin, Keller unites some of our culture’s deepest longings with sound biblical answers.
The Exact Place Margie Haack Margie Haack’s memoir of growing up in northern Minnesota during the s is a fast but nourishing read, filled with unpretentious wisdom and kindness rare in the publishing world. Haack’s studies with Francis and Edith Schaeffer, and her own ministry of “cultural engagement” through Ransom Fellowship evidently taught her to tell a good yarn in the course of edifying her readers. From laughout-loud childhood antics to her father’s brutal temper, the storytelling is realistic but not immodest, as Haack runs her fingers over the memories of people and events that formed her, and finds, “No matter how far into the wilderness we wander ... it will be a place God can touch us.” Email: solasky@worldmag.com; see all our reviews at worldmag.com/books
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SPOTLIGHT This year marks the th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen’s most popular book, Pride and Prejudice. Publishers rejected the first draft of the novel, which she called First Impressions. She sat on it for years before rewriting and getting it published as Pride and Prejudice in . Not until after her death in did Austen receive credit for her novels. That’s when her brother Henry wrote a biographical note to an edition of Persuasion and Northanger Abbey identifying her as the author of six novels which had been published anonymously. The Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA) holds an annual essay contest, open to high school—including homeschool— college, and graduate students. The topic for : “Though Pride and Prejudice may be regarded as timeless, nevertheless within the novel Austen plots her time very carefully. Timing is everything for important relationships and events. And the characters are deeply connected to the time in which they live, which is both like and unlike our times. What do we discover about time, times, or timeliness from reading Pride and Prejudice?” Prejudice Deadline is May : More information is available at the organization’s website jasna.org. —Susan Olasky
FEBRUARY 9, 2013 • WORLD
1/21/13 11:42 AM
Reviews > Q&A
Coming home >>
Late in 1987, the frontrunner for the following year’s Democratic nomination for president was Sen. Gary Hart. Reporters asked him about rumors of extramarital affairs, and he dared reporters to follow him. Two Miami Herald reporters staked out Hart’s Washington townhouse and saw Donna Rice, 29, going in one night and coming out the next morning. The National Enquirer soon after front-paged a photo of her sitting on Gary Hart’s lap. Seven years later Rice married Jack Hughes and joined the anti-pornography group Enough Is Enough: Today she is its CEO.
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Hart only twice—but all that said, God had been trying to get my attention prior to that, and it took an international sex scandal because I was stubborn. God will track you down. He will let things happen, the natural consequences of our choices. So suddenly you’re i nfamous: What happened
then? It was a year and a half of hell. I had been a model, so all these old bathing suit pictures of me were popping up on covers of magazines all over the world. I was being called names you wouldn’t believe. Playboy said we’ll do an interview—it will start at a million dollars and go up, depending on what you’re willing to say. You did the one commercial for No Excuses jeans—and what about the other temptations? I was offered some of the things I had wanted. The chairman of CBS saw me on Barbara Walters’ show and said, “Do you want to do drama, news, daytime, nighttime, whatever?” Millions of dollars thrown my way, blank checks at times, a lot of exploitive things—and over here God saying, “Come home.” I started taking baby steps back to the Lord. There were no good role models of women who had been in situations like this whose reputations had been restored and redeemed. So I started my journey back to the Lord and went underground for seven years. Where did you go to get away from this? I hid in plain sight, living in Northern Virginia with a family, taking care of a disabled lady.
Eventually I moved to California and started a production company, but moved back to the Washington area, planning to get married, and took a job with Enough Is Enough as communications director. You’ve now been at it for almost two decades. Give us a two-minute education in the current pornography problem. Nine out of 10 kids have seen pornography on the internet. The pornographers put free pictures and free videos and everything else on the internet in order to get people to come to their site and get hooked on the material before they ever get charged for it. We have today, in this country, absolutely no
National Enquirer/Getty Images
You grew up in Christian settings? From middle school up through high school and college I was very involved in youth group and choir. I was a summer missionary through the Southern Baptist Association and I dated Christian guys. I was really like a poster child for “good Southern Christian girl.” When you graduated in 1980—a magna cum laude biology major at the University of South Carolina—did you know what you wanted to do next? I really was not sure. I knew I wanted to make a difference. What happened over the next seven years? Toward the end of my college career, I started making these little left turns. Before long I was dating
some non-Christian guys and thought, “That’s not a big deal.” As soon as I graduated I lost my virginity when I was date-raped by one of those non-Christian guys. I was Miss South Carolina in the Miss World pageant and was on my way to New York. That was the catalyst. I went radically prodigal for seven years. It started with subtle compromises? It’s hard to believe how you can go from here to there—you don’t go there overnight, you go there by little wrong choices. I saw
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Lexey Swall/Genesis Photos
Former ‘scandal queen’ Donna Rice Hughes on becoming a voice of decency and morality By Marvin Olasky
Lexey Swall/Genesis Photos
National Enquirer/Getty Images
regulation with respect to softer-core material. The harder-core material, including sex acts or any deviant material like bestiality, group sex, and rape, violence, everything else, is prosecutable for adults as well as for minor children. But those laws aren’t enforced. They’re not, so it’s freely available for anyone, including kids. Then there is child pornography showing a child who’s being abused. It’s a huge business on the internet, and kids as well as adults have free and easy access to that as well. The battle against sex trafficking is a strong priority for a lot of college students, but is “pornography” a cold topic right now?
Email: molasky@worldmag.com
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Yes, but pornography fuels the trafficking business: Someone gets hooked on it and wants to have the sexual experiences he’s seeing. Most anyone who’s been trafficked is appearing in pornography on the internet, and that fuels more and more of the behavior—a vicious cycle. A lot of folks say, “Sure, I’m against something involving children, but with consenting adults it’s a private matter.” Why is it a public matter? The Witherspoon Institute has gathered the evidence of the harms against men and women from the addiction standpoint and how this fuels sexual abuse. There has been a rise in sex crimes by children
against other children imitating what they’ve seen in pornography. Brain science is showing how this affects the chemicals in your brain: These images get so imprinted that it’s very hard to get them out of your mind and experience any type of sexual satisfaction without that material. There’s a whole epidemic of young men who are using Viagra because they are having trouble relating to their wives because of pornography. There is a big trend now with business people losing their jobs: About 40 percent of people who are sex addicts lose their jobs because of their addiction. They can’t stop, and then of course you’ve got acting out.
If you hadn’t visited Gary Hart in Washington and painfully become the center of a sex scandal, do you think you would have continued in the mistaken course you had set over the seven years since g raduating from college? I really don’t know. Prior to going up to Washington, where The Miami Herald followed me, I had made a deal with God. I had said, “I just need to have one more conversation with this person, and then I’m coming back to you, Lord.” I hope I would have done that—but who knows? Oddly, I was Miss Scandal Queen 1987 and now I’m seen as this voice of decency and morality. That’s a God thing. A
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Reviews > Music
Gleeful nihilist Keha’s Warrior adds to the country’s cultural poison
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on which “Die Young” appears. It’s called Warrior (RCA) but could just as easily have been called Copulate, Drink, and Be Merry. Like the electro-pop to which they’re set, the lyrics are often meretriciously perfervid. “Dirty Love” even finds Keha and the godfather of punk, Iggy Pop, exchanging sexual single entendres over a -year age chasm. Listeners merely wanting a summary, however, need go no further than “Crazy Kids,” wherein Keha avers that “We don’t give a [expletive deleted] / ’cause that’s just who we are.” Lanza obviously didn’t give a [expletive deleted] either. And although he may have never heard one note of Warrior, he couldn’t have helped inhaling similarly toxic cultural stimulants during his -plus years in the public and semi-public education system. It wasn’t until he was in high school that his mother realized he’d have been better off taught at home. By all accounts, Lanza was quite intelligent. Intelligent people get depressed when subjected to pedagogical nonsense. That his mother was his first victim last December suggests less that her decision to homeschool him was wrong than that it may have been too little too late. As for Keha, she too has marinated in cultural poison. Only years old
when Bill Clinton’s lying about Monica Lewinsky became acceptable because “everybody lies about sex,” she couldn’t have helped absorbing the idea that getting caught is the worst mistake anyone can make and that maxing out one’s sensual potential is an admirable goal. How else to explain Warrior’s Edna St. Vincent Millay– worthy exaltation of burning one’s sensuous candle at both ends? Speaking of Millay, marked the centennial of her poem “Renascence,” which ends, “he whose soul is flat—the sky / Will cave in on him by and by.” Some perspective: On Aug. , , the ex-marine Charles Whitman went on a shooting spree in Austin, Texas, that left dead. Like Lanza, Whitman began by shooting his mother (and then his wife) and ended by committing suicide. Yet there’s no evidence that radio stations scrubbed Napoleon XIV’s then-popular novelty song about being carted off to the looney bin, “They’re Coming to Take Me Away,” from their playlists. By the rules of st-century sensitivity, they should’ve. Whitman was probably insane. Lanza may have been too. But it’s the flatness of our souls that’s the bigger problem. A
ISAAC BREKKEN/GETTY IMAGES FOR CLEAR CHANNEL
O repercussions of the Dec. shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was the temporary removal of the pop singer Keha’s latest chart-topping single from radio playlists. What’s strange is not that the song was removed. Its title is “Die Young,” after all. And although the lyrics have nothing to do with kindergartners or murder, the repeating titular refrain could have caused inadvertent pain at an uncommonly sensitive time. What is strange is that it took the massacre of children and eight adults, one of whom was the shooter Adam Lanza, for radio programmers to wonder whether repeated exposure to such a song might have deleterious effects on listeners or at least on the culture in which those listeners live, move, and have their being. Relentlessly catchy and sung from the point of view of a hard-partying young woman whose lust and willingness to indulge it know no bounds, “Die Young” functions as propaganda for carpe diem hedonism at its most meaningless. And meaninglessness was certainly at least part of what Lanza was experiencing on the last day of his life. A gleeful nihilism pervades the album
Email: aorteza@worldmag.com
1/23/13 9:41 AM
SAM SCOTT-HUNTER 2011
BY ARSENIO ORTEZA
NOTABLE CDs
Five new or recent pop-rock releases > reviewed by
Heavy Flowers Blaudzun Blaudzun’s recording career antedates Mumford & Sons’ by at least a year. So, if anything, they sound like him and not vice versa. Still, to the many fans of overearnest folk-rock who discovered Mumford & Sons first, Blaudzun will sound like the one with something to prove. He even sings about Mumford-worthy topics like crashing waves that “wash away our sins” and a girl who “reads books on Jesus.” The main difference is that his over-earnestness feels less, rather than more, annoying with each repeated listening.
White Buffalo Jimbo Mathus & the Tri-State Coalition A Mississippi native, Mathus comes by his Oxford drawl and roots-rock affinity naturally. Unfortunately, he’s not unique. So he sounds generic except when his rhythm section achieves a propulsive bounce or when he paraphrases Billy Joe Shaver so blatantly that you believe old chunks of coal really will be diamonds someday. Sometimes generic hits the spot: “Fake Hex” could improve a Rolling Stones album. But calling a song “Self” was a mistake—as was trying to beat Paul McCartney at writing a song called “Run Devil Run.”
Gold Britt Nicole In , Amy Grant released Find a Way, which A&M Records cross-marketed to pop radio with moderate success. A few years and albums later, Grant was a star. Enter Britt Nicole, whose Gold (released last year by Sparrow) now has Capitol Records seeing crossover dollar signs. The production will tickle hit-radio ears, and young women are definitely getting a more righteous role model than Madonna, Lady Gaga, or Lana Del Rey. But, her emphasis on eternity notwithstanding, Nicole sounds every bit as ephemeral.
SPOTLIGHT Sons first album, Pressure Rival Sons’ Time had critics breathlessly and Time, heralding them as the second coming of Led Zeppelin. Whatever the merits of that comparison may have been, their latest effort, Head Down (Earache), finds them tunneling backward beyond Led Zeppelin to Led Zeppelin’s roots in first-wave, high-voltage, British Invasion blue-eyed R&B: namely, Small Faces. Jay Buchanan is no Steve Marriott, Small Faces’ charismatic and doomed frontman. But he’s a reasonable enough facsimile thereof to make up for the negligible extent to which bassist Robin Everhart is no Ronnie Lane (Small Faces’ bassist) and drummer Mike Miley is no Kenney Jones (who after Small Faces was Keith Moon’s replacement in the Who, -). Except for the acoustic misstep “True” and the vestigially biblical “Jordan,” specific tracks don’t stand out. But the riffs render track-specific ID moot. Los Angeles kids these guys may be, but their heart and soul are strictly mid-’s British mod.
SAM SCOTT-HUNTER 2011
ISAAC BREKKEN/GETTY IMAGES FOR CLEAR CHANNEL
Expecting Company? Henry Wagons Whether it’s Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra or the Cramps and X that this baritone Aussie is obsessed with, he’s a “novelty act,” right down to his melodramatic song called “I’m in Love with Mary Magdalene” and his literal take on gallows humor called “A Hangman’s Work Is Never Done.” As “Give Things a Chance to Mend,” however, proves, Wagons also has a serious side. From the weepy steel guitars to sentiments with which George Jones and Tammy Wynette could’ve identified, the song could pass for classic country. See all our reviews at worldmag.com/music
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FEBRUARY 9, 2013 • WORLD
1/23/13 9:41 AM
Mindy Belz
Mission accomplished?
Defense cutbacks and victory speeches mislead Americans about growing threats
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Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia
continues to fail—perhaps deliberately—to do so. Attacks in Somalia, for example, can be linked to the mass kidnapping in Algeria that has left three Americans dead. Now we know the al-Qaeda militants in that attack sought to barter for the release of terrorists like U.S.-held World Trade Center bomber Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman. Few but the real sleuths want to talk about this. After working on a story about Afghanistan, Minutes’ Lara Logan vented her frustration in a speech to a Better Government Association luncheon in Chicago four months ago: “I knew that we were being lied to and the American people being misled,” she said of U.S. officials who insist “there are maybe al-Qaeda left in Afghanistan and they are one drone strike away from obliteration.” Logan told the audience, “Our way of life is under attack. If you think that’s government propaganda … you’re not listening to what the people who are fighting you say about this fight. In your arrogance you think that you write the script.” Yet the topic of ongoing terrorism in Afghanistan, she learned from U.S. commanders, “was off the table.” To talk about al-Qaeda in Afghanistan undermines the U.S. rationale for leaving. We all want to believe terrorist threats are in retreat. I came home after seeing Zero Dark Thirty and put together a shoe rack, one of those three-dimensional wonders that comes in a flat box guaranteeing assembly without tools. This is what Americans do. We keep life turning inside a bubble apart from threats that are evil and real. And we apparently prefer subsidized healthcare and retirement entitlements our government can no longer afford over any sort of guarantee of national security and safety. As official Washington makes the case for vacating Central Asia and the Middle East, remember that threats aren’t simply from a few haggard men in detention plotting to kill a few Americans, but spawned by a transnational movement dedicated to bringing down Western civilization. A
FEISAL OMAR/REUTERS/LANDOV
T enveloped black fields, the earth vibrating to the beat of their rotors. “Bullets rattled every corner,” a neighbor said. “Helicopters were firing at nearby homes.” That’s how French commandos arrived in a Somali village overnight on Jan. to rescue a French intelligence agent held by al-Shabaab militants for over three years. The spy, Denis Allex, had survived though chained up, abused, and moved from one safe house to another. French authorities learned in December that he was in a house “accessible by the sea,” and they decided to move in—launching a rescue mission from a ship patrolling in the Indian Ocean. They received support from U.S. combat aircraft that “did not employ weapons during the operation,” according to President Barack Obama in a notice to Congress the day after the raid. Despite the cover of darkness, the risk of entering Islamist-held territory, the advance surveillance, and the close coordination with U.S. forces, this was no Zero Dark Thirty. From the moment the militants returned fire, the raid went badly: Two French commandos were killed along with many villagers. French forces killed al-Shabaab militants but failed to rescue Allex. He died in the raid. Much press and congressional scrutiny has been spent on the brutal interrogation scenes that open Zero Dark Thirty, the film directed by Kathryn Bigelow depicting the May U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden. It apparently cost her an Oscar nomination, one she clearly deserves. And it overshadows some noteworthy themes threading through the movie: that the war goes on, that terror threats against the United States remain a constant since /, and that it’s a war being fought by ordinary Americans with extraordinary dedication. As the French raid in Somalia shows, the degree of difficulty is unimaginably high and not every mission comes off successfully. That’s needed backdrop to coming debates over Pentagon cuts and troop drawdowns. Many experts assert that forces from now dispersed but linked factions of al-Qaeda (al-Shabaab being its militant arm in Somalia) form a greater threat to the United States than they did leading up to /. But you will have to connect the dots yourself because Washington
Email: mbelz@worldmag.com
1/22/13 9:37 AM
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1/16/13 12:10 PM
HERE THEY Paul (left) and Chris Griesedieck on the shop floor of American Pulverizer in St. Louis
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Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate forces businesses to cover abortioninducing drugs for employees. It has sent several evangelical and Catholic business owners to court to fight for their religious liberty— with varying degrees of success by JAMIE DEAN in St. Louis |
EY STAND /
C P G know how to crush just about anything.
The brothers and owners of American Pulverizer in St. Louis run the company their greatgrandfather started nearly years ago to compress coal for the burgeoning coal mining industry. A century later, the Griesediecks and employees manufacture massive machines with names like jaw crushers and hammermills that pulverize everything from iron clips and water heaters to car engines and wooden pallets. And they still crush plenty of coal. But these days, the crushers worry about being crushed. The looming threat to the family business doesn’t come from competition. Instead, it comes from the machinery of the federal government. That’s because the government says the Griesediecks must do something that violates their Christian beliefs: Pay for so-called “emergency contraception” in their health insurance plan for employees. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued the mandate last year as part of the healthcare bill President Barack Obama signed into law in . The healthcare law requires employers with more than full-time workers to provide insurance to their employees or face fines. The HHS mandate requires employers to provide a range of “preventative services” in those insurance plans, including birth control pills, sterilization, and “emergency contraception” that may act as abortifacients.
FEBRUARY 9, 2013 • WORLD
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1/22/13 11:12 AM
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federal government is imposing a stark choice on his clients and all Christian employers who oppose the mandate: “Abandon their beliefs in order to stay in business, or abandon their business in order to stay true to their beliefs.” At least 14 for-profit companies have filed suit against HHS, saying the mandate violates their religious freedom. Courts have granted preliminary injunctions to nine of those companies—including the Griesediecks—shielding them against the mandate as their cases continue through the courts. Other judges denied similar protections to Hobby Lobby and four other companies. Though only a handful of for-profit companies have filed suit, the mandate applies to all employers providing insurance. That means potentially thousands of companies owned by Christians may grapple with the law’s requirements. So far, most of the for-profit companies filing suit are Catholic-owned and opposed to providing any of the services in the mandate, including birth control pills. Evangelicals own at least four of the companies, and don’t oppose offering birth
fight the power: Protesters stand outside the Sandra Day O’Connor Federal Courthouse on March 23, 2012, in Phoenix.
Matt York/ap
Companies that don’t offer the drugs face crushing fines: $100 a day per employee. For the Griesediecks and their 150 workers, those fines could soar to over $5 million a year. For a company with 13,000 employees like craft retailer Hobby Lobby—another Christian-owned corporation opposing the mandate—the burden is even heavier: Fines could reach $1.3 million a day. Like Hobby Lobby and other plaintiffs, the Griesediecks filed a lawsuit against HHS. They say the mandate violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (a law designed to protect against government infringement of religious freedom) and their First Amendment rights to free exercise of religion. The brothers made a simple argument based on Christian principles: “It would be sinful for us to pay for services that have a significant risk of causing the death of embryonic lives.” The government doesn’t have much sympathy. In a slew of similar cases filed by for-profit companies against the HHS mandate, government attorneys have argued that for-profit, secular companies don’t engage in any exercise of religion protected by the First Amendment. Frank Manion—an attorney at the American Center for Law and Justice—represents the Griesediecks, and says the
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mandate applies now unless they win a court injunction. And exceptions aren’t on the horizon. That has led more than 14 for-profit companies to file suit, including four owned by evangelicals. One of those companies— Tyndale House Publishers—is a for-profit corporation, but clearly religious in nature: The evangelical company publishes Bibles and Christian books. (And the company directs most of its profits to non-profit causes.) ADF attorney Matt Bowman won a preliminary injunction on Tyndale’s behalf in November, and said: “Bible publishers should be free to do business according to the book that they publish.” The court agreed in its written opinion: “… the beliefs of Tyndale and its owners are indistinguishable.” The same reality seems obvious for other evangelicalowned companies as well. Perhaps the highest-profile case is Hobby Lobby—the massive craft retailer with 520 stores in 41 states. The Oklahoma-based company averages $3 billion in sales each year, according to Forbes, and owner and CEO David Green ranks No. 79 on the magazine’s list of the 400 richest Americans. The publication estimates Green’s net worth at $4.5 billion. It also notes Green’s vast giving to Christian ministries like the OneHope Foundation and Every Home for Christ, and estimates his lifetime giving at That may seem like an obvious tenet of $500 million. Christianity, but the plight of Christian-owned, for-profit Indeed, Hobby Lobby’s website says the company is companies is underscored by another reality: The government committed to “honoring the Lord in all we do by operating is oppressing non-profit religious institutions as well. the company in a manner consistent with A narrow exception to the HHS mandate Biblical principles.” applies mostly to churches, freeing them To that end, the stores close on Sundays from the requirement. But for other so employees may rest and participate in non-profit religious employers—like worship. The company publishes full-page Christian colleges and Catholic hospitals— ads in newspapers at Christmas and Easter the mandate still applies with a deadline of with Christian messages. And it starts its August 2013 to comply. pay for full-time employees at 80 percent More than 80 such organizations have By mid-January courts had above minimum wage. Green says it would filed suit against HHS, and at least two granted injunctions to nine violate his Christian beliefs to pay for have made significant progress: In for-profit companies objecting “emergency contraception” that could December, a federal appeals court to the HHS mandate. Courts cause abortions. The company filed suit reinstated the lawsuits of the evangelical denied injunctions in five against HHS in September. Wheaton College and the Catholic-based cases. Most companies are The government contends the required Belmont Abbey College—both represented Catholic-owned. Conestoga “emergency contraception” drugs aren’t by the religious liberty firm Becket Fund. Wood Specialties is owned by abortifacients. But the FDA label on the (Courts had dismissed the lawsuits in Mennonites. Companies morning-after pill known as “Plan B” notes August, saying the litigation was owned by evangelicals are in the drug “may inhibit implantation” of a premature.) italics. fertilized egg. HHS attorneys said the government Injunctions granted Since pro-life proponents define fertilintended to issue a new exception that ization of an egg as the beginning of a pregwould protect colleges like Wheaton and e Korte & Luitjohan Contractors nancy, they label “Plan B” and Ella—a similar Belmont Abbey, but judges demanded e O’Brien Industrial Holdings drug that can be effective five days after action: HHS must update the court every e Hercules Industries unprotected sex—as abortifacients. The law 60 days until it publishes a new exception e Legatus also requires coverage of intrauterine devices for religious institutions. The government e Tyndale House (IUDs) that may block implantation of fersaid it would propose new language by the e American Pulverizer tilized eggs. (See “Mandated drugs,” p. 44.) end of March. For now, it’s unclear how far e Domino’s Farms Meanwhile, Plan B is available over the a new exception might reach. e Sharpe Holdings counter, and many county health clinics and While the decision was a victory for e Triune Health Group Planned Parenthood offices offer emergency religious non-profits, it offers no protection Injunctions denied contraception at no cost, low cost, or on a to owners of for-profit companies with sliding scale depending on income. similar religious convictions. For them, the e Hobby Lobby e Autocam Corp e Grote Industries e Annex Medical e Conestoga Wood Specialties F e b r u a r y 9 , 2 0 1 3 • W OR L D 37
control, but refuse to pay for “emergency contraception” like the “morning-after” and “week-after” pills. For both groups, the implications are huge: Will the government allow business owners the basic freedom to maintain Christian principles in the workplace? For the thousands of middle-class employees working for such companies, another question arises: Will the federal government crush their jobs by crushing their employers? Matt Bowman of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)—a group representing several plaintiffs—says the issue is likely headed to the Supreme Court, and the outcome could affect religious freedoms for all Christians who believe their faith extends to every area of life: “The question becomes: Is Jesus Christ the Lord of all human life or not? And the federal government is saying He isn’t allowed to be.” For the owners of Christian companies embroiled in one of the country’s most important religious liberty issues of the new century, faith isn’t an activity the government can sequester to Sundays. “You have to practice what you preach,” says Paul Griesedieck. “And you have to live your belief seven days a week.”
MANDATE SCORECARD
Matt York/ap
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In his ruling, Heaton said Hobby Lobby and its sister company Mardel—a Christian publishing house—are “not religious organizations.” The judge said the court had not found a case establishing that “secular, for-profit corporations such as Hobby Lobby and Mardel have a constitutional right to the free exercise of religion.” That argument may prove the central issue in each of the for-profit cases, and will likely culminate with the Supreme Court ruling on whether for-profit companies have the right to free exercise of religion. Considering the court’s decision in Citizens United that companies have a right to free speech, many attorneys say First Amendment rights to free exercise of religion should be implicit. For now, Hobby Lobby announced it has found a way to “shift the plan year” for its insurance coverage, shielding the company from fines for a few months. (The fines are effective
Charles Sharpe agrees.
green: “We simply cannot abandon our religious beliefs to comply with this mandate.”
38
On a cold morning in northeast Missouri, the president of Sharpe Holdings sits behind a small table in a simple office talking about his own lawsuit against the government mandate. The 85-year-old CEO has made millions in an insurance business he still owns, but he’s also spent millions to run a ministry he founded here in this rural area nearly three hours north of St. Louis. Sharpe founded Heartland Ministries in 1992 to provide a Christian rehabilitation program for men and women battling drug and alcohol addiction, and a boarding school for troubled youth. The programs revolve around discipleship, Bible studies, and work in the for-profit farm that Sharpe runs on 17,000 acres of land. More than 170 employees work in a series of for-profit enterprises, including the farm’s dairy and
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KAREN ELSHOUT/ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH/krt/newscom
when a company renews its insurance plan, though it’s unclear how and when the IRS would levy the fees.) Still, the threat remains for Green and the thousands of middle-class workers he employees in a struggling economy. Though the CEO is declining interviews while his case proceeds, in a USA Today opinion piece in September he wrote about his convictions: “… honoring God is more important than turning a profit.”
MAIKE SABOLICH/the journal record
Despite the threat that the IRS would levy massive fines (up to $1.3 million a day) for non-compliance, Green said the company wouldn’t offer the drugs: “We simply cannot abandon our religious beliefs to comply with this mandate.” Less than three months later, U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton denied Hobby Lobby’s request for a preliminary injunction, and the Supreme Court refused to provide an emergency stay as the case proceeds through the lower courts.
What will others do? While a handful of for-profit companies owned by evangelicals have filed suit against the HHS mandate, most haven’t. Some may already provide coverage of emergency contraceptives (including those that cause abortions) to their employees, and some may be waiting to see how cases like Hobby Lobby’s resolve. Truett Cathy and son Dan Cathy, the evangelical founders and leaders of Chick-fil-A, endured heavy flack for their support of biblical marriage last year, but they haven’t been as public about their views on emergency contraceptives or abortion. I asked Chick-fil-A’s spokesman whether the company provides contraceptives for its employees, and whether the Cathy family opposed the HHS mandate. The spokesman declined to comment. A Chick-fil-A employee said the health insurance policies differ from franchise to franchise. But it’s unclear whether Chick-fil-A’s corporate policy covers emergency contraceptives or drugs that cause abortions.
Another evangelical-led chicken company, Tyson’s Food, describes itself as “faith-friendly” and lists among its company goals “to honor God.” Tyson’s recently launched the Tyson Center for Faith and Spirituality in the Workplace at the University of Arkansas. Tyson’s Food spokesman Gary Mickelson said the company already covers contraceptives for its employees. He didn’t respond when asked whether that coverage was for all FDA-approved contraceptives, including abortifacients Plan B and Ella. A spokeswoman for Interstate Batteries, another evangelical-owned business, didn’t answer questions about the HHS mandate and the company’s contraceptive coverage. “Interstate Batteries is privately held and doesn’t take positions as a company on public issues,” wrote spokeswoman Carrie Clark. “We respect the rights and personal beliefs of our employees and customers.” ServiceMaster, another evangelical-led business, did not respond to a request for comment. And no one answered at the corporate press office for Forever 21, a clothing retail company that is Christian-owned. —Emily Belz
MAIKE SABOLICH/the journal record
KAREN ELSHOUT/ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH/krt/newscom
creamery that distributes milk and cheese to hundreds of companies around the region. Sharpe uses the profits from the farm (along with profits from his insurance company) to maintain the land and the ministry. In addition to salary and housing, benefits for full-time employees include a health insurance plan.
When Sharpe learned the HHS mandate required him to provide “emergency contraception,” the longtime evangelical balked. “We’re not going to do that,” he said. “We can’t do that.” Like some other employers, Sharpe was surprised to learn his insurance plan already covered some of the drugs. But he also learned he couldn’t drop the abortifacients without incurring steep fines that could cost him millions. Sharpe filed suit against HHS in December, and won a temporary restraining order against the mandate on Dec. 31—one day before his coverage was set to renew. (St. Louis attorney Timothy Belz represents Sharpe, and is the brother of WORLD founder Joel Belz.) Sharpe was encouraged by the win, but he knows a long battle lies ahead. If he loses, his options are limited. Though employers can drop insurance plans commatters pletely and pay a of the fine of $2,000 a heartland: Sharpe talks year per with students employee, at Heartland Sharpe and Christian other for-profit Academy.
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MANDATED DRUGS
The Affordable Care Act requires health insurance plans to provide women, without a copayment, any form of birth control approved by the Food and Drug Administration and prescribed by a doctor. FDA-approved contraceptives include barrier methods like female condoms and caps (though some don’t need prescriptions) in addition to hormonal methods. Pro-life proponents use the term “abortifacient” to refer to birth control methods that cause the death of a baby, only days old, by preventing the embryo from implanting in the wall of the uterus. They reserve the term “contraceptive” for methods that block sperm from fertilizing an egg. The distinction is important because many Protestants oppose abortion but not contraception. (The Roman Catholic Church officially opposes all forms of artificial birth control.) Neatly categorizing the birth control options into abortifacient and nonabortifacient camps is difficult, however. Pro-life doctors disagree about whether hormonal birth control merely prevents fertilization or also causes changes to the womb that make it inhospitable for a newly fertilized embryo. Current scientific research is too inconclusive to resolve the debate. Most hormonal birth control methods release progestin, or a combination of progestin and estrogen. These hormones can prevent the ovaries from releasing an egg, and thicken cervical mucus to inhibit sperm, but they may alter the lining of the uterus as well. “The pill,” skin patches, birth control shots, implant rods, and hormonal contraceptive rings all work this way.
business owners say they want to provide insurance for their workers. If Sharpe keeps the insurance, but tries to drop the emergency contraception, he’d incur potential fines in the millions. “That would shut the place down,” he says. “And that would be a catastrophe for the people we help.” Judi Schaefer is one of those people. The -year-old mother of two moved to the area after her husband entered the rehab program nearly six years ago. Sadly, her husband left his family a little over a year ago. These days, Schaefer relies on her job at the farm’s lodge and steakhouse to support her -year-old son and -yearold daughter. Losing her livelihood would be “devastating,” she says, and losing her health insurance would be a huge burden. But Schaefer also believes in Sharpe’s cause, and she joined the lawsuit as a plaintiff, saying the HHS mandate violated her religious beliefs too. Schaefer believes “emergency contraception” may cause abortions, even at the earliest stages of pregnancy. “Someone has to stand up and say there is something wrong with being a little bit involved,” she says. “The Bible says it’s the little foxes that spoil the vines.” Sharpe hopes the foxes won’t spoil the vine of his business and ministry. And he’s baffled by the government’s argument that Christian business owners don’t have religious freedom protection in how they operate their companies. “A lot of people say you go to church on Sunday, and on Monday it’s business as usual,” he says. “But our business as usual on Monday is exactly the same as it is on Sunday.”
BEDSIDER/AP
“Emergency contraceptive” pills (sometimes called morning-after pills), taken within a few days after sex, are also hormonal methods: Plan B One-Step contains a large dose of progestin, the same ingredient as traditional birth control pills, and works the same way. But the FDA label warns that the drug “may inhibit implantation”—although some scientists protest that there’s insufficient evidence it does so. Citing the FDA warning, the pro-life movement has consistently treated Plan B and Ella (another emergency contraceptive drug with a similar effect) as abortifacients. The healthcare law also covers intrauterine devices (IUDs) and female sterilization procedures. T-shaped IUDs, lodged in the womb, prevent sperm from reaching an egg but can also act as abortifacients by blocking implantation. Sterilization, which permanently blocks the fallopian tubes, ensures sperm and egg never meet. —Daniel James Devine
brothers make the same case. Though they don’t print Bible verses on their website or publicize their personal giving to Christian causes, they say they’re committed Christians who run their business according to biblical principles. “As evangelical Christians we believe that God is the author of life, and we shouldn’t be taking life,” Chris says of the abortifacient mandate. “That’s what we honestly believe.” They learned those principles growing up in Covenant Presbyterian Church—a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). Paul still attends Covenant. Chris attends Kirk of the Hills, another PCA congregation in town. They learned the family business by spending summers working in the warehouse, purchasing department, and administrative offices to learn all aspects of the company. And they say they want to continue operating the company according to Christian principles. That means treating customers fairly and employees generously. They say dropping insurance coverage and paying a fine isn’t a desirable option for a family that believes benefits are an important part of a fair compensation package. They also point out dropping insurance would make it hard to compete for workers with businesses that do offer benefits. And the group Alliance Defending Freedom emphasizes that dropping insurance isn’t a quick fix—the law allows the government to sue employers in some cases. Like most other companies, the Griesediecks say dropping emergency contraception from their plan and facing overwhelming
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SID HASTINGS/GENESIS
B S. L, the unassuming Griesedieck
“... WE BELIEVE THAT GOD IS THE AUTHOR OF LIFE, AND WE SHOULDN’T BE TAKING LIFE”
BEDSIDER/AP
SID HASTINGS/GENESIS
—Chris Griesedieck
fines of per employee per day also isn’t a financially viable option for the company. For now, they have a reprieve. A federal judge in Springfield, Mo., awarded the Griesediecks’ four companies a preliminary injunction in December that shields them from fines as their case proceeds. Like judges in other cases, Judge Richard Dorr questioned the notion that an individual running a business entity doesn’t have religious protection: “Does an individual’s choice to run his business as one of these entities strip that individual of his right to exercise his religious belief?” Dorr also found “a substantial likelihood” that the Griesediecks will be able to prove the mandate “substantially burdens Plaintiffs’ exercise of free religion.” Frank Manion—the brothers’ attorney who is also representing a handful of other plaintiffs—is encouraged by the ruling, and by nine out of judges offering temporary injunctions so far. He says anyone concerned about religious liberty should follow the cases closely: “What’s at stake is the first liberty protected by the Bill of Rights. … And if we don’t protect that, just think of what it means for the rest of the Constitution.” A
Email: jdean@worldmag.com
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WORLD’S VIEWS
Our report on what Christian companies are doing about the HHS mandate that requires employers to provide emergency contraceptives for employees naturally raises questions about what our own company is doing. Though WORLD is part of a non-profit organization dedicated to producing Christian content, the company doesn’t fit the narrow exemption currently published by HHS. We’re eager to see what the agency’s new exemption language will include. For now, the timing of WORLD’s insurance plan renewal allowed the company to avoid offering abortifacient coverage for employees. (WORLD worked to change plans after discovering our former coverage included such drugs.) But unless HHS broadens its exemptions—or the courts decide otherwise—WORLD will likely face the coverage dilemma in the coming year. WORLD CEO Kevin Martin says he hopes for new provisions that will give the company relief, but “I ultimately worry whether there will be any way to provide insurance that doesn’t require payment for abortifacient drugs.” Dropping insurance would be a substantial burden on employees, and would cost the company and its workers thousands of dollars a year, he says: “We’re waiting to see, and we’re hoping and praying that something changes.” —J.D.
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Sold Armed by three decades of combat duty, retired Lt. Gen. WILLIAM BOYKIN takes on Washington’s culture battles by edwa rd lee pitts in Washington, D.C. p h o t o b y E d A n d r i e s k i /A P
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I
n his 36-year military career, William Boykin captured a Panamanian dictator, chased a Colombian drug lord, tracked Bosnian war criminals, and hunted El Salvadorian kidnappers. He also attempted to rescue American hostages in Iran and helped free trapped U.S. citizens in Grenada and Sudan. That’s a military resumé perhaps worthy of a movie trilogy. But the twotime Purple Heart recipient and retired Army lieutenant general may be tackling his toughest challenge yet: Washington bureaucracy. Last year, Boykin, 64, became the new executive vice president of the Family Research Council (FRC), the D.C.-based group that has been promoting a Christian worldview in the public policy arena since 1983. It’s a task made more warlike as the nation’s capital becomes enemy territory for social conservatives. Boykin handles day-to-day operations as the organization’s second-in-command, interacting with lawmakers, managing interviews
World War II. His father earned a Purple Heart in the Allied invasion of France on D-Day. Piloting a landing craft toward a Normandy shore heavily defended by the Nazis on June 6, 1944, Boykin’s father lost sight in his left eye after a shell blast knocked him unconscious. When Boykin attended Virginia Tech in 1966 on a football scholarship, he also joined the school’s Corps of Cadets. Boykin’s mother also influenced him. A devout evangelical, she took him to church every Sunday. According to his autobiography, Never Surrender, the young Boykin was unsure about religion, but God put people of faith in his life, including two football coaches who combined discipline with charity. Stationed at Fort Benning, Ga., the new soldier Boykin struggled with a deep discontentment, opened a Bible he had packed, and remembered the examples that led him to begin a deeper personal relationship with God at about the same time he began his military journey. Through the next three decades, Boykin says he often would be tempted to rely on himself—in leading some of the most harrowing U.S. military missions. But each time he would be brought to greater dependence on God. After stints in Korea and Vietnam as an Army Ranger, the military in 1978 invited him to try out for a new secret unit. The final phase of training included a solitary 40-mile march to a series of checkpoints spread along the frigid mountains of North Carolina. Boykin finished it in 11 hours and 27 minutes— and out of 118 soldiers who started the course, he became one of the first 19 members of Delta Force. “Every job I have ever had has required more than I could provide,” he said. “The difference was made up by God.” His unit embarked on a 1980 mission to rescue 52 Americans held at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, a mission aborted in the Iranian desert: Eight of its members died when an evacuating military helicopter collided with a C-130 transport aircraft. The death toll could have been higher. Boykin witnessed the explosion and prayed as men escaped the burning wreckage. Three years later, Boykin again prayed for his team as they prepared to invade Grenada to prevent the spread of communism to an island within striking distance of the United States and to rescue Americans trapped there after a military coup. As they approached their target, rounds from .50 caliber machine guns tore through the floor of the Black Hawk helicopter carrying Boykin and his men. Shrapnel and bullet fragments ripped into his arm, shoulder, and chest, destroying his left biceps and shredding the bone in his arm. Boykin recovered. A decade later, he received a second
oldiering on with the press, and serving as a public face. Going into an environment where his group is considered an outcast is not a new task for Boykin, an original member who became commander of the Army’s elite counterterrorism group Delta Force. It also isn’t Boykin’s first time patrolling Washington politics. As a deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence under then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Boykin endured a year under the political microscope. Memories of what turned into an ordeal a decade ago led Boykin to turn down the job offer from FRC President Tony Perkins initially. But God had other plans. Boykin grew up harvesting tobacco on his grandparents’ North Carolina farm. But he dreamed of wearing a military uniform like the ones worn by his dad and four uncles during
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wound in in Somalia during the Battle of Mogadishu. By then commander of Delta Force, Boykin oversaw the manhunt to capture brutal warlord Mohamed Farrah Aidid in the incident recounted in the book and movie Black Hawk Down. “We walked into a city of million people and had to find one man,” Boykin said. During an airborne raid to snatch one of Aidid’s lieutenants, Boykin watched on video monitors at the command center as a Black Hawk took a hit from an RPG and slammed nose first into an alley. The snatch-and-grab operation had become a rescue mission. The Somalis soon shot down another Black
Even as White House officials distanced themselves from Boykin, colleagues in the Pentagon would approach him in the halls to say they were praying for him. An investigation by the Defense Department’s inspector general exonerated Boykin of all but a minor violation. He never charged the military for trips to speak at churches, he did not accept speaking fees for such events, and churches and other civic groups covered all non-military travel. Officials did cite him for not listing on a disclosure form as a gift paid travel for one speaking event in Toronto. The bad press remained, but the incident actually confirmed Boykin’s right to free speech and his freedom to practice religion even in a military uniform. Today Boykin admits he should have been more clear that his views didn’t represent the official views of the Defense Department. Retiring from the Army in June , the New Bern, N.C., native vowed to reembrace rural life and never to return to Washington. When Perkins first offered Boykin the chance to join the FRC, Boykin refused, saying he felt emotionally unprepared for a return to the city. For a year and a half Perkins kept asking and Boykin kept saying no. But family and friends unanimously told him he should reconsider.“I’ve learned not to tell God you wouldn’t do something because before long that is the very thing He will have you do,” said Boykin. “Staying in the battle is the right thing to do.” Now, Boykin says he believes the controversy over his talks to churches is being used to prepare him to be able to fight the country’s culture battles: “The movement needs some grizzled old people not easily frightened by what the opposition does. Once you’ve been kicked around a bit it doesn’t hurt so much.” Boykin hopes to apply the strategies he learned in the Special Forces, starting with having an appreciation and understanding of the opposition: “I give a great deal of credit to liberal progressive organizations in this country for message unity.” Too many social conservatives, he said, have become apathetic, expecting that someone else will defend their beliefs. “Not enough of us are out there fighting,” said Boykin, who attributed that to the stream of media ridicule often faced by outspoken social conservatives. Boykin, who on a recent mid-January day was preparing to visit House Speaker John Boehner’s office on Capitol Hill, described the country he’s fought for as “almost rudderless,” where a whole generation has failed to learn about the nation’s religious roots. He plans to focus this year on the nation’s debt, its growing addiction to entitlements, the integrity of the family, and the sanctity of life. “When you remove God from society,” he said, “that void is filled with something else, and in most cases that something else is evil.” A
“Every job I have ever had has required more than I could provide. The difference was made up by God.” — B
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BRUCE MONTGOMERY
Hawk. A grueling firefight in the city’s crowded streets stretched through the night and left Americans killed and more than wounded. Boykin suffered shrapnel wounds in a mortar attack on the U.S. compound—one of wounded there. The mortar round killed one U.S. serviceman standing near Boykin before the attack. “These men were all in,” Boykin said. “The commitment they had made to each other was something people have no concept of. They were willing to die to bring a buddy home.” Appointed deputy undersecretary of defense in , Boykin moved to a desk in the Pentagon. But he soon found himself in the middle of a battle of a different kind: a political fight where words replaced mortars as the weapon of choice. In the aftermath of the / attacks, Boykin had begun speaking at churches and other civic groups. He asked people to pray for the country. He called the war on terror a spiritual battle over worldviews and said the true enemy is Satan. When journalists discovered clips of Boykin’s speeches, delivered in his uniform, critical stories poured in. Boykin spoke about a spiritual battle, applying the same imagery that the Apostle Paul used when he urged New Testament readers to put on the “armor of God.” Journalists called him a religious fanatic and an intolerant extremist who was seeking a Christian jihad. They questioned whether he should hold a senior position in the Pentagon. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., now on deck to become the next secretary of state, called Boykin’s actions “un-American.” Radical Islamic organizations started calling for his assassination, posting maps to his home and listing the names of his family members. After three decades in the military, Boykin faced attacks he knew could not be fought using the physical tactics he had learned as a Special Forces soldier: “I knew I had to rely on God. … I had to leave the battle to Him.”
Email: lpitts@worldmag.com
1/22/13 9:51 AM
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DRY C O U Crops and cattle hang in the balance as drought in the Great Plains extends into winter
N
by DANIEL JAME S DEVINE
K Rodney Bracelin doesn’t mind the inches of snow that have painted his fields white and buried his crops. Actually, he’d like more of it. Bracelin’s soil is parched, and his winter wheat sprouts—planted last fall and barely inches high—will need all the water they can get to awaken from dormancy next spring. This light, dry snow is equivalent to just one-fifth of an inch of rain. “I told my wife this is what the ski slopes would call champagne powder,” he says with a chuckle. “A little insulation for the wheat.” Bracelin, , is one of thousands of farmers and ranchers waiting for snow—or rain-laden clouds—to roll across the Great Plains. Last summer brought the nation’s worst drought in years, and the dry spell has extended into winter. On Jan. , the Department of Agriculture declared counties disaster areas because of the ongoing drought and heat. Over half the counties were in Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Texas—Plains states in which a third of the nation’s wheat is grown. Precipitation is badly needed during the next few months to water the nation’s crop of winter wheat and revive cattle pastureland that wilted last year. Ranchers, financially squeezed by poor pasture and highly priced feed, are sending so many animals to market the total number of U.S. cattle has reached a -year low. For consumers, the smaller herds bode ill for the price of beef. Bracelin, of St. Francis, Kan., lives in one of the disaster-branded counties. Last year he collected between , and , in crop insurance for drought losses to his corn. This year he has , acres of winter wheat in the ground and wonders whether it will grow in May. He doesn’t “A REGULAR DISASTER”: have irrigation systems for the wheat, so A cow walks on a dried-up he’s at the mercy of the weather. pond in a drought-ravaged Currently a third of Kansas’ winter pasture near Eads, Colo. wheat crop is rated poor or very poor: JOHN MOORE/GETTY IMAGES
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OUNTIES
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Old black water, keep on rollin’
Engineers are keeping barge traffic going on the Mississippi River—for now by DAVE BELL
BARGE: JEFF ROBERSON/AP • CROP: NATI HARNIK/AP
Though the blazing heat and parched conditions of last summer’s drought are a distant memory for many Midwesterners, they are the reason Mike Petersen keeps a wary eye on the Mississippi River. These days Petersen, the public affairs chief for the St. Louis district of the Army Corps of Engineers, is more concerned about water levels than temperatures. He and other corps members have spent the past several months dealing with the not-so-mighty Mississippi. Because of the drought, which continues in the upper regions of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, water levels by mid-January were as much as feet below normal between St. Louis and the southern tip of Illinois (where the Ohio River flows into the Mississippi). The water was so low the corps was dredging the channel and blasting underwater rock formations that threatened to close the river to barges. “We need to maintain a channel that is feet wide and feet deep in order to allow barge traffic to move through without any problems,” Petersen said. As the river channel hovered near the minimum -foot depth, barge operators were forced to lighten their loads to keep the vessels from running aground. The Mississippi is vital for moving raw materials and grain from the Upper Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico. Barges on the river carry more than half of the nation’s grain, more than a quarter of its oil and gas, and about percent of its coal. The Illinois Corn Growers Association has estimated that if the river closed for days, more than , barges would be halted. To replace the carrying capacity of those barges would require , rail cars or , semitrailers. Dredging helped keep Mississippi barges moving in January, but what’s missing is enough rain and snow to raise the level of rivers and lakes. “We’ve done about all that we can do,” Petersen said. “Now we need nature to meet us halfway.”
“If we don’t get some moisture this spring, you’re looking at a regular disaster.” In nearby Atwood, -year-old Craig Bearley raises cattle on , acres of pasture. Because vegetation growth was so poor last year, he had to spread his cows and calves over larger proportions of grazing land than usual. Two of his three pastures rely solely on spring-fed water for the cows, and last summer one went dry—a problem that has plagued many ranchers. Without a significant rain, Bearley said the pasture could dry up again this year. To feed his herd this winter, Bearley is relying on baled hay, sorghum, and other fodder that spiked in price after last summer’s drought. He’s looking for creative feed sources to keep his costs down: He recently paid for rights to allow his cattle to graze on leftover crops that wilted under last summer’s drought and were covered by insurance. He also hopes to buy some “distillers grain”—corn kernel byproducts from local ethanol plants. Bearley said his stock is lower than ever, down to cows from about a few years ago. With feed prices high, ranchers across the nation have reduced cattle inventory to million animals, the lowest amount since . Those who rely on income made by renting out pasture may feel the brunt of such cutbacks. “If you have nothing but rangeland, what’s it worth with no cattle on it?” asked Bearley. “We expect to see almost a percent decrease in beef production this year, and another percent next year,” said Derrell Peel, a livestock specialist at Oklahoma State University’s agricultural economics department. That means the price of beef will increase at the supermarket, slowly at first, but maintaining an upward trend during the coming months. Peel expects the price of beef to rise as much as percent this year, with another percent or more increase in . The high prices will help ranchers cover their losses from expensive feed. Meanwhile, consumers will pay: Although overall food prices didn’t increase more than usual last year, ground beef increased almost percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In November, the average retail price of a pound of beef reached BADLY NEEDED: a record high of .. That pound Withered cornstalks may cost . next winter—even if it stand in a snowy field does rain, or snow, before then. A near La Vista, Neb.
—Dave Bell is publisher of The Leader-Union, a weekly newspaper in Vandalia, Ill.
WORLD • FEBRUARY 9, 2013
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Herr
professor Religious freedom advocates, often ignored, find a friend in UN representative Heiner Bielefeldt by emily belz in New York
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That amounts to about a dozen people doing full-time advocacy on an issue that affects billions of people around the world. “All of us are so stretched thin,” said Buwalda. Buwalda also said Bielefeldt “does not care which governments he offends”—a striking trait for a UN official. In his reports, Bielefeldt does not name offending countries, but the insinuations are clear, something Buwalda thinks is brilliant: “If [the countries] go after him, they’ve revealed that he’s talking about them.” “It doesn’t really require much courage to say what I say,” Bielefeldt said, adding that speech is free in Germany. His predecessor in the position was a Pakistani, who lived under laws restricting speech. “I don’t know if I’m really courageous. I’ve never been tested.”
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erman philosophy professor Heiner Bielefeldt has a beard, rosy cheeks, and the lively lecturing manner of good teacher. He enjoys discussions about Immanuel Kant or Georg Hegel. He’s not the kind of man you imagine as a United Nations official, and originally he never imagined himself as one. But after officials passed over the main candidate in 2010, Bielefeldt found himself the new UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief. Bielefeldt, a Catholic, is a professor of human rights at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and was the founding director of the German Institute for Human Rights, created by the German Bundestag. In the two years since his election to the UN, the unlikely point man has won the admiration of the religious freedom advocacy community, which often feels forgotten at the international body. “He’s doing an outstanding job,” said Ann Buwalda, director of the Jubilee Campaign. Last fall Bielefeldt blew into New York from Geneva, where the UN Human Rights Council is based, to deliver his latest report to the UN General Assembly. While in town, he had lunch with religious freedom advocates, who greeted him warmly. Among UN diplomats and international organizations, religious freedom receives paltry attention. Bielefeldt, whose position is unpaid, has “one and a half” staffers in Geneva, he said, and when he is in New York someone from the UN counterterrorism office is assigned to work with him. Meanwhile, outside groups advocating for religious freedom are scant too, especially compared to other interest groups at the UN like the gay-rights lobby. Open Doors USA recently shut down its advocacy operation at the UN in New York, though it still has staff in Europe. The Jubilee Campaign, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, the Alliance Defending Freedom, the American Center for Law and Justice, the World Evangelical Alliance, the Humanist and Ethical Union, and the Bahais have staff tasked to lobby the UN on the issue.
PAULO FILGUEIRAS/UN
Officials chose Bielefeldt over Malaysian candidate Ambiga Sreenevasan, whom Islamic countries objected to. Bielefeldt hasn’t been afraid to confront Islamic countries. In the past he has criticized the Organization of the Islamic Conference’s (OIC) Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam, which he said is “problematic” because “it puts all human rights under the proviso that they should comply with Islamic Sharia.” Such ideas “undermine the very validity of universal rights,” he said in . In other interviews, he has said when Sharia conflicts with human rights, “human rights must prevail.” (Representatives from the OIC were invited to the lunch with him in New York, but said they had other engagements.) Now Bielefeldt is focusing his energies on two issues that
Email: ebelz@worldmag.com
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are problems mainly in Islamic countries. One issue is “defamation of religion” laws and resolutions, the “blasphemy” measures that some Islamic countries have in place at home and have tried to set in place at the UN. The second is persecution based on conversion, also common in Islamic countries. Bielefeldt’s latest report to the UN General Assembly centers on protections for converts and those who are doing missionary activities, which he said are “inextricable dimensions of freedom of religion or belief.” His report also states that no one may interfere with parents who teach their children about their beliefs. “The very nature of freedom of religion or belief is at stake,” he told me, in terms of the freedom to convert and proselytize. “What would remain is a fuzzy tolerance language.” In the real world beyond UN reports, Bielefeldt has spoken repeatedly on behalf of Iranian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, who was imprisoned for three years and sentenced to death on charges of converting to Christianity and proselytizing. Iran released Nadarkhani following international pressure, and then recently re-imprisoned and released him again. “Iran possesses the basic legal framework to guarantee Christians, as a group, the right to freedom of religion, and should ensure that this right is granted in practice as well,” Bielefeldt said in September. He called on the Iranian government to “ease the current climate of fear in which many churches operate, especially Protestant evangelical houses of worship.” Bielefeldt spoke out about the assassinations of Pakistani officials Shahbaz Bhatti and Salman Taseer, who died for their opposition to Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. He and other religious freedom advocates worked behind the scenes to kill off the defamation resolutions that could be used against religious converts and others, resolutions that had passed in UN bodies for a decade. Then last fall, fears rose that defamation resolutions would return after publicity from a U.S.-made YouTube video criticizing the prophet Muhammad sparked protests in Muslim countries around the world. Various UN officials called for resolutions that would block such insults to Islam. In the midst of the controversy, Bielefeldt refused to say the video should have been blocked. “The threshold for restricting speech is very high,” he said. The best way to address such a video, he said, was to allow more speech, not less. “The debates on defamation—now it’s over, and I very much hope we don’t get back to it,” he told me. “It’s all wrong, but wrong ideas can be powerful.” But after all, what can one official really accomplish in a body as dysfunctional as the UN? Bielefeldt has a humble view of what the UN as a body can accomplish, and he sees his own role as little different from what he does back in Germany: He’s a philosophy professor. He helps people understand ideas. He fights wrong ideas. Countries are regularly trying to narrow the definition of religious freedom to a private right without protections for public practice, or to a protection for a religion, like Islam. He wants to keep the right expansive. The UN can only “clarify norms,” he said. Real changes must come “from the ground.” A
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any of us are used to thinking there’s a right way and a wrong way in politics and that we should take advantage of every opportunity to make our points—but what do we do when people are fighting for the same thing but have decidedly different strategies growing out of different worldviews? A rift over how to help oppressed North Koreans displays the differences. On one side are Peter Sohn and Sam Kim, who head the Korean Church Coalition for North Korea Freedom
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(KCC), “a prayer movement being guided by the Holy Spirit.” The KCC has sponsored many prayer vigils and some protests, but as a representative of 2,500 Korean-American churches it is uncomfortable with political pressure tactics. Kim says the KCC’s role is to spread awareness and mobilize fellow Christians to speak up about the North Korean issue: “KCC is absolutely about doing it in a peaceful, prayerful, and non-confrontational manner by showing the numbers. … We just open our hearts, we allow the Lord to lead us, and He leads us and shows us the direction He has for us.”
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Horowitz: Greg Kahn/Genesis Photos kcc vigil: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
A worldview split leads to sharp differences on how to fight oppression in North Korea by Sophia Lee
Horowitz: Greg Kahn/Genesis Photos kcc vigil: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
d politics At one recent KCC-organized event, for example, about 100 students rallied near the Capitol in Washington, D.C., met with members of Congress, and held a prayer vigil in front of the Chinese Embassy. “That D.C. event played a crucial, crucial part in getting the word out and getting the members of Congress to stand with us,” Kim said. “Everybody, except Horowitz.” Horowitz—one of Washington’s legendary human-rights advocates, Michael J. Horowitz—is known as “the Jew who saves Christians.” He is one of the loudest human-rights advocates for Christians in Washington, so much so that he was mistakenly proclaimed one of the “Top 10 Most Influential Christians of the Year” in 1997 by a Southern Baptist magazine. Horowitz still recalls what his grandfather, who came to the United States a century ago from Eastern Europe, told him: “Michael, never ever forget. America is the blessed land.
And you have the responsibility to help others have the blessings we have in America.” When it comes to human rights, things are black and white for Horowitz. He sees America as a superpower nation responsible to press for human equality and democracy and to discipline delinquent nations. He believes it’s the responsibility of American religious leaders to push their congregants to pressure U.S. politicians to pressure dictators. People who work alongside Horowitz often witness him pounding fists and raising octaves to push a strategy he is convinced is right. It’s often hard to get a word in during a conversation with Horowitz, because he just raises his voice. Recently, he raised his voice when I asked him about the KCC: “Their pracsame side, tice of Christianity is all talk. What are differing tactics: they praying for is the question? Are Horowitz (left); they praying for God to do their work? KCC members pray Are they praying for courage to do the outside the White work God has placed upon them?” House (right).
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Their practice of Christianity is all talk. What are they praying for is the question? Are they praying for God to do their work? Are they praying for courage to do the work God has placed upon them? —Horowitz
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Horowitz: Greg Kahn/Genesis Photos • kcc vigil: KAREN BLEIER/AFP/GettyImages
Last August, during the heat of the presidential campaign, when both the Obama and the Romney camps saw Virginia as a crucial swing state, Horowitz sent Sohn and Kim a draft letter addressed to both presidential candidates. It asked the candidates to pledge support for North Korean freedom in exchange for thousands of Korean-American votes in Virginia. Horowitz wanted the KCC to get Virginia’s many KoreanAmerican church pastors to sign the letter. His accompanying email hopped with exclamation marks, calling this opportunity “Exciting! Amazing! Historic!” But Kim did not respond in kind, and wrote that Sohn was traveling to Thailand to talk with 300 Southeast Asia missionaries about North Korea. Over the next several weeks, the Horowitz plan died. In November, after the Obama victory, Horowitz screamed to me about Sohn: “In Thailand! It’s unbelievable to me! It’s sinful! I don’t know what good it’s likely to do to talk to pastors in Thailand!” And then he paused, and continued, “It allows Pastor Sohn to feel good.”
Horowitz sent me reams of complaining emails and blistered my ear in a lengthy interview, but Sohn and Kim were more reticent. At one point Kim declined an interview, emailing that he expected to continue working with Horowitz in the future as a friend, but didn’t think it appropriate to talk about his relationship with him. Earlier, in a phone conversation Kim and I had before the incident, he called Horowitz a “sweetheart” with “one of the greatest hearts. … He has a lot of great ideas that I really respect, but also at the same time, are they really right for a church organization to do? His idea is a little bit like, ‘This is what I feel, this is my way and this is what needs to be done.’ He has his own agenda.” For all the strife, Horowitz said as a Jew, “When I’m with the Koreans, I feel at home.” Both communities endured defeat and tragedy, he said, yet found strength and courage to bounce back stronger and dedicated. But an emphasis on prayer is not good enough or fast enough. For every prayer vigil held, Horowitz sees minutes ticking while North Koreans waste away: “These kids would take a trip to D.C., the church community will look good, nobody would listen to them, and nothing ever happened!” he yelled, the last word scraping hoarse. As a veteran of the Soviet Jewry movement and the fight getting the word out: Kim (wearing a against South African apartheid suit) at a KCC vigil. who also helped pass the Prison Rape Elimination Act, the Sudan Peace Act, and the North Korea Human Rights Act, Horowitz believes his strategies are tried and true. Horowitz also remembers the heavy price of passivity. He remembers asking his father, who was a leader at a synagogue, what he did when the Jews in Europe were being persecuted during World War II. His father’s answer didn’t satisfy him. Today he says, “When North Korea finally becomes free, will your generation be able to look at the next generation in the eye and say, ‘Yes, I did all that I could’? If your answer is no, you have to be very careful. I say to every young Korean: Will your children respect you?” But was it really his expert policy strategies that crumbled the Soviet Union and South African apartheid? Horowitz might say yes, but a lot of Christians were praying too. A
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The silent tr For over four months, authorities jailed and beat Iranian-American Saeed Abedini in Tehran with no trial or U.S. intervention by Angela lu
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While the wheels of justice—or injustice—turn in Iran, Abedini’s wife Naghmeh is across the globe in Idaho, taking care of their two young children and working with the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) to bring her husband home. The U.S. Department of State has yet to take any action to release the U.S. citizen, and only asked that Iranian officials give him a fair trial in January, three months after U.S. officials first learned of the case. But nothing about the case has been fair: Officials raided the Abedini family house in Iran, took Abedini, and did not let him see his lawyer or know his formal charges until a
handout/ American Center for Law and Justice
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or the past four months, 32-year-old Iranian-American pastor Saeed Abedini has languished in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison on national security charges for leading the underground house-church movement. On Jan. 21, he appeared before a revolutionary court judge to face allegations that he swayed the minds of Iranian youth by turning them away from Islam to Christianity. At the time this story went to press, his verdict had not been released.
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t treatment
handout/ American Center for Law and Justice
week before the trial. He faced Judge Abbas Pirabbasi, who is known internationally as the “hanging judge” for all the political prisoners he has sent to the gallows. Interrogators may believe they have made a big catch with Abedini. He grew up a devout Muslim and trained to become a suicide bomber. At the age of 20, he was on his way to murder a pastor when two Christians shared the gospel with him and prayed for him, according to a testimony Abedini wrote in Idaho’s Intermountain Christian News. He decided not to carry out the assassination, and over the next few weeks accepted Christ as his Savior. He then started evangelizing to Muslims, helping to form an underground house-church movement in Iran. While Iran recognizes Christianity as an official religion, the Islamic republic does not allow former Muslims to attend churches. “Historic” churches are allowed to remain open for the most part, but converts from Islam face the death penalty. And the law prohibits Protestant pastors from preaching in Farsi, the leading language. When Naghmeh first met Abedini in Iran in 2002, he was the leader of about 150 college-aged Iranian Christians in Tehran. She said that by 2005, the number had grown to about 2,000 people with house churches in 30 cities. Authorities arrested and imprisoned Abedini many times, but always set him free. Abedini and Naghmeh married in 2004 and the two moved to the United States a year later due to increased persecution. Abedini became a U.S. citizen in 2010. On a trip back to Iran in 2009, government officials detained Abedini and forced him to sign an agreement saying he could enter and exit the country freely as long as he stopped working with the house churches. Abedini continued traveling to Iran to build a nonsectarian orphanage and to visit his family there. In July, on Abedini’s ninth trip back to Iran, officials stopped him as he re-entered the country on a bus at the Iran-Turkey border and detained him for interrogation. They took his passport and a day later released him to his parents’ home, where they told him to wait until he received a call about his trial date. At the time Naghmeh assumed he would just spend a few days in court. But two months later officials raided his family’s house at 5 a.m., confiscating religious material, the deed to the house, financial documents, and Abedini. For the next four days, no one knew his whereabouts. Abedini’s parents worried that they would be taken as well and asked Naghmeh to call them every day. “It was one of the worst weeks of my life,” Naghmeh recalled. “My kids were used to seeing him on the computer through Skype, and I had to hold in my emotions when they asked, ‘Where is daddy? Why can’t I see him?’” After four days, Naghmeh called the family’s landline–which she knew was tapped–and threatened to talk to the media
unless the government told her Abedini’s whereabouts. Within an hour, the government revealed that Abedini was in solitary confinement in Evin prison. At the time, Tiffany Barrans, ACLJ’s international legal director, contacted the State Department for help. But officials there came up with “many excuses,” she said, about why they couldn’t help: The United States doesn’t have diplomatic relations with Iran. Iran doesn’t recognize Abedini’s dual citizenship. Americans in another country need to follow that country’s laws. “In this instance he didn’t break any law, he was just exercising his religious liberty,” Barrans said. Barrans knew that the United States could pressure Iran without formal relations as they had done with imprisoned American hikers a few years ago. But nothing happened. Less than a week before the trial, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom labeled the charges against Abedini “bogus” and asserted they were used “to suppress religious belief and activity of which the Iranian government does not approve.” Through brief phone calls with Abedini, Naghmeh learned that he had been beaten by interrogators and cellmates who say they are members of al-Qaeda. Guards promised to let him see his family through Skype on Christmas, “but it was a game to play on his emotions,” Naghmeh said. “They took away the hope and then threaten him with death.” Iranian officials offered bail twice, first for 150 million Iranian rial (about $12,000), then for 500 million (about $41,000). Both times the family prepared bail documents, but the government refused to accept them. A week before the trial, officials finally let Abedini meet with his attorney and told him the charges. During the trial, the court presented photos, videos, and documents of Abedini’s work in the house-church movement since his conversion in 2000. His lawyer, a Muslim who believes in the human-rights merits of the case, argued that Abedini’s activities were motivated by his faith rather than a political agenda. Naghmeh told me she is shocked that her husband is facing serious charges now, rather than when he was actively leading the church movement. She said it represents an increasing hostility toward Christians in Iran. In the past two years, Iranian officials have arrested at least 300 Christians. “Right now it’s a very uncertain time not knowing what the future holds with the trial,” Naghmeh said. “It’s been very hard waiting, but it’s been a good time of trusting God through this.” Repeated news reports in January said Abedini was being released by Iranian authorities. Naghmeh remained skeptical: “This is all a lie by the Iranian media. This has been a repeated promise by the Iranian regime since Saeed was first thrown in prison on Sept. 26, 2012.” A
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Notebook
Lifestyle > Technology > Science > Houses of God > Sports > Money > Religion
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TOMMY DAVIS moved from burning mattresses to setting souls ablaze BY CHELSEA KOLZ
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“I ,” says Tommy Davis about his years in the prisons he now visits as a Christian minister. “I was so violent I had to be incarcerated hours a day in my cell. I felt my purpose was to persecute non-Muslims in hopes they would turn to Allah.” In Davis, then , received a -year sentence for assault in Rochester, N.Y. He embraced Islam but met Frank Farrow, a chaplain who for nine months talked with him about Jesus, the Trinity, and salvation through grace. Davis remembers that he prayed one night, “‘Lord’—I don’t know why I said Lord, I didn’t say Allah—‘if Christianity is real, you need to answer these questions.’ And I went to church that morning, and the chaplain preached a message on
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Notebook > Lifestyle sinister.” Davis salvation—how the cross is wears a blue argyle foolishness to those who vest. His shoes are perishing. He shine. answered every question The three move I had in that one sermon.” as a unit through David professed faith the facility. Many in Christ in , studied Burress, Davis, Morse staff members stop for three years, and began to trade shouldertaking on some chaplain slaps with them and duties. Farrow, now , says, exchange greetings. A passing “When Tommy started talking—he hit officer says, “Surgery coming up, say a home. Some of the fellas there almost prayer for me?” “Sure will, brother.” started ducking when he got up to They take the elevator to the housing preach. He found his calling.” Paroled part of the prison. There they walk the in after nearly years in prison, floors and talk and talk. Sometimes Davis gained a full-time job in meat prisoners ask them for greeting cards packing, married a prison guard, had to give to family. three children, and earned a bachelor’s The rule is that the three cannot degree in theology and then a master’s start “proselytizing” conversations but in ministry from Tennessee Temple. they can respond to prisoner interest. Now Davis, along with fellow Good One man looks down from his cell, News Jail and Prison Ministry chaplains calling for Davis’ attention: He motions Paul Burress and Ron Morse, spends that he’ll come back later to talk. about six hours daily in the jail. They Prisoners volunteer to join in Bible make an odd trio. Burress, senior pastor studies that meet in a small classroom. at Rochester’s Victory Church, wears a The chaplains say they feel grateful T-shirt marked “American Fighter” they get to minister in a government that just covers his tattoos. Morse, who building. was a volunteer in the jail during Davis’ About , inmates reside in the time as a prisoner, wears a gray suit three area jails where Davis, Burress, and calls himself “the minister to the
and Morse minister. According to statistics gathered by Good News volunteers, area prisoners made professions of faith in Christ in . Such a statistic should be taken skeptically—words come easily in prison— but there’s truth in what Burress says about such high numbers: “On the outside we’re fake. But once a guy’s sitting there wearing an orange outfit, the pride’s gone. The wall is stripped away. Everyone cries in his cell at night.” Sheriff Patrick O’Flynn calls the Good News team a secondary staff. He points out that housing an inmate costs upwards of , per year, somewhat like sending a student to college, so the chaplains “bring a whole system in without taxing taxpayers. It’s the one rehab program that does work.” Major Timothy Horan, who supervised Davis’ floor years ago, talks with the prisoner-turned-chaplain about what was: “The way you carried yourself, talked. ... If you were to tell me years ago we’d stand here, I wouldn’t believe it.” Horan calls Good News “a calming influence, a light at the tunnel’s end, an insight into hope. It’s contagious. It’s the flu bug in reverse.” A
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was a teenager: He went out an upstairs window from his home and got on a bus to Virginia, where he attended his brother’s Mennonite church. Yoder wore bell-bottoms and refused to cut his hair, then finally at a Mennonite youth convention confessed to a youth minister: “I can’t be good.” When the youth minister prayed for him, Yoder experienced a euphoric conversion. Now , Yoder lives with his wife Karen in a simple house and dresses in a way perhaps reminiscent of Amish fashion, but artistic: sleek silver glasses, blue plaid button-up shirt, and well-fitting jeans, Yoder stands so tall that the strings hanging from the ceiling fan in his writing room touch his hair. He considers himself a bridge between the Mennonite/Amish community and other Christians around the world. —C.K.
HANDOUT PHOTOS
Since Harvey Yoder has traveled around the world writing Christian biographies for the Mennonite publisher TSG, an offshoot of the Anabaptist mission organization, Christian Aid Ministries. His books, often written in the first person, trace the lives of persecuted or impoverished Christians in China, Ukraine, Africa, and Belize, among other places. Yoder seeks low-profile subjects. He uses an interpreter while doing weeks of interviewing, then comes home to write in Spruce Pine, N.C., and finishes the book in about two months. About percent of his readers are Amish or Mennonite, and his bestseller is The Happening, an account of the Nickel Mines Amish school shooting in , which sold , copies. Yoder’s career as a traveler began when he
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1/16/13 12:21 PM
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Notebook > Technology
Only deal in town
In at least some cases online pricing has three rules—location, location, location BY DANIEL JAMES DEVINE
.
HANDOUT PHOTOS
UNIVERSITY: ISTOCK • STAPLER: HANDOUT • SATELLITE: HANDOUT
Just when you thought online schooling couldn’t be cheaper, a California company called UniversityNow has begun providing college degrees for free. The company’s accredited online schools, New Charter and Patten universities, offer bachelor’s degrees in business and charge no more than a student’s employer is willing to reimburse for school expenses. Scholarships cover any additional cost so the student pays nothing. Only hitch: The cities of Oakland, Sacramento, and San Francisco are partners in the program, so students must live or work there to qualify. —D.J.D.
>>
D You visit Staples.com, search for a stapler, and purchase a decent-looking black Swingline for .. Your cousin, who lives a few towns over, decides to buy the same stapler from the same website, but only pays .. The only reason for his . in savings is the ZIP code he ordered from. Unknown to many armchair shoppers, online stores have begun to display prices or products based on a computer user’s geographic location or browsing habits. The Staples pricing scheme was discovered by a recent Wall Street Journal investigation that simulated visits to Staples.com from over , U.S. ZIP codes, testing the price of the same stapler from each. Among several Staples products tested, advertised prices differed by about percent, on average, depending on the web browser’s location. The Journal concluded the primary reason some Staples.com shoppers see a discount is because they live near other office stores, like OfficeMax: Staples.com seems to be selectively lowering prices to compete with local storefronts.
The investigation found other stores varying online prices, too. The websites of Lowe’s and The Home Depot offered products discounted in some cities, while not in others. The Home Depot said it uses shoppers’ computer IP addresses to estimate their location and display prices aligned with those at the nearest Home Depot storefront. The nature of the internet allows websites to raise or lower product prices from hour to hour in response to competitors or market dynamics. Online prices for airplane tickets, for instance, fluctuate wildly based on the day of the week. Customers expect stores to adjust prices in order to compete, but it strikes many online shoppers as unfair to be charged more for a mail-order product simply because of where they live (shipping costs excluded). That’s especially true if the discrepancy is undisclosed. On the other hand, price discrepancies are essential gears of competition in a free market. If you find yourself complaining about your online shopping cart total, remember: The web store next door is open, too.
Sales launch A defense spending bill President Obama signed in January will allow U.S. companies to sell satellite technology abroad for the first time in over a decade. Conservatives in Congress effectively banned exports of commercial communications satellites in , arguing China or other foreign powers could learn technological secrets from spacecraft components. Since then, the U.S. satellite industry has shrunk, and foreign satellite makers have gained a competitive advantage. Obama promised during the campaign to roll back the export restrictions. The new law removes communications satellites from the State Department’s weapons list, while continuing to block sales to nations like Iran, North Korea, and China—an exclusion Chinese media sharply criticized in January. —D.J.D.
Email: ddevine@worldmag.com
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FEBRUARY 9, 2013 • WORLD
1/16/13 12:30 PM
Notebook > Science
Mass mortality
The link between weight and health appears more complex than we thought BY DANIEL JAMES DEVINE
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I , the chances are slim you carry around what U.S. health officials call a “normal” figure. According to surveys the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted in and , fewer than in Americans are either normal weight or underweight. The rest—two-thirds of adults ages and up—are said to be “overweight” or “obese.” Health experts have been warning about this pandemic of fat for years. They point to studies showing that being overweight or obese increases the risk of cancer, stroke, infertility, heart disease, sleep apnea, diabetes, and other health problems. But in a large-scale review of health data, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in January, CDC researchers stumbled upon counterintuitive results: People in the government’s “overweight” category actually have a lower chance of dying prematurely than those of normal weight. The risk of mortality from all causes is percent less among the overweight. And those with “grade ” obesity (the lowest level on the obesity spectrum) are at no more risk than the normal-weight folks. Only people with grades or obesity have significantly higher risks. Those findings are in line with some studies indicating patients with certain conditions, such as
heart disease, may be more likely to survive treatment if they carry more weight. Experts call it the “obesity paradox.” What’s unclear is how overweight or obese people can be more likely to get diseases yet less likely to die from them. Doctors have suggested that overweight people may be quicker to get medical attention when they encounter health problems— or that extra fat enables the body to weather prolonged illness or surgery. At least one health expert, Walter Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health, sharply criticized the new CDC review, calling it “rubbish.” He said other studies that take into account risks among normalweight people, such as smoking, do show that mortality risk grows alongside weight. The statistics are confusing because many variables—smoking, exercise, stress, diet—together influence health: It isn’t simply fat that makes you sick. Also, the body mass index—a height-to-weight ratio the government uses as a measuring stick for flab—is used in weight studies, but can’t distinguish between fat and muscle. Thus, the BMI ranks former bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo as overweight or even obese. Perhaps it’s time to revise the government’s weight labels. The term “overweight” implies that a person needs to shed a few pounds to become healthier. That may not always be true.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in January published draft rules related to a food safety overhaul Congress passed in in response to several food poisoning outbreaks. The proposed rules could make peanuts, tomatoes, cantaloupes, or other produce less likely to host dangerous contaminants like E. coli or listeria—but could also increase their cost. Farmers would have to ensure irrigation water that touches fruits and vegetables is microbiologically safe, and provide portable toilets for farmhands. Food processing plants would have to improve recordkeeping and eliminate possible entry
the food processing industry million a year, and individual large farms , a year. —D.J.D.
WORLD • FEBRUARY 9, 2013
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Notebook > Houses of God
For over years, the town of Mitterfirmiansreut, Germany, has built The Snow church, constructed entirely of ice and snow. It began in as a protest church, with worship services of its own as secluded Mitterfirmiansreut had no church. With a replica of the nearest church, then a -minute hike away, residents hoped to draw attention to their plight.
FEBRUARY 9, 2013 • WORLD
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1/22/13 10:07 AM
Notebook > Sports
Is LANCE ARMSTRONG’s confession his greatest deceit yet? BY MARK BERGIN
WORLD • FEBRUARY 9, 2013
3 SPORTS and MONEY.indd 66
Email: mbergin@worldmag.com
ARMSTRONG: GEORGE BURNS/COURTESY OF HARPO STUDIOS, INC. • TEO: CHARLES BAUS/CAL SPORT MEDIA VIA AP
>>
I cover-ups, secret mistresses for a golfing superstar, and stubborn denials of steroid use among baseball’s best, the prospect of confession from one of the biggest names in sports might seem a welcome reprieve—a refreshing note of truth amid a chorus of lies. But news of Lance Armstrong’s admission of guilt received no such welcome. After a decade of insisting on his innocence with such brazen vigor as to sue his accusers, the disgraced cyclist finally acknowledged that reports of his doping are true. His confession met mostly scorn. Those in the know say Armstrong’s supposed tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey balked at revealing the most salacious details. Former friend Betsy Andreu, the wife of Armstrong’s former teammate Frankie Andreu and one of the first people to blow the whistle on Armstrong’s doping, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper she was furious in the immediate aftermath of the televised confession: “I’m really disappointed. He owed it to me. You owed it to me, Lance, and you dropped the ball—after what you’ve done to me, what you’ve done to my family. And you couldn’t own up to it.”
Armstrong had publicly smeared the Andreus as jealous liars for outing him. Yet even in admitting he cheated in all seven of his Tour de France victories, he would not concede the Andreus’ claim that he told a doctor of his doping practices as far back as . That omission and others, such as denying that he ever pressured fellow riders to dope with him, prompted doping researcher and author David Coyle to characterize Armstrong’s interview as “a partial confession.” Legal experts say Armstrong’s disclosures, however partial, expose him to lawsuits that could wipe out much of his bankroll. But if the once-revered champion believes paying that financial price will buy redemption, he appears mistaken. And if he hopes acknowledging guilt will convince sympathetic ears of his contrition, he may be sorely disappointed. His most ardent and vocal defender in the past, ESPN columnist Rick Reilly, feels personally betrayed and isn’t buying any apologies: “When he says he’s sorry now, how do we know he’s not still lying?” Of course, that’s the trouble with waiting to confess until there is no conceivable alternative—when every cycling crown has already been stripped, every endorsement contract already pulled. With so much already lost, Armstrong’s confession seems a desperate move to salvage something of his reputation. It smacks of another carefully calculated maneuver to protect the only person for whom Armstrong ever seemed to truly care—himself.
Lance Armstrong may have perpetrated one of the largest cover-ups in sports history, but it’s no hoax—not in the victimless tradition of the truly bizarre. No, the first real sports hoax to come out this year surrounds Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o and his online phantom of a girlfriend, complete with tragic cancer story and heartwarming tale of Te’o’s resiliency. Here are a few of the great sports hoaxes of all time: : Stockbroker Morris Newburger and radio announcer Alex Dannenbaum conspired to invent the dominant New Jersey football program of Plainfield Teachers College. The New York Times was among the many newspapers duped into publishing reports on the amazing Comets before a reporter finally made the drive out to Plainfield and discovered the truth. : Buffalo Sabres general manager Punch Imlach used the rd pick in the NHL draft to select an unknown player he dreamed up by the name of Taro Tsujimoto from the fictitious Tokyo Katanas. The pick was reported in all major media outlets, much to the chagrin of NHL commissioner Clarence Campbell. : Writer George Plimpton published a story in the April issue of Sports Illustrated on pitching phenom Sidd Finch, a supposed English orphan who had learned yoga in Tibet and could throw a -miles-per-hour fastball. The article sparked a firestorm of interest until a man playing Finch announced at a press conference he was retiring from baseball to pursue the French horn.
1/23/13 9:26 AM
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Notebook > Money
Boom town
Deficit spending prospers the Washington, D.C., metro area as the rest of the nation struggles BY WARREN COLE SMITH
CREDIT
SHAWN THEW/EPA/LANDOV
>>
I on I- into Washington, D.C., the last hill before you descend to the Potomac River presents an inspiring vista. The Air Force Memorial rises to the left, and profiles of the U.S. Capitol dome and the Washington Monument rise toward the sky. Even jaded Washingtonians admit the magnificence sometimes makes it hard to keep their eyes on the road. Today, though, construction cranes interrupt the iconic skyline, adding a melancholy subtext to the national story. Coming in the midst of a recession and a sputtering recovery, the cranes are graphic reminders that Washington’s economic fortunes run counter to the nation’s prospects. The debt that’s such a drag on the economy is directly funding a construction boom in the nation’s capital. Out of the billion stimulus package, about billion went to construction and renovation of federal buildings, with more than . billion allocated for Washington alone. Those dollars don’t begin to tell the whole story. In total, about percent of the area’s economy depends on federal spending. Of the nation’s million federal employees, , of them live and work in the Washington area. About cents of every dollar spent on procurement—everything from missiles to toilet paper—ends up in the Washington economy. All this means that as the deficit exploded and extended the nation’s recession, the nation’s capital has boomed. Annual economic growth in the city has exceeded percent for most of the past decade, while the nation’s economy actually contracted during some of those years. The region’s unemployment is around percent.
Email: wsmith@worldmag.com
3 SPORTS and MONEY.indd 67
Northern Virginia has an unemployment rate of . percent, half the national average. All this growth is a people magnet. During the decade of the s, the region grew more than percent. The Washington metro area now has . million people and is the seventh largest in the nation. This population boom attracts yet more government funding—since programs ranging from school funding to road-building depend on per capita allocations. The bottom line: Since , the region’s economy has grown at nearly three times the national average. It now has the three highest income counties in the United States, and seven of the top . But you can’t blame all this growth on Obama-era spending. During the s, the Clinton administration’s “reinventing government” initiatives cut the number of federal employees by ,, but the vast majority of those workers just changed employers as outsourcing and contracting exploded. The trend continued during the Bush years. According to Stephen Fuller of George Mason University, contractor dollars in the D.C. area nearly tripled between and , topping out at billion. Simple math tells us the situation is unsustainable: You can’t spend more than you have indefinitely. But all this prosperity may help explain why policy makers have failed to see the obvious.
RISING CONSTRUCTION COSTS: The Washington Monument framed in a construction crane at the future site of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
“If I live in Miami, I have a hard time imagining a snowstorm in Boston,” Fuller said. He thinks the Washington boom has created a “distortion of perspective” among decision makers. Does this mean Washington’s boom will soon bust? Defense spending is under pressure. The Pentagon plans to cut billion over the next years. But Obamacare will likely increase federally controlled healthcare spending. The National Institutes of Health in suburban Maryland, as well as the federal bureaucracy managing the program, will undoubtedly grow. Fuller believes the growth in the Washington area will continue, though likely not at the blistering rate of the past decade. “We may not be as fat as we are now in the years ahead,” he said, “but it will be a while before we look thin.” A
FEBRUARY 9, 2013 • WORLD
1/21/13 1:02 PM
Notebook > Religion
Inglorious revolutions Anglican angst deepens over gay bishops and the church’s relationship to the royal family BY THOMAS KIDD
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WORLD • FEBRUARY 9, 2013
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that it represents yet another departure from biblical teaching by the church. Nicholas Okoh, archbishop of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, says this move “could very well shatter whatever hopes we had for healing and reconciliation within our beloved communion.” Approving bishops who are in “at best, morally ambiguous partnerships,” undercuts their ability to serve as moral examples, Okoh
Th is move ‘could very well shatter whatever hopes we had for healing and reconciliation within our beloved communion.’
Nicholas Okoh
CONVOCATION OF ANGLICANS IN NORTH AMERICA
T C E has announced that it is open to appointing gay men in civil partnerships as bishops, as long as their gay union is “celibate.” The decision came on the heels of an equally controversial decision in November that the church would not approve women as bishops. The worldwide Anglican communion has struggled with the issue of homosexuality for a decade, starting with the election of the openly gay priest Gene Robinson as the bishop of New Hampshire. Observers see England’s new policy as a response to the case of Rev. Jeffrey John, a gay priest also nominated in to serve as the Bishop of Reading. John withdrew his candidacy because of the controversy his appointment created. In , John and his longtime partner entered a civil union, although John has maintained that their relationship is not sexual. As reported by The Guardian,, John said of the new policy that “if it is genuinely true that all levels of ordained ministry are now more open to gay people than they were before, then this is a very good thing.” But Rev. Colin Coward, director of Changing Attitude, a group that advocates for inclusion of gays in the Anglican Church, is not convinced, saying that he could not envision any homosexual, aside perhaps from Jeffrey John, actually becoming a bishop. “I would only believe they are serious when it happens,” Coward says. Traditional Anglicans within Britain and elsewhere expressed outrage at the decision, arguing
contends. He characterizes the compromise on celibacy as “unworkable and unenforceable,” noting that the policy makes Nigeria’s final separation from the English church more likely. With about million active members, the fast-growing Church of Nigeria is the largest section of the Anglican communion worldwide. By contrast, the Church of England has just over million practicing members. Another religious controversy in England concerns future royal weddings, and whether members of the royal family can marry Catholics. A law banned such marriages, but now Prime Minister David Cameron wants to change the rule, as well as one which stipulates that even if a female is first in line to the throne, she has to yield to any male siblings. The succession issue has come to the fore with Prince William and Kate Middleton expecting their first child this summer. In the religiously charged environment following the Glorious Revolution of , Britain prohibited royals from marrying Catholics in order to keep the throne in Protestant hands. But such rules seem antiquated to critics in the increasingly secular nation. Nevertheless, the Church of England remains established by law, and among the monarch’s largely ceremonial duties is serving as the “Supreme Governor” of the church. Therefore, the king or queen of England has to be an Anglican. But if a future royal marries a Catholic, the couple must raise their children as Catholics, too, according to that church’s teaching. Prince Charles, in line to succeed the -year-old Queen Elizabeth II, has made it clear that he opposes the change, because it could eventually create a constitutional crisis in which a Catholic would become king or queen— and the head of the national church. A
Email: tkidd@worldmag.com
1/16/13 3:45 PM
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Mailbag ‘ news of the year’
Dec. Thank you for another welldone year-end issue. Reading through “ Events” was sobering and brought to mind Isaiah :: “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness.” But, rather than despairing, I turn to Revelation :: “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen.
—A M, East Sparta, Ohio
can’t do anymore, but Andrée Seu Peterson’s column gave me perspective. —C W,, Flower Mound, Texas
I too turned this month. The comment about the “trips around the turnstile of entrenched sin” captures the fleeting years so descriptively. Thankfully, our Redeemer is faithful to restore. —R H, Bartlesville, Okla.
The photos were gripping, especially the baptism, and the layout of the year’s events was remarkable. I was surprised to see how many positive things happened in the usual chaos. —A S, Big Canoe, Ga.
‘Update from Walmart’ Dec. Occasionally I try to engage my -something contemporaries on current events and often get blank stares and apathy. Perhaps if I too tuned it all out I wouldn’t be left angry every day at things that are so far beyond my control. Perhaps that is why so many Walmart shoppers no longer engage in a game that leaves you burned out and frustrated at the insanity of it all.
keep their heads above water. Maybe instead of living under a rock, they were concentrating on news other than the fiscal cliff. Maybe they had family in Louisiana or New Jersey facing floods, or were out of work. Please give them a break. —C L. P, The Woodlands, Texas
Belz’s phrase “European feel” well describes our government. People seem to want stuff they think is free, and so few seem to know or care about what is going on in our nation. I am very concerned for my family about the future, but I can only trust God to take care of them. —B M, Bushnell, Ill.
—P W, Tallahassee, Fla.
The responses show a populace sliding into blissful ignorance. “What’s for dinner, when’s payday, and who got voted off Survivor?” largely describes middle America’s day-to-day concerns. —D R, Russellville, Ark.
I look forward to Belz’s Walmart surveys, but note that he assumed people would actually listen to news through the “countless news cycles.” In this era of man-caves and round-the-clock sports media without real news, it is easy for someone to be out of touch.
Your article was important to me as I am prone to believe many lies. It is never too late to surrender all to the beautiful One who made us. —A M, Omaha, Neb.
I too am “looking at a towering stack of failure.” Thank you for reminding me that with Christ I can never say I have no hope. —K H, Cape Cod, Mass.
‘Take every song captive’ Dec. It was such a relief to read Marvin Olasky’s new lyrics for “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen. I love the music and used to sing along with the few words I could make out, but after looking up the lyrics I was so disappointed that I couldn’t sing along anymore. And then the thing was stuck in my head, of course. Thank you for redeeming this beautiful piece of music. —K C, Friendswood, Texas
—B A. C, Catonsville, Md.
I enjoy Joel Belz’s columns but he was a bit harsh on the Walmart shoppers. Americans are disheartened with the system and many are just struggling to
Send photos and letters to: mailbag@worldmag.com
3 MAILBAG.indd 71
‘From this day forward’ Dec. At age there are many things I have allowed myself to believe I
Olasky did a fine job “fixing” the lyrics of a great songwriter. I once heard somebody refer to that as “plundering the Egyptians.” I’ve printed out the
FEBRUARY 9, 2013 • WORLD
1/16/13 12:39 PM
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lyrics and I’ll be singing them in my car. —B W, Silver Spring, Md.
—E M, Monument, Colo.
‘Our culture of deceit’
‘Back to the journalist’s lane’
Dec. The past election nauseated me on more than one occasion as I listened to one lie after another. Unfortunately, this mindset has crept into the Christian community as well. As you stated, Jesus is the truth. That is what He wants of His followers.
Dec. Reading Marvin Olasky’s memoirs took me down memory lane (including some not-so-good memories) of the ’s and ’s and how off track my generation was. I’m going to have my adult children read it for the history it contains and for a picture of God’s mercy.
—D G. M, Wheatland, Wyo.
‘Good gifts’ Dec. I just happened to read this column on Christmas Day. Tears of joy fell down my face as I rejoiced in God’s faithfulness and the joy of my brothers and sisters across the world. It made my Christmas. —C D, Fort Meade, Fla.
‘Mistakes were made’ Dec. Thank you for your informative article listing the events in the Obama administration’s handling of the Benghazi crisis. I would add the president’s false assertion in the second debate that he had attributed the attack to terrorism from the beginning, and his United Nations address
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in which he repeated Ambassador Rice’s focus on the “hateful video.”
—R H, Gypsum, Kan.
‘Bound by blood’ Dec. Janie B. Cheaney is correct that God requires petition for forgiveness before He will grant it, but I believe she misunderstood Charles Woods’ intent. He was not absolving those who killed his son of their guilt before God; he was giving up his right to hold their guilt against them, just as the New Testament instructs us to do. It is not only possible to forgive unknown perpetrators, it is a trademark of being a Christian. —J K, Riverton, Ill.
As Cheaney explained, the presence of a disposition to forgive is not the
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same as the conferral of forgiveness. That is a response to the acknowledgment of sin committed against us. Most distressing to me is the fact that those who advocate “unconditional forgiveness” misrepresent God and the manner in which He deals with us, His sinning creatures. —A N. M, Jenison, Mich.
This column was a great explanation of why our culture’s tendency to “forgive” wrongs without the offender recognizing their wrongdoing distorts the big picture—of sinful people who need a savior and feel sorrow over our transgressions. —L M, Bothell, Wash.
What we’ve discovered about real grace for teens.
R
eal grace in this world comes through real adults. Not Christians who imagine life in Christ with only smiles. Not Christians who are scared of teens who talk back. We are doing this one student at a time “in the shoes of the child” in a safe, yet challenging, place for teens to overcome hopelessness, disruptive behavior, and attachment difficulties. We parent children who need help through steady and joyful hands. At Cono, we teach them, too. Whether you need help for a child, or want to join us in this work.... Contact:
I recently realized that I could not continue to resent a family member who had refused to accept responsibility for his offenses. Through a Bible study, I learned that I needed to forgive him. It was a stunning moment that tightened my stomach as I realized the implications. So I went to tell him, “I forgive you.” He didn’t understand, but I was not there for him, I was following the Lord’s plan for me. —G S, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
Clarification Hans Orsted discovered that an electric current produces a magnetic field (“Divine reversal,” Dec. , p. ).
Correction The photo connected to a brief about University of Arkansas football coach Bobby Petrino was a photo of Paul Petrino, Bobby’s brother (“ events,” Dec. , 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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www.cono.org/involved.html Dave Toerper, Admissions: 888-646-0038 x250 Thomas Jahl, Headmaster: thomas.jahl@cono.org Cono Christian School, Walker IA
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.
This engaging page-turner covers themes such as: ~Reconciling a good and loving God with the suffering in the world ~Overcoming faith doubts ~The comedy and drama of raising teenagers in an international ministry family ~Our power, even as individuals, to change the world
~The value of the silent volunteer-the unsung hero of ministry work ~The positive role of short term mission teams ~The challenges of international adoption ~The joy of serving Christ
..."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 her 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
To purchase with free shipping go to www.tearswatertheseedsofhope.com Also available at amazon.com & barnesandnoble.com
1/18/13 9:30 AM
“It’s like NPR from a Christian worldview.”
What you can expect
Trevin Wax, blogger, Kingdom People (The Gospel Coalition)
News review: Top stories of the week, in the United States and around the world
The World and Everything in It
Special features like “The Olasky Interview,” “Let the Candidates Speak,” and “The History Book” Commentary: Original reflections by Joel Belz, Andrée Seu, and Janie Cheaney, and other biblical worldview thinkers In-depth audio treatments of feature stories from the print magazine Culture: Film and television reviews by Megan Basham, books by Susan Olasky, and music by Arsenio Orteza Political roundup: Analysis of the candidates and the issues — plus key state and local initiatives Thorough coverage of life issues, education, the economy, and the law News of the church and God’s people working in the world
A weekly radio program from World News Group
Check radio listings, listen online, and share favorite segments via Facebook and Twitter at worldandeverything.com. Listen anytime, anywhere with free podcast subscriptions on iTunes.
istock
“The World and Everything in It” debuted August 6 on two dozen radio affiliates. Since then, TW&E has grown to 180 stations, and airs network-wide Sunday nights at 6 (central) on Bott Radio Network. This thoughtful and enjoyable week-in-review program features news and analysis from the WORLD editorial team and interviews with top newsmakers—with the journalistic depth you’ve come to expect from WORLD.
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1/21/13 1:55 PM
Andrée Seu Peterson
Culture creep
How an ‘orientation’ is born
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I by saying The Guardian is a mainstream British daily newspaper and not the U.K.’s version of the National Enquirer. But that would insult the National Enquirer, which, whatever you want to say about supermarket tabloids, was the first to expose presidential candidate John Edwards’ dalliances when respectable papers held their noses. On Jan. the respectable Guardian published an article, “Paedophilia: bringing dark desires to light.” The title choice is more prophetic than intended, calling to mind Isaiah’s “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness” (Isaiah :). Below are excerpts, a case study in journalistic slouching toward Gomorrah. “There is little agreement about paedophilia, even among those considered experts on the subject.” Right off the bat we are introduced to the notion of different opinions, which is Strategy No. . The Dark Side (Ephesians :; :; :) need merely suggest that something evil is really only “controversial.” When the discussion begins at that level, the bad guys have already won ground: Pedophilia is now put forth as a subject on which reasonable people disagree. Note a maneuver in Kings , when the Israelites soundly defeat Syrian King Ben-hadad: His servants tell him, “The kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Let us put sackcloth around our waists and ropes on our heads and go out to the king of Israel.” They do that, asking King Ahab for mercy, and Ahab says of Ben-hadad, “He is my brother.”
‘There is a growing conviction, notably in Canada, that paedophilia should probably be classified as a distinct sexual orientation, like heterosexuality or homosexuality.’
ISTOCK
The Syrian servants who “were watching for a sign” then say, “Yes, your brother Ben-hadad.” The purveyors of darkness are looking for a sign from us too, for mercy unmoored to truth corrodes to leniency. Relinquish the word “wrong,” accept the softer “reasonable difference of opinion,” and the camel’s nose is well under the tent. Strategy No. : “A paedophile is someone who has a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children. Savile [Jimmy Savile, high-profile English
Email: aseupeterson@worldmag.com
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pedophile] appears to have been primarily an ephebophile, defined as someone who has a similar preferential attraction to adolescents.” Ephebophile is a brand new word for me; I suspect it will become nauseatingly familiar. But the point to notice is that now we have distinctions being proffered, a sophisticated taxonomy. Distinctions are strategy No. for normalizing evil. The making of them automatically confers a certain legitimacy without even having to argue for it. After all, you cannot have varieties of something that doesn’t exist. So, circularly, if there are varieties of sexual orientation, they are real, and if real, they are not to be condemned. Strategy No. : “Sarah Goode, a senior lecturer at the University of Winchester and author of two major and sociological studies on paedophilia in society, says the best current estimate … is that ‘one in five of all men are, to some degree, capable of being sexually aroused by children. … There is a growing conviction, notably in Canada, that paedophilia should probably be classified as a distinct sexual orientation, like heterosexuality or homosexuality. Two eminent researchers testified to that effect to a Canadian parliamentary commission last year, and the Harvard Mental Health Letter of July stated baldly that paedophilia ‘is a sexual orientation.’” “Harvard.” “U of Winchester.” “Major sociological studies.” The canny takeaway message here: These people are smarter than you. Strategy No. is the domain of the professional. “And few agree about what causes it. Is paedophilia innate or acquired?” Professionals will pretend to argue about Nature versus Nurture for another year or so, as they did in the early days of the gay movement. Then someone will say, “You say potato and I say potahto, let’s call the whole thing off,” and no one will care anymore. Polymorphous promiscuity will prevail. The jig will be up. “Some academics do not dispute the view of Tom O’Carroll, a former chairman of PIE [Paedophile Information Exchange] … that society’s outrage at paedophilic relationships is essentially emotional, irrational, and not justified by science. ‘It is the quality of the relationship that matters,’ O’Carroll insists.” The thing to notice here is that while you weren’t looking the word “relationships” snuck in without debate. Another place gained. The language of alternative lifestyle slowly replaces today’s more common terminology of “abuse” and “victim.” A
FEBRUARY 9, 2013 • WORLD
1/17/13 10:04 AM
Marvin Olasky
Don’t waste your medical mistakes
One lab error, and God exposed my pretensions
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WORLD • FEBRUARY 9, 2013
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I’m nervous about admitting all this, but () it’s sadly true, () it’s proof that I don’t belong on any pedestal, and () my position may not be all that unusual among Christians. As J.I. Packer writes in Knowing Christianity: “Normal people do not look forward to dying, and there is good reason for that. We cannot expect the process to be pleasant; the prospect of going to give an account of oneself to God is awesome; and Christians know that physical death is the outward sign of that eternal separation from God which is the Creator’s judgment on sin.” Want some empirical evidence? Researchers several years ago asked advanced cancer patients at seven hospital and cancer centers around the United States whether they wanted life-prolonging measures such as ventilators and resuscitation during their last days. According to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association in , the religious (mostly Christian) patients were almost three times as likely as the non-religious to seek and receive lifeprolonging care. Of course, that result may have been a measure of faith rather than fear—do not assume the end is near— but I suspect some patients were learning the difference between an intellectual acceptance of eventual death and an emotional response to imminence. Yes, we should sing hymns with lines like, “What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul!”—but also ask ourselves the hard question: At crunch time, do I stake my life on that love? I’ve now halved the beta blocker dosage, and anxiety is gone—but this whole experience leaves me suspicious of myself and determined to grow my faith rather than assume I already have what I need. Growing it means spending more time with the Bible and in prayer. Growing it means asking God to show me more and more that my only comfort in life and death is not fatalistic stoicism but the assurance of eternal life that only Christ provides. A
KRIEG BARRIE
I’ about the little things. If I start to slip or trip but then right myself, I’ll say or think, “Thank you, Lord.” But I recently had an opportunity to be thankful about a big thing, and blew it utterly. The situation was this: Because I had a double bypass five years ago and my blood pressure is on the borderline for medication, a doctor prescribed for me a beta blocker that could bring with it nasty side effects like insomnia and anxiety. Never having had pill problems, I ignored those warnings. Then a routine medical lab test indicated, maybe, one of the worst kinds of cancer. The score was so bad it looked like a lab mistake, and retesting would come the next day, but instead of calmness I had clamminess, and instead of saying to God, “Your will be done,” I railed at the prospect that my will would be thwarted. Did the anxiety come naturally or was it medicinally induced? Whatever the cause, my thoughts and words flung heavenward were disrespectful: I have so much to do. ... I love my wife so much. ... I need to tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there store all my goods (Luke :). Happily, the next day’s lab retest gave me a healthy score—but the error illuminated my own pride. God showed me that I may indeed have a Christian worldview when it comes to the issues we typically deal with in WORLD, and may indeed have a sense of His sovereignty throughout the day—but when it comes to the most important questions, I was not above an unhappy “Ides of March” failure. Feb. is famous as Valentine’s Day, of course, but a month later comes the day when fear outweighs romantic hope. The ancient Romans saw March — the Ides of March—as a day bringing chaos. It was the day of Julius Caesar’s assassination in .., with conspirators stabbing him times in the Roman Senate. I could put Psalm up against stabs, but that lab error and beta blocker forced me to admit that thankfulness for green pastures yielded to unsteadiness when I peered into the valley of the shadow of death.
Email: molasky@worldmag.com
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krieg barrie
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