Challenge Why settle for mediocre? Challenge your own expectations—through rigorous academics with a complete liberal arts package and a broad range of student activities that build your leadership skills and lifelong relationships. BJU challenges you to excel in all you do for the glory of God. To learn how you can challenge your potential at BJU, visit us at go.bju.edu/challenge.
5 COVER.indd 2
For graduation rates, the median debt of students who completed the program and other important info visit on.bju.edu/rates. (13006) 6/12
POTENTIAL
2/18/13 11:44 AM
Health care for people of Biblical faith
If you are a committed Christian, you do not have to violate your faith by purchasing health insurance from a company that pays for abortions and treatments of conditions resulting from other immoral practices. You can live consistently with your beliefs by sharing medical needs directly with fellow believers through Samaritan Ministries’ non-insurance approach. This approach even satisfies the individual mandate in the recent Federal health care law (United States Code 26, Section 5000A, (d), (2), (B)). Every month the more than 22,000* households of Samaritan Ministries share $6 million* in medical needs directly—one household to another. They also pray for one another and send notes of encouragement. The monthly share for a family of any size has never exceeded $355*, and is even less for singles, couples, and single-parent families.
For more information call us toll-free at 1-888-268-4377, or visit us online at: www.samaritanministries.org. Follow us on Twitter (@samaritanmin) and Facebook (SamaritanMinistries). * As of December 2012
Biblical faith applied to health care www.samaritanministries.org
5 COVER.indd 1
2/15/13 4:16 PM
GOSPEL. L E A R N I T. L I V E I T. S H A R E I T.
Don’t just talk about the Gospel. Come to Southwestern where you’ll be equipped and challenged to take the Gospel to the nations. Are you ready? Let’s go. Learn more at swbts.edu/letsgo
5 CONTENTS.indd 2
2/15/13 4:17 PM
Contents , / ,
50 Urban frontiers
Many cities are in financial trouble, but some offer a sense of freedom for the pioneer-minded in WORLD’s annual Cities coverage 50 Brightmoor fighters
Population loss and official neglect haven’t kept residents of one Detroit neighborhood from banding together to rebuild Where are they now?
58 Semiliberated capitals
Residents in three former Soviet cities are moving meter-by-meter forward (and sometimes back)
63 L.A. grace
A spiritual renaissance comes to downtown Los Angeles California screaming Saturday juxtapositions
38 Twelve worried men
A small group of House conservatives view the nation’s debt as a threat worth risking a political career to fight. Their decision may be bearing fruit
44 Friend or foe?
For pro-life Republicans, opposing comprehensive immigration reform puts many in league with proabortion and population control groups : . . . /
9 News 18 Human Race 20 Quotables 22 Quick Takes
27
27 Movies & TV 30 Books 32 Q&A 34 Music
71
69 Lifestyle 71 Technology 72 Science 73 Houses of God 74 Sports 75 Money 76 Religion
38
83
VISIT WORLDMAG.COM FOR BREAKING NEWS, TO SIGN UP FOR WEEKLY EMAIL UPDATES, AND MORE
7 Joel Belz 24 Janie B. Cheaney 36 Mindy Belz 79 Mailbag 83 Andrée Seu Peterson 84 Marvin Olasky
WORLD (ISSN -X) (USPS -) is published biweekly ( issues) for . per year by God’s World Publications, (no mail) All Souls Crescent, Asheville, NC ; () -. Periodical postage paid at Asheville, NC, and additional mailing offi ces. Printed in the USA. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. © God’s World Publications. All rights reserved. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to WORLD, PO Box , Asheville, NC -.
MARCH 9, 2013 • WORLD
5 CONTENTS.indd 3
2/20/13 11:45 AM
Men of Faith World 3.13.indd 1 5 CONTENTS.indd 4
2/18/13 1:31 PM
®
5 CONTENTS.indd 5
2/18/13 10:09:39 AM 2/18/13 1:31 PM
“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
c reati v e art director David K. Freeland associate art director Robert L. Patete graphic designer Rachel Beatty illustrator Krieg Barrie digital production assistant Arla J. Eicher A DV E R T I S I N G director of sales and marketing Dawn Stephenson account executives Al Saiz, Angela Scalli, Alan Wood the world market Connie Moses advertising office 828.232.5489 CUSTOMER SERVICE customer service manager Jim Chisolm customer service office 828.232.5260
Invest Wisely.
corporate Send chief executive officer Kevin Martin Founder Joel Belz Vice President Warren Cole Smith
god’s world news Him. Publisher Howard Brinkman gwnews.com
B OA R D o f dire c tors David Strassner (chairman), w orld digital Mariam Bell, Kevin Cusack, Executive Editor Mickey McLean Richard Kurtz, Virginia Kurtz, Assistant Editor Dan Perkins Peter Lillback, Howard Miller, Editorial Assistant Whitney Williams William Newton, Russell B. Pulliam, worldmag.com Thousands of native missionaries in poorer countries effectively take the Skeel, Nelson Somerville, David to unreached people groups radio w orldgospel Ladeine Thompson, Raymon Thompson, in areas that are extremely difficult for American missionaries to reach. Executive Producer Nickolas S. Eicher John Weiss, John White 4 They speak the local languages Senior Producer Joseph Slife 4 They are part of the culture M Iairline S S I O N S TAT E M E N T 4 They never need a visa, tickets, or furloughs w orld on c am p us To report, interpret, and illustrate the 4 They win souls and plant Editor Leigh churches Jones news in a timely, accurate, enjoyable, Native missionaries serve the Lord at worldoncampus.com arresting fashion from a perspective a fraction of what it costsand to send an American missionary overseas. committed to the Bible w orld j ournalism institute Help provide for a missionary as the inerrant Word of God. with $50 per month. Director Robert Case II Dean Marvin Olasky worldji.com Christian Aid Mission P. O. Box 9037 Charlottesville, VA 22906 434-977-5650
www.christianaid.org
contact us
800.951.6397 /// worldmag.com
Reprints and permissions Contact June McGraw at 828.232.5415 or mailbag@worldmag.com world occasionally rents subscriber names to carefully screened, like-minded organizations. If you would prefer not to receive these promotions, please call customer service and ask to be placed on our DO NOT RENT list.
5 JOEL.indd 6
2/15/13 12:08 PM
handout
To subscribe, renew, change address, give a gift, order back issues, etc. Email customerservice@worldmag.com Online worldmag.com Phone 800.951.6397 within the United States or 828.232.5260 outside the United States Write world, PO Box 20002, Asheville, nc 28802-9998
Joel Belz
Ideal subscribers
Two very different portraits of the type of reader WORLD is reaching
>>
HANDOUT
I in the history of WORLD magazine that a wise man from the publishing industry warned me: “Joel,” he said, “if you don’t have a crisp and clear mental picture of your ideal subscriber—the person you most want to pick up WORLD and then devour every issue you produce— I’m telling you that without such a focus, you are certain to fail.” It was a scary warning. It was especially scary because I didn’t have such a mental image. But I trusted this man, so I went to work on his assignment. Here’s what I concluded in the days after our conversation. The personification of WORLD’s target was a -year-old woman, mother of two, standing at her kitchen sink at : in the evening. Her husband’s due home from work, but just called to say he’d be an hour late—and her plans for dinner, already embarrassingly thin, evaporated with his phone call. This woman is intelligent on half a dozen fronts, a college graduate, and typically, for her whole life, looked to for leadership. But now she feels out of it. She doesn’t know where Mali is in Africa, or what the issues are there; she hasn’t read that latest novel that others at church are talking about; and she wishes she could tell you how the so-called “education bubble” might affect her family some day. Instead, she’s had to learn a lot on the internet about children’s viruses, which she’s done between visits to the pediatrician. In short, she wants to keep up on what’s happening in this complex world—not from some condescending expert, but from someone who knows what it means to be overwhelmed. For the last years, that woman has been my target. I figured if we captured her interest, we’d gain that of a whole lot of other folks as well. So guess who I got introduced to last week? I haven’t yet met him face-to-face—although I hope to soon. If WORLD has an older, more devoted reader, I’ll put that person as well on my “must meet” list for sometime in . For now, listen to this. Amos Yoder will be on his next birthday, which is Nov. . He is a long-time member of what’s
Email: jbelz@worldmag.com
5 JOEL.indd 7
Amos Yoder
called the Beachy-Amish church in central Minnesota. In keeping with that church’s custom, Amos and his wife Sara, who is , have no radio, no TV, and no computer. They don’t need such distractions because their small -acre farm, where they still live alone, offers plenty to keep them busy. Twice a day, even when it’s degrees below zero, he walks yards across to the barn, where he faithfully feeds his goats, his guineas, a chicken or two, and nine cats. But the faithful diligence that really sets Amos apart comes between those two trips to the barn. That’s when Amos sits down with his latest issue of WORLD because, as his daughter Dorcas reports, “he loves to know what’s going on in the world.” But it’s not just curiosity on Amos’ part. He wants to know what’s going on because he wants to pray— and he wants to pray specifically for those he’s just read about. As Dorcas reported after one recent visit: “He prayed for Hurricane Sandy victims, for the relief efforts, for refugees around the world, for the persecuted church in Africa, for missionaries around the world, for their local church, for his grandchildren, for CAM [an Amish Mennonite relief group], for President Obama [in his pronunciation, Obama rhymes with Alabama], for his cabinet, and for the Justice Department.” All between trips to the barn. Amos and Sara do let a cleaning lady come once a week. But if it has snowed that morning, Sara is alert to get out early and sweep the front walk so the cleaning lady won’t slip and fall. I don’t have a clue how to bring these two pictures together—the one of the -year-old mom with two little kids tugging at her knees, and the one of Amos. For now, I’m asking Amos if he’ll take on the task of praying often for all the -year-old moms who read WORLD magazine. In this disheveled world, God knows how much those moms need a faithful old man’s prayers. A
MARCH 9, 2013 • WORLD
2/18/13 11:46 AM
Email: afinkbeiner@paradysz.com On Sale: 3/1
SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY PRICE $19.95 reg. $49.50-$54.50
our best selling dress shirt the pinpoint oxford • 100% cotton • 6 collar styles • button or french cuffs • regular, big & tall or trim • 141⁄2” x 32” to 20” x 37”
• FREE monogramming (reg. $9.75)
Black CMYK
• Add this silk tie for just $19.95 (reg. $49.50)
302 CMYK
paulfredrick.com/intro 800-309-6000 Specify promotional code T3RSWY
CREDIT
White CMYK
FREE EXCHANGES. New customer offer. Limit 4 shirts per customer. Shipping charges extra. Cannot be combined with other offers. Expires 4/30/13. 647 CMYK World_030113.indd 1 5 D-OPENER.indd 8
1/15/13 1:57 PM 2/15/13 4:43 PM
Dispatches News > Human Race > Quotables > Quick Takes
Keeping their people in chains North Korea’s nuclear program draws world attention away from its toll of human misery
KNS/AFP/Getty Images
by mindy belz
>>
“It go boom.” That’s what Asian analyst Jeffrey Lewis posted on Twitter after he got word from the U.S. Geological Survey of a 5.1 magnitude explosion in North Korea. Lewis, who directs the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, knew it was no earthquake. North Korea’s Feb. 12 test was significantly larger than its two previous tests—in 2006 (4.3) and 2009 (4.7). At an initially estimated 6-7 kilotons, it’s no match for the megaton nuclear devices the United States has in its arsenal. But as Lewis points out, North Korea is no longer incompetently following a U.S. or Soviet nuclear development path: “With fewer tests, North Korea is trying to move
Download WORLD’s iPad app today; details at worldmag.com/iPad
5 D-OPENER.indd 9
more quickly to larger, deliverable warheads based on the experience of others.” The ultimate goal: a stockpile of missiledelivered thermonuclear weapons. “The nuclear bomb is small in size but devastating in power,” a state newscaster boasted on North Korean television that night, making clear that the communist regime’s aim is to target the United States and its ally, South Korea. Residents in Seoul actually felt tremors from February’s underground blast, and as some took to the streets in fear, North Korean officials REALITY? North Koreans threatened the South with in Pyongyang “final destruction.” celebrate on Officials say they hope Feb. 14 the to conduct one or two more nuclear test.
M a r c h 9 , 2 0 1 3 • W O R L D
9
2/20/13 11:49 AM
Dispatches > News
10
stamp legislature convenes on March 5, it’s expected to make Communist Party Chairman Xi Jingping’s ascension to power complete. The People’s Congress is expected to name Xi president, completing the once-a-decade leadership transition that began late last year in the totalitarian state.
Looking Ahead
Light show
Amateur astronomers will be in for a treat beginning March 5 when the PANSTARRS comet comes close enough to Earth to be seen with the naked eye. The comet, discovered only in 2011, should outshine other bright stars and even Venus when it passes nearly 100 million miles from Earth.
Berlusconi on trial
Fresh off a run to once again become Italy’s prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi will be in court on March 7. Berlusconi faces charges in connection to the illegal publishing of wiretaps that he allegedly obtained and gave to his brother, a publisher. The 76-year-old politician is no stranger to the courtroom: He has been convicted of campaign finance violations and tax fraud in the past.
CPAC 2013
Conservatives still smarting from the 2012 elections will look for a measure of rebirth when the American Conservative Union’s annual CPAC conference meets in Washington, D.C., on March 14. Freshman Sen. Ted Cruz will give the closing speech of the conference, a coveted speaking slot that last year went to Sarah Palin.
Falkland Islands election Falkland
Islanders will head to polling places on March 10 to vote on their future as a British Overseas Territory. The referendum, which will take place over two weeks, will ask residents whether they wish to remain British. An expected yes vote will likely agitate Argentina, which claims the South Atlantic islands.
Jingping: PETER MUHLY/AFP/Getty Images • sky: nasa • Berlusconi: Gregorio Borgia/ap • Falklands: Ralph Lee Hopkins/Lonely Planet Images/ZUMAPRESS.com • Cruz: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
nuclear tests this year in an effort to force the United States into diplomatic talks. But the regime of Kim Jong-un and his predecessors is notoriously unable to come to any negotiating table: North Korea is built on unblinking loyalty, even worship, of the ruling Kim family combined with the fervently held doctrine of juche, or selfreliance. Juche holds that man “is the master of everything and decides everything,” according to the government’s website. And it demands that any departure from official dictates be severely punished. That’s why North Korea has the fourth-largest army in the world—and why military prowess advances while ordinary citizens suffer. One week after the test, two survivors of North Korea’s state gulag testified before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. Shin Dong-hyuk and Kang Chol-hwan say the state’s political prison system is incarcerating 200,000 “criminals”—many of them Christians—in Holocaust-like camps: “Fundamentally, it is the same as Hitler’s Auschwitz,” testified Kang. “People think the Holocaust is in the past, but it is still very much a reality. It is still going on in North Korea,” Shin told reporters on the sidelines of the humanrights summit. He is the only known surviving escapee from a “total control zone” camp—where three generations of his family had been held until he broke free seven years ago at age 23. When at 22 Shin met a new prisoner, he was unaware of any alternative reality existing outside the camps. Kang told the Geneva audience that Pyongyang’s recent nuclear test was meant as a warning not only to the outside world but also to potential regime opponents within the country. “It is the international community’s duty to help them light the fire of resistance,” he said. Others agree that without the nuclear threat Pyongyang cannot get Washington’s attention. “A North Korea without nuclear weapons,” writes Sohn Gwang Joo, director of Daily NK, “is just a regime burdened by economic woes, inflicting human rights abuses on its people. … Only with nuclear weapons are they able to maintain their regime, hidden away from the world. This is how they keep their people in chains: through military tension.” A
National People’s Congress When China’s rubber
WORLD • March 9, 2013
5 D-OPENER.indd 10
2/20/13 11:50 AM
Faith for Living with Mike Milton is an outreach ministry of RTS that exists to glorify God through preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ through every means possible to as many people as possible. NatioNal televisioN Find Faith for Living on NRB TV at DirecTV channel 378 on Mondays at 8:30 a.m. and Sundays at 9:30 a.m. It airs on LegacyTV on Sundays at 7 a.m. (all times Eastern). Or watch anywhere and anytime at YouTube.com/faithforlivingRTS.
Radio Listen to “Faith for Living with Mike Milton� on eight local stations throughout Mississippi as well as five in North Carolina and two in Florida (visit www.faithforliving.net for a full listing of stations).
Mobile device apps Faith for Living is available as an app in the Android Market Place and through iTunes. Click or scan the QR code provided for your preferred platform.
CREDIT
Apple iTunes
5 D-OPENER.indd 11
Android
2/15/13 10:13 AM
Dispatches > News
Phone freefor-all
No homeschool haven The U.S. Justice Department wants to overturn asylum status granted to a homeschooling family in 2010 and deport them to Germany, where the parents likely face huge fines and criminal penalties, and could lose custody of their five school-age children.
Staten Island, N.Y.
No churches allowed?
The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a measure, 354-72, that would allow houses of worship to be eligible for federal disaster assistance in the wake of Superstorm Sandy. But despite significant House Democratic support, the bill’s future in the Senate isn’t clear. New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has urged the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to itself change the rules, due to the city’s reliance on churches in the disaster aftermath. But The New York Times reported that FEMA lawyers responded in a memo saying current law doesn’t allow aid for areas used as “worship space.” FEMA offers grants to nonprofits that provide “essential services” like homeless shelters and health clinics, and the bill would add houses of worship to the list of eligible organizations.
12
5 D12.indd 12
WORLD • March 9, 2013
romeikes: Wade Payne/ap • church: Carolyn Kaster/ap
Attorney General Eric Holder argues that Germany’s ban on homeschooling fails to violate the “fundamental rights” of Uwe and Hannelore Romeike, parents of six who are looking to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to give them permanent refugee status. The Romeikes fled Germany in 2008 after authorities fined them and forcibly took their children because they homeschool. In 2010, a U.S. immigration judge granted the Romeikes political asylum— the first time federal authorities granted protective status based on compulsory
schooling laws. The judge found the family has legitimate fear of persecution in Germany, where a small group of Christian homeschooling families have already been jailed, fined, and stripped of custody of their children for creating what the law terms “parallel societies.” The Department of Homeland Security, fearing backlash from European allies, immediately disputed the judge’s decision. Last May, the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) sided with the government. A circuit court ruling may take up to a year, according to the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), which is representing the Romeikes. A favorable verdict could draw more families to the United States from Germany and other European countries—including Sweden, Spain, and the Netherlands—where homeschooling is mostly illegal and heavily prosecuted. The U.S. government typically grants asylum to torture victims, political dis sidents, and religious minorities. In the past decade it has expanded asylum status to include several hundred harassed homosexuals. But Holder contends that persecuted homeschoolers fail to represent a “particular social group” needing U.S. protection. —Mary Jackson
The U.S. government may save $2 billion over the next three years by beefing up oversight of Lifeline, a program providing free phone service to 16 million low-income Americans. Impoverished households are eligible under the program to receive a single $9.25 phone subsidy each month, applied toward either land or mobile service. But millions of subscribers apparently have been making false claims about their income or living situation: Since the Federal Communications Commission enforced eligibility standards last year, five top mobile carriers have shed two-fifths of their Lifeline customers. The Lifeline program began in 1984 for landlines, and expanded in 2005 to include cell phones. It got attention last September after an Obama supporter in Cleveland touted her “Obama phone” in a viral internet video. Although President Obama didn’t start the program, it nearly tripled in size under his watch, laying out $2.2 billion in subsidies last year, up from $819 million in 2008. Free cell phones are provided not by Lifeline but by carriers like TracFone Wireless, which has grown significantly because of the program.
Worldmag.com: Your online source for today’s news, Christian views
2/20/13 11:02 AM
Celebrating 20 Years After 20 years our goals have never changed!
• Put God first - both personally and professionally, in every decision that we make. • Help families to stay healthy, by creating supplements that flat out work. • Donate All profits to fine Christian organizations such as Campus Crusade for Christ, The Jesus Film Project, World Vision and many more.
“It has been both a humbling and rewarding experience to witness God’s hand at work over the years at LifeSource Vitamins. Really, what better job could we have?” Bruce Brightman, Founder Call us today and we will mail you our new, 52 page color catalog containing hundreds of products with full descriptions & uses.
CREDIT
Call us today at (800) 567-8122
w w w . Li fe s o u r ce V itamin s.co m
5 D12.indd 13
2/15/13 4:45 PM
‘We lost the most,’ says Chinese mother Feng Jianmei, whose forced abortion last summer lit a firestorm against the country’s one-child policy, spoke out about her experience for the first time Feb. 14 on a Chinese TV station. A graphic photo of Feng next to her dead baby aborted at 7 months gestation went viral last June, angering citizens and leading to Chinese officials banning late-term abortions. Since then, public opinion has started to turn against the one-child policy: Several high-profile scholars have openly criticized the policy. Feng spoke to Dragon TV, a Shanghai satellite TV station broadcast over most of China, including Macao, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Throughout most of the video clip, the camera either kept her face out of focus, shot from far away or close up on her eyes. The young mother said she had moved 600 miles from her family and husband in her hometown of Shaanxi to Jiangsu to get away from the memories of her hometown and for medical treatment. Feng’s family faced harassment by the local government after the story went public, with
fficials following and tracking her o husband, slashing the tires of a family vehicle, and staging protests outside the hospital where Feng was staying.
“I thought that if I changed my living environment, my mood would get better,” Feng told the reporter in Mandarin. “After I went to Jiangsu province, I felt much better. Before, when people recognized me, it always
reminded me of the forced abortion. … I felt very uncomfortable.” Feng has also been in and out of the hospital for medical problems related to the forced abortion, and has had two small surgical procedures that cost her almost 10,000 RMB ($1,700). She is on medication also. When the photo went viral, the local government publicly apologized to Feng’s family, firing some officials, giving the family some compensation money, and promising to pay for any future hospital bills related to the abortion. But her treatment and surgeries have not been covered: “They told me about a reimbursement in the beginning, but they never mention it anymore.” Feng hopes to finish her treatment, get better, and move back to Shaanxi to be with her young daughter and her husband, Deng Jiyuan, who works at a cement factory. Six months later, Feng still feels the pain of her ordeal. “Several local government officials lost their jobs and I got compensation, but there is no real winner in this case,” she said. “We lost the most. We lost a baby.” —Angela Lu
Brutal scene
14
Jianmei: handout • CHEN: Xian Dai Jin Bao
deadly incident: Chen shows his torn jacket to a reporter.
When nearly a dozen Chinese officials tried to collect a fine from a couple accused of violating the country’s one-child policy, the ensuing chaos turned tragic: Leaving the scene with the accused mother in custody, the officials’ vehicle crushed to death her 13-month-old son. Chen Liandi, the baby’s father, told the local Xian Dai Jin Bao news agency that family-planning officials unexpectedly arrived at his home on Feb. 4 to collect a “social compensation fee” for violating the one-child policy. Chen and his wife, Li Yuhong, have three children. Chen says he followed officials outside with his infant son in his arms, and found his wife already in the car. When he tried to enter the car, Chen says someone pushed him, he dropped the baby, and the car began moving. “I wasn’t able to get my baby before the tire crushed him,” Chen told the news agency. “He was killed.” The deadly incident underscored the brutality of a one-child policy that sometimes imposes fines on families and prompts some officials to force mothers into abortions. Thousands of villagers protested the infant’s death outside local government headquarters, the BBC reported. “The Chinese Communist Party has no intention of ending coercive family planning any time soon,” said Reggie Littlejohn of the group Women’s Rights Without Frontiers. “But the voices of the Chinese people are getting stronger and stronger in protest against this violent totalitarianism.”
WORLD • March 9, 2013
Download WORLD’s iPad app today; details at worldmag.com/iPad 5 D14 and D15.indd 14
2/20/13 12:07 PM
Worldmag.com: Your online source for today’s news, Christian views
Odinga: Splash News/Newscom • Dubois: Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune/MCT/Newscom
Dispatches > News
Caught in the middle It’s hard for the U.S. president to play neutral in Kenya’s upcoming election by moses wasamu in Nairobi, Kenya
Jianmei: handout • CHEN: Xian Dai Jin Bao
Odinga: Splash News/Newscom • Dubois: Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune/MCT/Newscom
>>
Kenyans go to the polls to elect a new president on March 4 with two candidates on the ballot currently under indictment by the International Criminal Court over crimes against humanity—and with memories of deadly violence after the 2007 presidential election on everyone’s mind. The charges against Uhuru Kenyatta, son of Kenya’s founding president, and his deputy William Ruto, stem from that post-election violence that killed over 1,200 people. Not surprisingly, this election poses a challenge to the international community, with the possibility that indictees before The Hague court could become the East African nation’s next head of state and deputy. But not so to President Barack Obama. On Feb. 5 Obama sent a message via YouTube to Kenyans assuring them that the United States will accept the results of the Kenyan elections, and is willing to work with whomever they elect. As soon as the video drew widespread attention in Kenya, Kenyatta and Ruto rushed to commend Obama, and some of their supporters claimed the U.S. president had endorsed the pair.
That rumor spread, and two days later, U.S. Undersecretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson issued a clarification: The United States does not favor any candidate and the choices Kenyans make will “have consequences.” Many Kenyans interpreted that statement as support for Raila Odinga, Kenya’s current prime minister, considered the leading candidate. Political activists called for the Kenyan ambassador to the United States, Elkhana Odembo, to be recalled after he admitted he met with Carson. At one point Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked U.S. diplomats to clarify the U.S. position on the election after seemingly “contradictory statements” by Obama and Carson. Obama in the video clearly states, “The choice of who will lead Kenya is up to the Kenyan people. The United States does not support any candidate for office.” But his entanglement in Kenya’s presidential affairs may be unavoidable: Obama’s father comes from the same part of the country as Odinga and leaders of his Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD), including Ambassador Odembo. Tribal loyalties—and awareness of Obama’s African roots—are strong.
leading This election comes candidate: with fresh memories Odinga at a for Kenyans of the campaign rally aftermath of the 2007 in Malindi, Kenya. elections. Kenyans turned against each other then in an orgy of violence, leading to the death of more than 1,200 and the displacement of more than 600,000 people. The church in Kenya stood accused of abdicating its responsibility and taking sides in the political arena, which made it unable to play a role when a dispute broke out between the main political players at that time. However, this time the Christian community is pro-active. Churches brought together political players from different parties in one forum to debate their policies and help Kenyans to make an informed choice—hopefully without deadly violence. They organized the first ever debate for the vice-presidential candidates, which focused on the candidates’ religious beliefs, corruption, gay rights, and reproductive health issues. At the end of the debate, the candidates made a pledge to abide by the decision of the voters, and to use legal means to solve any disputes that may arise. —Moses Wasamu is editor of South Sudan’s Christian Times and lives in Nairobi
Resigned The head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Joshua Dubois, 30, resigned last month—and plans to write a devotional book using daily Scripture meditations he emailed to the president. DuBois, a Pentecostal minister named at 26 to head the office that President George W. Bush created in 2001, turned it into a vehicle to rally support among religious groups for the president’s policies, rather than fostering a White House partnership with faith-based entities over community projects. It failed to head off the ongoing clash between the White House and religious organizations, like the Catholic Church, over Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate.
Download WORLD’s iPad app today; details at worldmag.com/iPad
5 D14 and D15.indd 15
M a r c h 9 , 2 0 1 3 • W O R L D
15
2/20/13 12:09 PM
Dispatches > News
adopting out
A Feb. 8 email from a North Carolina–based adoption agency stunned more than a dozen U.S. families waiting to adopt children from Kyrgyzstan: Officials from Christian World Adoption (CWA) said they were closing their operation “effective immediately.” A statement on the website of CWA— the only U.S. adoption agency accredited in Kyrgyzstan—cited rising costs and increasing restrictions on international adoptions as reasons for closing. CWA clients Shannon and Kevin Fenske had been matched with Kamila, a girl with special needs from Kyrgyzstan. Shannon said the family wouldn’t give up: “This does not change the fact that our children continue to languish in institutions and we continue to love them as much as we did yesterday.” Kyrgyzstan suspended foreign adoptions in 2008, but 15 U.S. families had begun the process of applying and paying for adoption services through CWA. CWA didn’t indicate how or if the agency would interact with affected families or children, and the agency erased contact information from its site. Adoption ARK in Buffalo Grove, Ill., another agency, also announced it would close in February. The agency cited Russia’s recent ban on adoptions for U.S. families, and noted its Russia program provided half its income. The agency’s website provides an email address for families with questions.
STD epidemic The United States faces an ongoing and severe sexually transmitted disease epidemic, according to two February health studies. More than 19 million new infections are reported every year, up from 15 million in 1996. New cases include a rise in HIV, the virus that leads to AIDS—and half of the new cases affect people ages 15 to 24. “Young women in particular are at greater risk,” said Catherine Satterwhite, an author of one of the reports and a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention epidemiologist.
16
5 D16.indd 16
WORLD • March 9, 2013
Sen. Rand Paul tells Israelis it’s time to wean off the U.S. dole by Jill Nelson
>>
Israel was the first stop on what appears to be a resumé-building trek for Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., perhaps on his way to a 2016 presidential bid. More than 50 Christian and Jewish leaders accompanied the senator, including GOP chairs of Iowa and South Carolina—two key early primary states. The privately funded trip was portrayed as a “fact-finding” mission, but Paul made two public appearances during his first trip to the Holy Land. Paul is generally aligned with the libertarian views of father Ron Paul, a former congressman from Texas and three-time presidential candidate, but the younger Paul has rewritten parts of his father’s political legacy to conform to a more mainstream GOP platform. Yet during a speech at the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies, he touted his father’s foreign policy of slashing all foreign aid—including a gradual reduction of the $3 billion in annual military aid to Israel. “It will be harder and harder to be a friend if we are out of money,” the 50-year-old senator said. Reducing aid to Israel, Paul argued, would boost Israel’s defense industry and cut the strings of policy dictated by the United States. He also said settlement building in Israel is “none of our business” and criticized the United States for supplying arms to Egypt. The January trip was unusual for a lawmaker: It was funded by the American Family Association and organized by evangelical Christian leader David Lane and Orthodox Jewish leader Richard Roberts. Paul, elected this year to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during the eight-day tour. He also further clarified his policy stance on the Middle East during a speech to the Heritage Foundation in February: “Some libertarians argue that Western occupation fans the flames of radical Islam—I agree. But I don’t agree that absent Western occupation that radical Islam ‘goes quietly into that good night.’”
paul: sasson tiram • Fenskes: handout/the Fenske family/ap
NOT GIVING UP: Kevin Fenske with his son Esen (left), who was adopted from Kyrgyzstan in 2007, and Kamilia (right) during a visit to Kamilia in Kyrgyzstan.
On pilgrimage
Available in Apple’s App Store: Download WORLD’s iPad app today
2/20/13 11:28 AM
Taught by Professor Hannah B. Harvey
IM ED T E OF IT
east tennessee state university
FE
off
I
L
O
RD
8
70%
R
LIM
The Art of Storytelling: From Parents to Professionals
ER BY APR
Master the Timeless Art of Storytelling The gift of storytelling may be one of life’s most powerful—and envied—skills. A story well told can make us laugh or bring us to tears. A story poorly told can be positively painful to experience. Now, in The Art of Storytelling, internationally recognized performer and award-winning Professor Hannah B. Harvey of East Tennessee State University teaches you the tried-and-true methods professional storytellers use to capture and hold onto an audience’s attention. Although you may never set foot on a stage, knowing what storytellers do in the process of crafting and delivering memorable tales can help you enhance the stories you tell everyday—to your children at bedtime, in your conversational anecdotes, and in your presentations at work. CREDIT
Offer expires 04/08/13
1-800-832-2412
www.thegreatcourses.com/7wm
5 D16.indd 17
lecture titles 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.
Telling a Good Story The Storytelling Triangle Connecting with Your Story Connecting with Your Audience Telling Family Stories The Powerful Telling of Fairy Tales Myth and the Hero’s Journey Tensive Conflict and Meaning Giving Yourself Permission to Tell Visualization and Memory Discovering Point of View The Artful Manipulation of Time and Focus Narrator—Bridging Characters and Audience 14. Developing Complex Characters 15. Plot and Story Structures 16. Emotional Arc and Empathy 17. Varying the Narrator’s Perspective 18. Vocal Intonation 19. Preparing to Perform 20. Putting Performance Anxiety to Good Use 21. Adapting to Different Audiences 22. Invitation to the Audience—Mindset 23. Keeping Your Audience’s Attention 24. Remember Your Stories— The Power of Orality
The Art of Storytelling: From Parents to Professionals
Course no. 9313 | 24 lectures (30 minutes/lecture)
SAVE UP TO $185 DVD $254.95 NOW $69.95 CD $179.95 NOW $49.95
+$10 Shipping, Processing, and Lifetime Satisfaction Guarantee
Priority Code: 77869
Designed to meet the demand for lifelong learning, The Great Courses is a highly popular series of audio and video lectures led by top professors and experts. Each of our more than 400 courses is an intellectually engaging experience that will change how you think about the world. Since 1990, over 10 million courses have been sold.
2/15/13 10:18 AM
Dispatches > Human Race DIED
SUED A -year-old Texas teen, identified only as “R.E.K.,” sued her parents on Feb. for trying to force her to have an abortion. The suit claims the teen is under intense pressure from her parents and her mother threatened to slip her an “abortion pill” against her will. The Texas Center for Defense of Life is representing the teen and says it has won similar cases. HACKED Former presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush both had their email accounts hacked, a Bush family spokesman confirmed on Feb. . An online user nicknamed “Guccifer” claims to have accessed six Bush
WORLD • MARCH 9, 2013
5 HUMAN RACE.indd 18
family email accounts and backed up his claim by posting family photos and alleged correspondence about the elder Bush’s recent illness. The Secret Service is investigating the incident.
DIED Native American author and educator Richard Twiss, , died Feb. from complications following a heart attack. Twiss, a member of North Dakota’s Sicangu Lakota Oyate tribe, wrote the book One Church Many Tribes and co-founded Wiconi International, an organization committed to reconciliation between Native Americans and other Americans.
CHARGED Federal prosecutors filed formal criminal charges against former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and his wife Sandi Feb. . They allege the son of civil-rights activist Jesse Jackson used , in campaign funds for personal benefit and knowingly filed false campaign-finance reports with the Federal Election Commission. Jackson’s wife is separately charged on alleged false income tax filings. Jackson resigned in November shortly after winning reelection and undergoing treatment for a bipolar disorder. In a statement he said, “I offer no excuses for my conduct. … I want to offer my sincerest apologies to my family, my friends and all of my supporters for my errors in judgment.” CHARGED South African Olympian Oscar Pistorius, Pistorius , was charged on Feb. with murdering his -year-old girlfriend. Known as the “Blade Runner,” Pristorius is a Paralympic star who became the first double-
amputee to compete in the Olympics when he ran the meters last year in London. Pistorius, who was not wearing his prosthetic legs at the time, said he fired shots at what he thought was an intruder.
DIED Howard Hendricks, longtime Dallas Theological Seminary professor, prominent author and speaker for Promise Keepers, and chaplain of the Dallas Cowboys, died Feb. at . Hendricks served for more than years on the faculty at DTS, traveled to more than countries to minister and teach, and wrote books. “You’re looking at a completely fulfilled human being,” Hendricks told the Dallas Morning News in . “If I died today having produced some of the people God has given me the privilege of shaping, it will have been worth showing up on the planet.”
MORBELLI: HANDOUT • BUSHES: PAT SULLIVAN/AP • TWISS: WICONI INTERNATIONAL • JACKSONS: ALEXANDRA BUXBAUM/REX FEATURES/AP • PISTORIUS: ANNA GOWTHORPE/PRESS ASSOCIATION/AP • HENDRICKS: HANDOUT
Jennifer McKenna Morbelli, , died Feb. after undergoing a late-term abortion by abortionist LeRoy Carhart at his Germantown, Md., clinic. Carhart reportedly did not respond to calls for help on behalf of Morbelli, who died of massive internal hemorrhaging at a local hospital. Morbelli, a resident of New Rochelle, N.Y.—where late-term abortions are illegal—sought to end her pregnancy after discovering her daughter had developed fetal abnormalities.
Stay connected: Sign up to receive email updates at worldmag.com/email
2/20/13 11:57 AM
Christians are being killed. Churches are being burned or locked up.
Fiction? not at all To date over 1,800 individuals have been killed for believing in Jesus in Nigeria.
A FREE 20-minute DVD of first-hand accounts is available by going to www.MedicalAmbassadors.org/nigeria.html.
Medical Ambassadors International Healing the world Christ’s way -Luke 4:18-19
Watch it. Share it. Our brothers and sisters need us to stand with them in prayer.
Post Office Box 1302 Salida, California 95368-1302 toll free: 888.403.0600 info@med-amb.org www.MedicalAmbassadors.org
CREDIT
They went about...destitute, persecuted, and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. Hebrews 11:37-38
5 HUMAN RACE.indd 19
2/15/13 10:20 AM
Dispatches > Quotables ‘I want a hot shower and a daggum Whataburger.’
Whole Foods CEO John Mackey in a February speech to the International Students for Liberty Conference. He said capitalism, which has done so much to reduce poverty in the world, has a “branding problem.”
‘This is not the time, for love or flowers.’ Driver Abu Rashed in Damascus on the downturn in flower sales ahead of Valentine’s Day amid a bloody insurgency and an army crackdown in Syria.
‘I was brought up to be the fastest driver, not the fastest girl.’ NASCAR driver Danica Patrick on winning the Daytona 500 pole. She became the first woman to gain the top spot for a race in Sprint Cup history.
20
WORLD • March 9, 2013
5 QUOTABLES.indd 20
‘We have worked for years to get drunk drivers off our roadways. Now we’re dealing with a driver that is much more dangerous.’ Insurance expert Mark Hanna on his support for a ban on texting while driving in Texas.
‘When the founders wrote about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they didn’t mean longer vacations and more comfortable hammocks.’ Historian David McCullough (left) in an interview with the Harvard Business Review.
PATRICK: Nigel Kinrade/Autostock/AP • CRUISE: John David Mercer/AP • MACKEY: Richard Drew/AP • SYRIA: AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/Getty Images • MCCULLOUGH: Bebeto Matthews/AP
‘The problem is not that there is an unequal distribution of wealth in the world. The problem is that there is an unequal distribution of capitalism.’
Download WORLD’s iPad app today; details at worldmag.com/iPad
2/19/13 3:52 PM
CREDIT
DEBORAH KNIGHT, a Carnival Triumph cruise passenger after finally getting off the ship that had been stranded in the Gulf of Mexico for five days. She said she had gotten sick on the ship and was afraid of its food.
CREDIT
PATRICK: Nigel Kinrade/Autostock/AP • CRUISE: John David Mercer/AP • MACKEY: Richard Drew/AP • SYRIA: AAMIR QURESHI/AFP/Getty Images • MCCULLOUGH: Bebeto Matthews/AP
2/19/13 3:32 PM
5 QUOTABLES.indd 21
Dispatches > Quick Takes
They can change a diaper as well as they can secure a building. And Jonathan Gilliam is betting there are enough safety-and security-conscious parents in Manhattan to make his new company, Tactical Nanny, a success. The former Navy SEAL and Upper West Side resident is hiring former U.S. military veterans to serve as nannies to wealthy New York families. “They can keep tragedy from happening,” Gilliam told the New York Post. “You’re paying for the peace of mind.” For , per week, Gilliam will set up a family with an ex-military nanny who has undergone tactical training and has a security clearance.
A -year-old running from police officers crossed into the wrong man’s backyard on Feb. . Homeowner Terry Miracle, , of Longview, Wash., was weeding in his backyard when he saw a man running full speed across his lawn. Suspecting something was wrong, the octogenarian moved to intercept Morgan Perry Bluehorse, the fleeing burglary suspect. “He was coming at me just like the runners used to do when I played football,” Miracle said, recalling his football-playing days more than years ago. “I kicked out my knee, as I always did with a crossbody block, and caught his knee with my knee. … He went down and so did I.” Bluehorse got up and began running again, but local police quickly caught up and apprehended the suspect. Miracle said he wasn’t hurt—just sore.
After donations, bake sales, and silent auctions, Stratford Landing Elementary School in Fairfax, Va., finally has new playground equipment. But ever since Nov. , the gift donated by the local Parent-Teacher Association has been wrapped up in caution tape by school district officials. Officials with Fairfax County Public Schools decided the apparatus, which cost the PTA ,, was too dangerous for the elementaryaged children. Instead, the school district is offering to cough up , to revamp the playground itself.
WORLD • MARCH 9, 2013
5 QUICK TAKES.indd 22
BREWERY: JOSHUA BERLINGER/AP • ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE • MIRACLE: KPTV • PLAYGROUND: MICHAEL S. WILLIAMSON/THE WASHINGTON POST VIA GETTY IMAGES
Download WORLD’s iPad app today; details at worldmag.com/iPad
2/19/13 3:38 PM
MARIJUANA: HANDOUT • THODE: HANDOUT • BOYFRIEND: WANG ZHAO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE • BEAR: JOHN PITCHER/PHOTOS.COM
Beer is for more than drinking in Alaska. It’s also for making more beer. The Alaskan Brewing Company in Juneau recently installed a new .-million boiler system that allows the brewery to burn its leftovers as fuel. Instead of discarding spent grain, the new, first-of-its-kind boiler system allows brewers to power their furnace with the residual barley and malt left over from the beer-making process. According to corporate officials, the “beer-powered beer” method will allow the company to offset up to percent of its fuel costs and save about , per year.
Anthony Parish of New Smyrna Beach, Fla., may have made one of the worst choices possible for locating an alleged pot-growing operation—a K- dog training facility. On Jan. , members of a K- team from Kentucky training at a private facility in New Smyrna Beach were surprised when their drugsniffing dogs began pulling them through some woods on the property. Eventually, the Kentucky trainees discovered the drug-growing operation with marijuana plants. A subsequent investigation by the sheriff’s office led to the arrest of -year-old Parish, who lived in a nearby trailer.
Some college students complain when they make a bad grade. Megan Thode sued. The -year-old former Lehigh University student filed a . million lawsuit against the Bethlehem, Pa., school, contending the C-plus she received in a course ruined her chances for a career in counseling. Proceedings for the trial began Feb. . According to Thode, the grade prevented her from moving on to the next level in her master’s coursework. She eventually earned her master’s degree, just not the one she originally wanted. A university lawyer told Northampton County Judge Emil Giordano that a courtroom is not the place to decide grades, and on Feb. Giordano agreed. He ruled that Thode had failed to prove the grade was anything other than a “purely academic evaluation.”
MARIJUANA: HANDOUT • THODE: HANDOUT • BOYFRIEND: WANG ZHAO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE • BEAR: JOHN PITCHER/PHOTOS.COM
BREWERY: JOSHUA BERLINGER/AP • ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE • MIRACLE: KPTV • PLAYGROUND: MICHAEL S. WILLIAMSON/THE WASHINGTON POST VIA GETTY IMAGES
Forget dating websites. China’s newest online craze may take the romance out of Valentine’s Day, but it certainly makes life easier. Young Chinese women worried about being alone on holidays are increasingly turning to boyfriend rental agencies. According to Taobao, a popular Chinese shopping website, online searches for the term “boyfriend rental” has soared more than percent over this time last year. Renting a boyfriend for a movie date might cost . Taking one home to show off to parents during the lengthy Chinese New Year celebrations might cost a woman considerably more. Officials with the website said that internet traffic for boyfriend rental agents has been especially busy this year as the Chinese New Year, Feb. , closely coincided with Valentine’s Day.
Employees of Kalispell Public Schools in Montana were shocked to find they had earned so much when they received an email copy of the W- tax forms on Jan. . According to a clerk with the school district, new software caused a glitch showing that district employees had made four times as much income as they had. The mistake was quickly corrected, but not before several school employees printed out the mistaken W-s for framing.
Once an emblem of global warming’s collateral damage, arctic polar bears face a new threat: overpopulation. According to a report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, some , to , polar bears live in the Arctic Circle today—four times as many as years ago. Experts like author Zac Unger, who recently traveled to the Arctic to tell the story of polar bears’ plight, have changed their attitude toward the animals. “My humble plan was to become a hero of the environmental movement,” Unger told NPR on Feb. . “I was going to write this mournful elegy for the polar bears.” Instead, he saw a landscape bustling with bear activity. “Polar bear populations are large, and the truth is that we can’t look at it as a monolithic population that is all going one way or another.”
MARCH 9, 2013 • WORLD
5 QUICK TAKES.indd 23
2/19/13 3:40 PM
Janie B. Cheaney
Number crunched Quantifying mankind adds up to a data-driven tyranny
>>
B of the campaign, Democrats who should have been quaking in their boots because of their candidate’s rotten record and pathetic economy were buoyed by the predictions of Nate Silver of The New York Times and Drew Linzer of Emory University. Karl Rove and other traditional strategists were projecting a big win for Romney based on history and precedent, but Linzer and Silver calmly analyzed the data and came up with numbers eerily close to the final result. Among the many evil consequences of Nov. is this: the apparent validation of truth-as-data. History need not apply; old models no longer model. Numbers tell the story. Therefore, deep analysis of data is all we need
JUST THE FACTS: Silver.
WORLD • MARCH 9, 2013
5 CHEANEY.indd 24
NAM Y. HUH/AP
to determine policy and set a course for the future. And speaking of the future, we’re moving beyond the old Democrat/Republican, liberal/conservative dialectic. Some think we’re even moving beyond politics, a state of affairs most Americans long to see. But not so fast. In an online article called “Programmed for Primetime,” writer and editor Bhaskar Sunkara dissects the “fetishizing of objectivity” common among a new breed of journalists. Rather than observing people, they analyze trends. Instead of long hours on the phone tracking down a story, they devour charts and chow down on stats. They’re partial to the adjective “scientific.” They shrug off political labels and see themselves as innocent of a worldview. Let the dinosaurs in Congress bicker and gridlock; the reporters will report the facts and move the nation inexorably toward a data-based, efficient society. According to Sunkara, this trend began not with the computer age but with the progressive era in the
early th century, when muckraking journalists started to position themselves above politics. They were prosecutors, exposing obvious evil and promoting obvious solutions. For them there was one valid way to look at an issue, and that was the scientific way. Differences of opinion could be boiled down to personality (as in, X wants to go to war because of unresolved doubts about his manhood, or more recently, X objects to Y’s policies because X is a racist). We wonder why it’s so hard to talk about ideas and principles in today’s political atmosphere. Here’s one reason: To a growing segment of opinion-makers, there’s no such thing as an idea or principle. Those are outdated “models.” There is only information, represented by numbers, buttressed by polls and charts. This is a natural—or scientific, if you will— outgrowth of scientism, the belief that measurable quantities are the only reliable truth. Two signposts pointed us down that road: Darwinism, which provided a substitute for God, and the obvious benefits of applied science to human life. But while enjoying our air-conditioned ride with a well-stocked refrigerator and surround-sound, we forget where scientism might take us: humans objectified out of humanity. The new style of journalism and policy-making admits nothing but “facts.” No need, said Professor Linzer, “to go on gut instincts or intuition or whatever else the pundits are doing, when we have actual real information.” No need for philosophy—didn’t Stephen Hawking in his latest book say philosophy was dead? No worldview, just a landscape of quantities. The number-crunchers shall inherit the earth, but by that time it may not be worth inheriting. Even while checking its pulse and counting its carbs and measuring its heart rate on a treadmill, humanity still operates on will and emotion. Unlike classic Marxists, today’s policy wonks acknowledge such things as will and emotion and claim to want the greatest happiness for the greatest number—the ideal goal of public policy, according to philosopher Peter Singer (who recommends infanticide as one way to achieve it). The department of Health and Human Services has even commissioned a panel of experts to quantify “subjective well-being.” Not far down the road: a Beatitude Czar. “The greatest happiness for the greatest number”— of what? Men and women, or actuarial tables? The stated goal may be the full realization of persons, but the result can only be the Abolition of Man. A
Email: jcheaney@worldmag.com
2/15/13 11:19 AM
Nam Y. Huh/ap
5 CHEANEY.indd 25
2/18/13 4:30 PM
PATRICK HENRY COLLEGE TEEN LEADERSHIP CAMPS
r e m Sum ...
e s o p r u P On Maximize your summer Study with experts Explore the nation’s capital Prepare for your future Have fun with other teens!
Strategic Intelligence • June 9 - 15 History: “The Founding Fathers and the Classical Tradition” • June 16 - 22 Mock Trial* • June 16 - 29 Debate* • July 14 - 27 Presidency • July 14 - 20 Leadership and Vocation • July 21 - 27 * Two week camp
5 MOVIES.indd 26
teens.phc.edu 1.888.338.1776 teencamps@phc.edu Like us on Facebook at ‘PHC Teen Camps’
2/18/13 4:15 PM
CREDIT
Speech • July 7 - 13
Reviews Movies TV > Books > QA > Music
Back to the Bible MOVIES: Economics and new technology rekindle Hollywood’s interest in Old Testament epics by MEGAN BASHAM in New York
>>
PICTURE-ALLIANCE/NEWSCOM
E of Oscar-nominated director Darren Aronofsky’s upcoming biblical epic, Noah, cries big budget. From the ark (a towering, multi-level construction built to Genesis’ specifications); to the A-list cast (Russell Crowe and Anthony Hopkins); to the large, meandering crews of teamsters (whose strict lunch and break rules are pushing shooting hours off schedule), it’s clear that Paramount is committed to making Noah a hit. The film, which is expected to hit theaters in March and will reportedly cost the studio million, represents the first of what many industry insiders are calling the return of Bible movies. And they’re not talking about the low-cost, church-financed productions that have found a measure of success in recent years. They’re talking about major directors, major stars, and major layouts of cash. Just a few of the projects in the pipeline at the moment are two competing Moses films—one with Steven Spielberg attached to direct, another with Ridley Scott; a Pontius Pilate epic that will reportedly star Brad Pitt; and a retelling of Cain and Abel produced by Will Smith. Though not strictly a Bible-based movie, there are even rumors that MGM is planning to remake the Charlton Heston classic, Ben Hur. All of this raises the question—why, after years of giving Scripture the cold shoulder, has Hollywood apparently fallen in love again with the good book? Jonathan Bock, president of the Christian entertainment marketing firm, Grace Hill Media, HOLYWOOD: Charlton believes at least one of the Heston as Moses in The motivations is simple Ten Commandments.
Email: mbasham@worldmag.com
5 MOVIES.indd 27
MARCH 9, 2013 • WORLD
2/20/13 9:23 AM
Reviews > Movies & TV
conomics. “The thing about Bible stories is that they’re public e domain. In other words, studios don’t have to a pay license fee to obtain them—they don’t have to pay Marvel; they don’t have to pay DC [Comics]. And as an added bonus they [Bible stories] have a huge built-in awareness level.” TELEVISION Of course, this has been true for the past five decades, but Bock says studios’ recent awakening to the financial potential of Bible films can be summed up in five words: The Survivor producer tackles a miniseries covering Passion of the Christ. Genesis to Revelation by Emily Belz “Entertainment is built on a business model of trying to catch lightning in a bottle twice,” explains Bock. “So if a movie The five-part, 10-hour miniseries The Bible debuts on the History Channel on with vampires becomes a huge hit, you’ll March 3, covering Genesis to Revelation, the garden of Eden to the island of Patmos. start seeing a lot of vampire movies. But Mark Burnett, who produced wildly successful reality shows like Survivor and The because Passion was made outside of the Voice, helmed the series, which he and his actress wife Roma Downey (Touched by studio system, Hollywood wasn’t primed to an Angel), a co-producer and actress in the series, worked on for three years. take advantage of it. It takes time to develop Burnett calls this “the most important project I have ever undertaken.” He is institutional knowledge, and it has taken targeting an audience beyond church groups—he believes more people will see this them this long to figure out how to produce, in the long run than all his other shows combined. “Biblical literacy is down,” said distribute, and market films of this kind.” Burnett at a screening with Downey and a few reporters in New York. “The book is Bock says Passion not only blazed the the foundation of all our society and laws, so not knowing it—it makes you lacking.” trail for making hits out of Bible stories, but Both Downey and Burnett have told media that they aren’t trying to evangelize also for a new way for the film industry to people or stir controversy with the series. “We’ve tried to not make this talk at you relate to religious audiences. “Over the and lecture you,” said Burnett. “The story is just the story.” course of the last 12 years,” he says, But the film is clear in its Christian message, a message both Burnett and Downey “Hollywood has gone from seeing the faith believe. “In creation, we fell away from God’s grace,” said Downey. “The arching journey community as an enemy to seeing it as an had to be how we got back to God, ultimately through Jesus.” Though much of the important customer, a bankable audience.” dialogue is contrived, the writers wove in direct quotes from the Bible—for example, While it might not be surprising that some Isaiah’s prophecy about the Messiah plays over the scene of Jesus’ birth. Burnett in the faith community would be leery of thought the series’ writers understood the message even though he didn’t think this new trend, Bock says believers should many of them believed it. “They analyzed [the Bible] cover to cover,” he said. “They give the mainstream offerings a chance: said, ‘Here’s the through-line.’ And it’s exactly the right through-line.” “It’s in the studios’ best interest to get them Burnett takes some minor artistic liberties, but overall he gets the story right and right, so they’re trying to get them right.” brings a professional edge to the storytelling. This production has more professional In evidence of Bock’s point, the staff of chops than other “Christian”-made films, like, say, Fireproof, directed by a Baptist Noah includes one member whose job title
set & crowe: Paramount Pictures
would surely have been a uzzle to filmmakers 15 years p ago—theological advisor. To make sure the movie gives appropriate weight to the spiritual significance of the flood account, Paramount hired former youth pastor John Snowden to give them notes on the script, an opportunity Snowden says he takes seriously. “I’ve big budget: Darren Aronofsky’s ark (left); Crowe as Noah (above). really tried to make sure they understand what this story means to those of us who view the Bible as the inerrant word of God. I’ve tried to explain where Noah belongs in the overarching story of God’s redemption of mankind.” Asked if he sees a future in this kind of consulting, Snowden says he’s refused to let himself consider the possibility. “I was
28
WORLD • March 9, 2013
5 MOVIES.indd 28
See all our movie reviews at worldmag.com/movies
2/20/13 9:25 AM
The Bible: Lightworkers Media/Hearst Productions Inc. Burnett & Downey: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
Ultimate reality
THE BIBLE: LIGHTWORKERS MEDIA/HEARST PRODUCTIONS INC. BURNETT & DOWNEY: FREDERICK M. BROWN/GETTY IMAGES
SET & CROWE: PARAMOUNT PICTURES
worried if I did I would start tempering my words with a view to getting another project. My job is to represent the truth of Scripture to the filmmakers as best as I can without worrying how they might take it.” For the most part, Snowden says he’s found Aronofsky and his producers receptive to what he has to say. “They’ve shown a lot of respect for the concerns I’ve brought up and a lot of willingness to make adjustments.” While the man behind such R-rated films as Black Swan and The Wrestler may not seem a likely cheerleader for Bible movies, Aronofsky, who is Jewish, says he’s actually been trying to get Noah made since his breakthrough film, Pi, in . “When I first went to studios with it I was a very young guy, and the Hallmark movie with Jon Voigt was coming out at the time. And even though what I was pitching was a very
pastor. Hans Zimmer, an Oscar-winner who composed the score for Gladiator, composed The Bible’s score. Burnett also got a hand from the special effects company that won an Oscar for its work on Gladiator. The series has some of the big cinematic feel of the award-winning film The Ten Commandments. “I think God calls people with the right skill sets at the right time,” said Burnett. “We’re commercial filmmakers. We know what we’re doing.” But even for the most accomplished filmmaker, a series on the entire Bible is ambitious and hard to manage. In this production a distracting narrator pulls the viewer out of immersion in the story, though Burnett argued a narrator was necessary because the series zooms across thousands of years. What Burnett and AMBITIOUS: Burnett and Downey showed us were Downey; Abraham (Gary excerpts fresh from the Oliver) prepares Isaac (Hugo editing floor, so I can’t Rossi) for sacrifice in a scene vouch for the entire series, from The Bible (above).
different thing, everyone was like, ‘Nah they just did that.’ But it’s always been in my head.” Now, though, along with economic trends favoring Scripturebased films, Aronofsky says technological developments have made studios appreciate the opportunity for sweeping, grand spectacles that Old Testament movies, in particular, present. “We have these incredible new technological tools like CGI that have developed to a level that would allow us to take on miraculous scenes. So doing justice to the events of the Bible is finally something you can make photo-real.” Aronofsky speculates that the current glut of comic-bookbased movies may finally tire audiences. “We’ve making all these superhero films yet the original superheroes haven’t been given the time of day,” he points out, arguing that Bible narratives have the potential to be better movies. “If you look at the Superman and Batman stories,” he says, “they’re just not as rich as the biblical stories are—they don’t have the complexity. And [biblical] stories go so much deeper in our imagination.” A
but everything I saw was theologically orthodox. They consulted with academics and theologians and pastors across the spectrum for the series. The series is also entertaining, but despite the high-grade special effects, there are moments that have a community-theater feel. Characters appear with too much hairspray or too pronounced a perm that poor Jews in the Roman Empire couldn’t have. Burnett shot the series in Morocco (which is ironic because the country has cracked down on missionary activity in recent years, kicking out many Christians). The cast is mostly British and Australian, but relatively racially diverse. The actor who plays Jesus, Diogo Morgado, is Portuguese. You hear traces of his accent throughout, which is a nice change from the usual silver screen Jesus who seems so familiar to Americans. Still, Morgado fits a popular image of Jesus—he has nice hair and he’s handsome, while the “Man of Sorrows” probably wasn’t. The series gives John the Baptist dreadlocks, and you imagine that Jesus might have had at least a few himself from sleeping on boats. Likely there will be disputes on finer theological points in the series, but Burnett said to such critics, “Get out of the granular weeds and just enjoy the grand old story.”
MARCH 9, 2013 • WORLD
5 MOVIES.indd 29
2/20/13 9:25 AM
Treadmill swerve When insanity wins awards
>>
BY MARVIN OLASKY
WORLD • MARCH 9, 2013
5 BOOKS.indd 30
book, but I wanted to look again: Why would this book about an ancient book buzz Buzzy Jackson and panels of prize-givers? Was I wrong to pan it? I’ve concluded, to quote Jefferson Smith in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, “Either I’m dead right, or I’m crazy.” (To which Senator MacPherson replies, “You wouldn’t care to put that to a vote, would you?”) I might with fear and trembling put that to a vote of WORLD readers but I wouldn’t submit to a Pulitzer panel, because with my submission would come a suggestion—derived from Walker Percy, who won a National Book Award a halfcentury ago—that latter-day awardee Greenblatt is both dead wrong and crazy. Greenblatt, an atheist, praises the ancient atheist writer Lucretius, who purportedly made it possible “to live an ethical life without reference to postmortem rewards and punishments; to contemplate without trembling the death of the soul.” Here’s Greenblatt’s
MICHAEL DWYER/AP
G C, a friend and a visionary pro-life leader in the s and s, once talked with me about his fear of nonexistence, which he felt strongly since he almost died before birth. Guy did die in an auto accident on Nov. , . It’s important to me that he still exists. It’s important to me that I will still exist after death. Existence, though, is apparently unimportant to Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve (Norton, ), which won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Greenblatt also gained praise from an NPR reviewer who called The Swerve “a wonder” and a Los Angeles Times critic who called it “wondrous.” Many other reviewers also went ape over the book, which left Boston Globe critic Buzzy Jackson “inspired.” I reviewed The Swerve in , before it gained such encomia, and was unimpressed. I don’t recall previously burdening long-suffering WORLD readers with two reviews of the same
catechism: “If you can hold on to and repeat to yourself the simplest fact of existence—atoms and void and nothing else, atoms and void and nothing else, atoms and void and nothing else—your life will change.” Lucretius, Greenblatt writes, was so wise that he mocked those dying and saddened by the thought that “never again will your dear children race for the prize of your first kisses and touch your heart with pleasure too profound for words.” Lucretius offered these words of supposed comfort: “You will not care, because you will not exist.” Greenblatt argues that contemporary atheism is great because “the fear of some horrendous punishment waiting for one in a realm beyond the grave no longer weighs heavily on most modern men and women.” Really? Isn’t nonexistence punishment? Greenblatt does quote one ancient Roman opponent of such thinking, Cicero, who wrote about “the dread of perishing. … To be told that one perishes completely and forever, soul as well as body, is hardly a consolation.” But Greenblatt never comes to grips with that, and merely praises the dying Epicurus for (according to his followers) “achieving serenity of spirit by recalling all of the pleasures he had experienced in his life.” That wouldn’t have made Guy Condon serene, and it wouldn’t work on me—think of all the endless wonders I’d be missing! And that brings me to Walker Percy’s worth-repeating note about insanity: “The present-day unbeliever is crazy because he finds himself born into a world of endless wonders, having no notion how he got here, a world in which he … grows old, gets sick, and dies, and is quite content to have it so … as if his prostate were not growing cancerous, his arteries turning to chalk, his brain cells dying off by the millions, as if the worms were not going to have him in no time at all.” Lucretius and Greenblatt want us to be serene as we’re heading toward a cliff (far worse than the fiscal one) at mph and no brakes. That’s crazy. Happily, God gives us an alternative. A
Email: molasky@worldmag.com
2/15/13 10:31 AM
CARTOONS: HANDOUT
Reviews > Books
NOTABLE BOOKS
SPOTLIGHT
Four Newbery Award and Honor winners for > reviewed by .
The One and Only Ivan Katherine Applegate Ivan is a gorilla—”four hundred pounds of pure power”— who lives in a seedy roadside attraction in Washington state. “Gorillas are not complainers. We’re dreamers, poets, philosophers, nap-takers.” Though confined to a glass-walled cage all day, he is blessed in his friends: motherly Stella the elephant, cynical Bob the dog—and Julia, the janitor’s daughter who gives Ivan his first paper and crayon, introducing him to art. When baby elephant Ruby joins the menagerie, Ivan is touched by her vulnerability and longs to protect her, but how? His story is quiet and winsome, and worthy of a place alongside classic animal fantasies like Charlotte’s Web.
Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon Steve Sheinkin In , Adolf Hitler was preparing to invade Poland and the scientific community was all abuzz with the possibility of atomic fission. The best intelligence suggested the Germans were using fission to develop a bomb of unimaginable destructive power. Albert Einstein advised President Roosevelt that the United States must counter with its own atomic program, and thus begins a sprawling, multifaceted story involving four nations, many nationalities, spies and counterspies, genius and folly. At Los Alamos, J. Robert Oppenheimer led “the world’s largest collection of crackpots”—riddled with Soviet spies—while resistance fighters in Norway spearheaded the effort to derail the Germans. It’s a complex story well told.
Three Times Lucky Sheila Turnage Mo LoBeau, of Tupelo Landing, N.C., dates her original luck from her birth during a hurricane, when her unknown “upstream mother” strapped the newborn to a window shutter and set her adrift. The baby came to rest in the arms of another lost soul: the Colonel, who misplaced his memory and drove his car into a tree just outside Tupelo Landing. Luckily the town is full of lovable, quirky characters, most of whom are on hand when a series of murders poses a mystery to solve. Mo’s voice is original and Mo herself is one tough cookie, but occasionally the narrative breaks out in violence that seems incompatible with its folksy tone.
MICHAEL DWYER/AP
CARTOONS: HANDOUT
Splendors and Glooms Laura Amy Schlitz London and Lancaster are the settings for this atmospheric, magical-historical story of an evil puppeteer and his three child victims. Though of widely varying backgrounds—Lizzie Rose is an orphan, Parsefall a street urchin, and Clara a doctor’s daughter— each nurses a secret pain, ambition, or weakness susceptible to Master Grisini’s enticement. All three are drawn into a deadly game between the puppeteer and Cassandra Sagredo, a witch who needs the children for her own purposes. The villains are truly villainous and the story delivers some seriously chilling moments. Though marred by profanity and mildly vulgar language, it’s ultimately a tale of redemption not without Christian overtones.
See all our reviews at worldmag.com/books
5 BOOKS.indd 31
The normalizing of homosexuality continues in children’s literature, most often as “coming out” stories in teen fiction. But School Library Journal reports that more LGBT students are bullied in middle school than anywhere else, and the American Library Association welcomes gay-themed novels at this level. Two recent, acclaimed titles for - to -year-olds don’t advertise themselves as “gay-themed,” and may take readers by surprise: Drama, a graphic novel by Raina Telgemeier, employs a school musical production to track the relationships of sixth- to eighth-graders. Gay and bisexual “orientations” emerge as normal expressions of sexuality in a feather-light story. See You at Harry’s, by Jo Knowles, is primarily about a death in the family, but the -year-old brother’s developing relationship with an older boy forms an ill-fitting subplot. Whether jokey or serious, these novels push the impression that any way a young person needs or wants to sexually express himself demands the readers’ acceptance. —J.C.
Drama
MARCH 9, 2013 • WORLD
2/18/13 12:46 PM
Reviews > Q&A
Regulation slayer >>
William (Chip) Mellor is president and general counsel of the Institute for Justice (IJ), which he co-founded in 1991. Mellor and IJ litigate constitutional cases involving key questions of economic liberty, school choice, and the First Amendment. Here are edited excerpts of our interview. After you received your law degree in 1977, why didn’t you follow the corporate law path? I went into private practice very briefly and realized that wasn’t the right avenue to pursue the kind of passions and aspiration I had to change the world and restore constitutional protection for individual liberty. What do you recommend today for some of these Patrick Henry College students with aspirations like yours? They should look into the couple of dozen vibrant public interest law firms that address issues ranging from homeschooling to private property rights to school choice to First Amendment. What’s the underlying problem facing lots of people who want to go into business? Government officials impose arbitrary regulations and licensing requirements on people of modest means who are simply trying to earn an honest living. They do that when they condition entry into a job by requiring that you go to
32
articular schools or get p particular credentials that all too often have nothing to do with what you’re actually trying to do in your job. Your first case involved braiding hair in Washington, D.C. Hair-braiding is a tradition in African and Caribbean communities that goes back hundreds of years—but when it became popular in America in the early ’90s, suddenly African hair-braiders were required to be fully licensed cosmetologists, which meant going to school for 2,300 hours, and when you got done you had to pass an exam showing you could do hair styles on live models that were consistent with the hair styles popular on white women in 1938 when the law was passed—finger waves and pin curls. One of your cases involved caskets in Louisiana. Monks at a 125-year-old Benedictine abbey not far from New Orleans needed a new source of revenue after Hurricane Katrina. They had a carpentry shop. They make caskets for themselves, why not make a few and sell them to the parishioners? Seemed like a good idea until they made their first casket and put it on the market. There was a knock on the door. It was the funeral board saying they had to cease and desist instantly from selling those caskets because they were not
licensed funeral directors. And to be a licensed funeral director, of course, you have to go to school for a couple of years, learn how to embalm bodies, do all these sorts of things that have nothing to do with the simple act of building a casket—and if you continue to sell caskets without a license, you face six months in jail and $1,000 for every casket you sell. What about filing the teeth of horses in Minnesota? You have to be a fully licensed veterinarian. We see those types of problems whenever regulated industry is able to capture a licensing process and impose arbitrary laws for the purpose of either eliminating competition or forcing people under their umbrella. Tell us about the Dallas sign ban. The government said that if you have a storefront and want to put signs in your window, they could only cover no more than 25 percent of your window. They said they wanted the police to be able to see in, but the real goal was beautifying these neighborhoods. So you’re against beauty? It’s in the eye of the beholder, and if you ask any of those hard-working entrepreneurs, they’ll tell you the most beautiful thing is a customer walking in the door because they’ve seen that sign. Gas and limousines? Government back in the New
Deal got in the business of allocating market share and controlling prices people can charge. The vestiges of that still remain in the gas market: In Wisconsin if you wanted to run a discount gas station, you couldn’t charge below a minimum standard. We’ve also had a l imousine service case: Limousines are required to charge a minimum fare, and cannot underbid their competition in order to get more business or to provide consumers with a more affordable service. How do you d istinguish between wrong and right r egulation? Cab drivers are often aspiring and hardworking entrepreneurs who can’t get into the market because there are limits on the number of cabs. We think that goes too far—that’s an arbitrary decision in the market—but it’s fine to require taxis to have adequate insurance, competent drivers, criminal background checks, and safe vehicles. Should we differentiate between the visible and the unseen, since we can see whether someone has done
W ORL D • M a r c h 9 , 2 0 1 3
5 Q&A.indd 32
2/15/13 11:23 AM
Greg Kahn/Genesis
Governments regularly set up arbitrary barriers to entrepreneurship. Chip Mellor and the Institute for Justice break them down By Marvin Olasky
Greg Kahn/Genesis
Government officials impose arbitrary regulations and licensing requirements on people of modest means who are simply trying to earn an honest living.
a good job in hair-braiding, but we don’t know whether a particular food might have something deadly in it—thus the Food and Drug Administration has a reason to live? Clearly there needs to be some oversight of procedures and medication. The FDA is addressing two different types of risks: the risk posed by unsafe drugs, and the risk that comes from not allowing drugs on the market
Email: molasky@worldmag.com
5 Q&A.indd 33
that could provide benefits, so people die unnecessarily. You have four current school choice cases, with Louisiana and Indiana the two biggest ones. What key arguments are you facing? They range from the same old tired argument that under the state constitution this will violate some aspect of the separation of church and state. State constitutions—many of them—have “Blaine amend-
ments” passed back in the late 1800s as an expression of anti-Catholic sentiments. Passed largely at the impetus of fervent Protestants at the time, who didn’t think they would lose the public schools. Right, and those laws remain on the books today. Let’s conclude with the Nevada makeup case. In Las Vegas a lot of theatrical performances require very
elaborate makeup. People become skilled in doing that. Officials want you to become a fully licensed cosmetologist to do this, but everyone knows who the good people are and who the bad people are. We’re trying to break down these arbitrary barriers to entrepreneurship and to create some kind of connection between legitimate government ends and the means that officials choose to get there. A
M a r c h 9 , 2 0 1 3 • W O R L D
33
2/15/13 11:25 AM
Reviews > Music
‘Classy’ Grammys Despite the efforts of Marcus Mumford, CBS cleaned up the Grammy Awards show BY ARSENIO ORTEZA
>>
WORLD • MARCH 9, 2013
5 MUSIC.indd 34
The incident highlights a dilemma for Christians. Mumford is the son of high-profile U.K. evangelical parents, and his lyrics often deal with spiritual warfare from a Christian perspective—so often, in fact, that in December the American Spectator’s Daniel Flynn published “The Father, Mumford & Sons, and the Holy Spirit,” a -word piece detailing the extent to which Mumford & Sons have had to deal with the music industry’s anti-religious bias. Yet, like other in-the-world-butnot-of-it bands before them—U in the ’s, for example, and King’s X in the ’s, both of whom also made sure to deploy occasional public profanity—Mumford & Sons seem to have become over-cautious about owning up to their (or at least Marcus Mumford’s parents’) faith, lest they become pigeonholed as a “religious” band and lose the very fans they’ve worked so hard to attract. The irony, of course, is that holding on to something is sometimes the surest way to lose it—as anyone as familiar with Christ’s sayings as Marcus Mumford is should know. A
CAUGHT: Mumford & Sons (Marcus is second from left) and their Grammys; Rihanna (below).
Email: aorteza@worldmag.com
2/20/13 9:20 AM
BECK: KATY WINN/INVISION/AP
Jeremiah Fraites said that he thought the wardrobe rules were a “good idea” and an appropriate means of keeping the Grammys “classy.” Frank Ocean began his acceptance speech for “Best Urban Contemporary Album” (Channel Orange) by saying, “I hear the way you disarm an audience is by imagining them naked. But I don’t want to do that. I want to look at you all as kids in tuxedos and being fancy and stuff like that.” The broadcast was not, however, without glitches. CBS’ fashion memo also included an all-caps prohibition of “OBSCENITY OR PARTIALLY SEEN OBSCENITY ON WARDROBE,” but it said nothing about verbal obscenity. And, perhaps sensing a loophole, Mumford & Sons’ Marcus Mumford dropped an F-bomb while accepting, on behalf of his band, the award for “Album of the Year” (Babel). According to Hollywood Reporter, CBS censors “caught” the expletive. But in at least one country the show’s feed went out uncensored: Westernmusic fans in China watching it via the multimedia site Baidu.com got a lesson in informal, colloquial English that they’d really have been better off without.
MUMFORD & SONS: JASON MERRITT/GETTY IMAGES • RIHANNA: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
U they aired on Feb. , the main media hook about the th Annual Grammy Awards was that they would “skew younger” in an attempt to prove that the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences still had its finger on the pop-music pulse. Then, mere hours before the broadcast, news broke that the vendetta-driven and allegedly homicidal ex-LAPD cop Chris Dorner might be hiding near the event’s venue (Los Angeles’ Staples Center) and intending to wreak Grammy havoc. Security was beefed up, and, suddenly, the event took on an ominous tone. Dorner, however, did not show up. Thus it was that a “wardrobe advisory” issued on Feb. by CBS, the Grammys’ host network, ended up providing the evening with its through line. “Please be sure that buttocks and female breasts are adequately covered,” the memo began. By the time it ended, it had gone to such great pains to eliminate ambiguity that it read like a parody of the strictest beauty-pageant, plumbers-union, and summer-churchcamp-swimwear guidelines combined. Yes, it’s a shame that the times require the over-explanation of basic decency. But the memo worked. Even the notoriously flesh-flaunting Rihanna, each of whose outfits (three counting her red-carpet gown) was more revealing than the last, stayed within the letter of CBS’ law. Some performers went so far as to praise the new modesty. Interviewed before the Awards, the Lumineers’
NOTABLE CDs
New or recent pop-rock releases > reviewed by
Falling Off the Sky The dB’s Abjuring the hyperactivity of their early-’s youth, the original lineup of these college-rock pioneers reunites to test the extent to which power-pop smarts can accommodate maturity. Peter Holsapple’s hard-rocking “That Time Is Gone” might be taken at face value if it weren’t infused with Neil Young chord changes from —and if Chris Stamey’s “Collide-oOo-Scope” didn’t mention Delaney & Bonnie. But both songs are strong. Will Rigby’s funny “Write Back” and Holsapple’s sad “She Won’t Drive in the Rain Anymore” are even stronger.
Greetings and Salutations Less Than Jake Chris Demakes writes and sings like someone with something to say, but often all he ends up articulating is his inarticulateness. “This is not meant to apologize for any place or time,” he sings in “A Return to Headphones.” “This is not meant to eulogize for years gone by.” Yet apologizing and eulogizing are what he does best. As for the cognitive dissonance that may result from his denying the contradiction, it’s blunted just enough by the infectious, high-energy ska at which he and his band excel.
My True Story Aaron Neville
Fade Yo La Tengo
BECK: KATY WINN/INVISION/AP
MUMFORD & SONS: JASON MERRITT/GETTY IMAGES • RIHANNA: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Both the fluttery and the buttery qualities of Aaron Neville’s singing remain undiminished despite his having recently turned . That these dozen doo-wop and R&B classics remain similarly durable might lead one to expect My True Story to embody the culmination of a remarkable career rather than that career’s latest remarkable chapter. It doesn’t. Not that Neville doesn’t have his heart in the material. It’s just that he seemed to have had even more of it in ’s all-gospel I Know I’ve Been Changed.
The agnostically philosophical parameters of this subtly virtuosic electronic folk-rock can be found in Ira Kaplan’s singing “[T]his is it for all we know” in “Ohm” and “If our story’s being told, / that’s the point of being born” in “The Point of It.” In between, he takes what solace he can from telling his longtime wife and co-band member Georgia Hubley, “I always know that when we wake up / you’re mine” (“Stupid Things”). It’s a declaration as sad, beautiful, and resigned as the music itself.
See all our reviews at worldmag.com/music
5 MUSIC.indd 35
SPOTLIGHT I D, the experimental popster Beck Hansen bequeathed a fascinating anachronism to the music-reading public: Song Reader (McSweeney’s), a -song “album” available only as a lavishly illustrated book of old-school sheet music. What at first seemed like a gimmick (and, at a list price of over , an expensive gimmick at that) has exploded into a phenomenon. Musicians from all over the age, talent, and stylistic spectrums have rushed to perform and record the pieces. The phenomenon could eventually turn out to be a fad. For now, however, it’s doing what Beck has said he set out to do—namely, to free songs from the narrow and elitist interpretive prisons that they’ve inadvertently found themselves in as singersongwriters have morphed into auteurs. The most fully realized interpretation so far is the Portland Cello Project’s Beck Hansen’s Song Reader, which turns Beck’s compositions into a lush, -minute art-song cycle. But it will have competition.
MARCH 9, 2013 • WORLD
2/20/13 9:21 AM
Mindy Belz
When cities rot
Residents as well as corporate interests and local officials have to seek the welfare of the city where God has called them
>>
WORLD • MARCH 9, 2013
5 MINDY.indd 36
other parts of the United States, too, as global manufacturing has taken jobs once tied to places like Pittsburgh or Detroit overseas, and the digital age has made some industries wholly obsolete. When businesses go bust, they leave downtown cores with vacant real estate, and starve city coffers of tax revenue. As Rochester mayor Thomas Richards told The Wall Street Journal: “The last thing we need is five projects, half-finished. You can’t let your downtown core just rot.” And it’s not only corporates losing interest in urban centers. Residents are, too. When lawn chairs can be bought on Amazon and the corner newsstand is shuttered—what’s a city for? Trendy restaurants? The water battle in my own city and some conversations with local officials have reminded me that my city does more than stage eclectic nightlife for my benefit. It pipes water into my home, paves the roads I drive on every day, lights my street by night, provides law enforcement, fire protection, and more. Those services, even water and sewer, as one member of the MSD board told me, create “a space for common grace.” Though flawed they provide daily our basic needs, even when some residents aren’t aware of them or perhaps paying their fair share for them. Rather than filling that space with conflict and striving after personal and private rights, or retreating into walled-off sectors of Christian-only activity, Christians can fill the space of common grace in our cities by looking for ways to be a blessing—even through conflict and in the face of decline. That gives purpose and meaning to the life of any city. A
MAX SCHULTE/POLARIS/NEWSCOM
P David McCullough grew up in Pittsburgh during World War II, “when the mills were going full blast, and at night you would see the sky pulsing red from the furnaces going off.” Teachers told him the city’s industry was winning the war: “We were made to feel that we were part of a great world event.” Often he and his friends went door-to-door collecting scrap metal and bacon fat for the war effort. Most of us don’t want to admit that American cities hit their peak in the th century, but across the country are urban centers in decline. The stories in this annual cities issue of WORLD focus on urban revitalization efforts, mostly faith-based, making all the more clear that in America too many cities have lost their purpose and meaning. Some are locked in a pitched battle to regain momentum—often with themselves. My own city—Asheville, N.C.—is in a heated controversy over state lawmakers’ wanting to turn over the city’s water system to a wider Metropolitan Sewerage District (MSD). City fathers and a lot of residents are up in arms about what’s being called “a takeover.” But studies show the MSD, by virtue of its state mandate, its fiscal solvency, and its governing board of elected officials, is more likely to run a better and more cost-efficient water system. Water revenue, it turns out, is big money for many municipalities. For too long my city has been using water revenues to fund other projects instead of tending to its aging water system. But for city residents, this can seem a lose-lose situation: I may favor the idea of an MSD-run water system, but my city property taxes are sure to rise to cover the city’s lost water receipts. In Rochester, N.Y., city officials are fighting it out with a community college that wants to move into the old Kodak headquarters. Kodak stopped selling color film in and in filed Chapter bankruptcy. Its sprawling downtown headquarters is for sale, with apparently no outside buyers. The mayor faces losing Monroe Community College with its , students from one part of downtown to fill the gaping hole left by Kodak—not the type of expansion or boost to the tax base the city desperately needs. This kind of decline is happening not only across the Rust Belt but in the South, greater Midwest, and
Email: mbelz@worldmag.com
2/18/13 11:54 AM
Chicago Doctor Invents Affordable Hearing Aid Outperforms Many Higher Priced Hearing Aids
Reported by J. Page CHICAGO: A local board-certified Ear, Nose, Throat (ENT) physician, Dr. S. Cherukuri, has just shaken up the hearing aid industry with the invention of a medical-grade, affordable hearing aid. This revolutionary hearing aid is designed to help millions of people with hearing loss who cannot afford—or do not wish to pay—the much higher cost of traditional hearing aids.
“Perhaps the best quality-to-price ratio in the hearing aid industry” – Dr. Babu, M.D. Board Certified ENT Physician
Dr. Cherukuri knew that untreated hearing loss could lead to depression, social isolation, anxiety, and symptoms consistent with Alzheimer’s dementia. He could not understand why the cost for hearing aids was so high when the prices on so many consumer electronics like TVs, DVD players, cell phones and digital cameras had fallen. Since Medicare and most private insurance do not cover the costs of hearing aids, which traditionally run between $2000$6000 for a pair, many of the doctor’s patients could not afford the expense. Dr. Cherukuri’s goal was to find a reasonable solution that would help with the most common types of hearing loss at an affordable price, not unlike the “one-size-fits-most” reading glasses available at drug stores. l
Designed By A Board Certified Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Doctor
l
Doctor-Recommended, Audiologist-Tested
l
HHHHH Top rated hearing aid online—thousands of satisfied customers
l
FDA-Registered
l
Save Up To 90%
l
Free Shipping Available
l
Batteries Included! Comes Ready To Use
l
100% Money Back Guarantee
Max Schulte/Polaris/newscom
He evaluated numerous hearing devices and sound amplifiers, including those seen on television. Without fail, almost all of these were found to amplify bass/low frequencies (below 1000 Hz) and not useful in amplifying the frequencies related to the human voice.
Affordable Hearing Aid With Superb Performance The high cost of hearing aids is a result of layers of middlemen and expensive unneccesary features. Dr. Cherukuri concluded that it would be possible to develop a medical grade hearing aid without sacrificing the quality of components. The result is the MDHearingAid PRO®, starting well under $200. It has been declared to be the best low-cost hearing aid that amplifies the range of sounds associated with the human voice without overly amplifying background noise.
Tested By Leading Doctors and Audiologists The MDHearingAid PRO® has been rigorously tested by leading ENT physicians and audiologists who have unanimously agreed that the sound quality and output in many cases exceeds more expensive hearing aids.
DOCTORS AND PATIENTS AGREE: “BEST QUALITy SOUND” “LOWEST AFFORDABLE PRICE” “I have been wearing hearing aids for over 25 years and these are the best behind-the-ear aids I have tried. Their sound quality rivals that of my $3,000 custom pair of Phonak Xtra digital ITE” —Gerald Levy “I have a $2,000 Resound Live hearing aid in my left ear and the MDHearingAid PRO® in the right ear. I am not able to notice a significant difference in sound quality between the two hearing aids.” —Dr. May, ENT physician
“We ordered two hearing aids for my mother on Sunday, and the following Wednesday they were in our mailbox! Unbelievable! Now for the best part—they work so great, my mother says she hasn’t heard so good for many years, even with her $2,000 digital! It was so great to see the joy on her face. She is 90 years young again.” —Al Peterson
For the Lowest Price Call Today 1-800-873-0680 Phone Lines Open 24 Hours EvERy DAy www.MDHearingAid.com/FR98
Use Offer Code FR98 to get FREE Batteries for a Full year! FREE Shipping Available
Inspiration from a surprising source
The doctor’s inspiration to defeat the powers-that-be that kept inexpensive hearing aids out of the hands of the public actually came from a new cell phone he had just purchased. “I felt that if someone could devise an affordable device like an iPhone® for about $200 that could do all sorts of things, I could create a hearing aid at a similar price.”
5 MINDY.indd 37
100% money back guarantee
45 DAy RISK FREE TRIAL
Proudly assembled in the USA BBB RATING
A
2/18/13 1:29 PM
by Edwa rd Lee Pitts in Washington
38
WORLD • March 9, 2013
5 HOUSE OUTLIERS.indd 38
2/20/13 9:37 AM
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom; Sue Ogrocki/ap; Gregory Smith/AP; J. Scott Applewhite/AP; John Hanna/AP; Jacquelyn Martin/ap; Matt Cilley/ap; hanbdout; Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal/ZUMA press/Newscom; handout; Harry Hamburg/ap; Cliff Owen/ap (from top left to bottom right)
Twelve worrıed men
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom; Sue Ogrocki/ap; Gregory Smith/AP; J. Scott Applewhite/AP; John Hanna/AP; Jacquelyn Martin/ap; Matt Cilley/ap; hanbdout; Eddie Moore/Albuquerque Journal/ZUMA press/Newscom; handout; Harry Hamburg/ap; Cliff Owen/ap (from top left to bottom right)
A small group of House conservatives view the nation’s debt as a threat worth risking a political career to fight. Their decision may be bearing fruit hen 12 House Republicans broke ranks and refused to support John Boehner’s second term as House speaker on Jan. 3, most pundits dismissed them as firebrand provocateurs who could accomplish nothing. Politico described them as “an eclectic group of rookies and backbench conservatives who live a largely-offthe-grid political existence, situated outside establishment and sometimes even mainstream conservative boundaries.” But a closer look at these outliers, who nearly forced Boehner to a chaotic second ballot, reveals that they have something else in common: They nearly all claim to hold devout faiths. The congressmen who passed on Boehner include an Eastern Orthodox Christian, four Roman Catholics, five Southern Baptists, and a Methodist who said his family works “hard to abide by Christian principles.” In interviews with WORLD several of these lawmakers said their religious beliefs gave them the courage to stand by their convictions and step away from party discipline. Many lawmakers have provided lip service to worries over the nation’s balance sheet. But these 12 lawmakers—Justin Amash, Jim Bridenstine, Paul Broun, Louie Gohmert, Tim Huelskamp, Walter Jones, Raul Labrador, Tom Massie, Mick Mulvaney, Steve Pearce, Steve Stockman, and Ted Yoho—saw the country’s debt problem as enough of a moral issue to act at the risk of their political futures. Beyond shared faiths, a look at the lives of three of these men reveals a history of taking on the establishment mindset—and sometimes winning. The last several weeks have shown that they might be winning again. ick Mulvaney, who represents counties in northern South Carolina, saw the last minute Jan. 1 deal to avoid the fiscal cliff as a failure to the country because it raised taxes without including real spending cuts. A Roman Catholic in an area dominated by Protestants and a Republican in a district with a tradition of Democratic activism, Mulvaney entered politics as a double underdog. The lawyer turned real estate developer ran in 2006 for a statehouse seat that Republicans had never held in the state’s history. outliers: Justin Amash, Jim Mulvaney became the first, Bridenstine, Paul Broun, Louie Gohmert, Tim Huelskamp, Walter winning by 212 votes. In Jones, Raul Labrador, Tom Massie, 2010, Mulvaney, by then a Mick Mulvaney, Steve Pearce, state senator, again decided Steve Stockman, and Ted Yoho to tackle long-shot odds. (from top left to bottom right).
n
At a Rock Hill, S.C., town hall meeting held by the district’s Democratic congressman, Mulvaney watched as more than 600 attendees booed and jeered while the lawmaker struggled to defend President Obama’s healthcare plan. On the way home from the event Mulvaney called his wife. “Honey, can I run for Congress?” he asked. A long pause followed. “Can you win?” “Well, no.” “Then you can run.” There were abundant reasons why Mulvaney would lose: Rep. John Spratt had been in Congress since 1983, rising to the chairmanship of the House Budget Committee. Spratt had won some of his recent reelection bids by more than 25 percent of the vote. Mulvaney won the race by more than 10 percentage points, becoming the first Republican to represent South Carolina’s 5th Congressional District since Reconstruction. Mulvaney also became the first Catholic member of Congress from South Carolina. In 2011, he arrived in Washington armed with the belief that “debt for no good reason can be an immoral choice.” But he learned that borrowing money was Washington’s solution to its inability to make tough decisions: “The modern compromise in Washington is purchased, and it’s purchased with debt.” The votes to delay the tough decisions led Mulvaney to prayer. In the spring of 2011 the House debated another stopgap measure to fund the federal government. He felt pressure from the Washington establishment: “They were slapping us on our backs and telling us we had great futures here if we just went along.” A group of backslapped freshman lawmakers decided to gather in a room near the House chamber. For 10 minutes the lawmakers got on their knees and prayed, Mulvaney said, asking for guidance in a vote that would affect the future of their political careers as well as the country. When they left the room no one talked about how they were going to vote. Once on the House floor they all voted the same way: against more federal spending and against the establishment. “It was very moving to me that there was such a group of men and women here who had that much faith in their faith,” Mulvaney said. Mulvaney, 45, says he will continue to force House votes on curtailing federal spending. Last month he offered an
M a r c h 9 , 2 0 1 3 • W O R L D
5 HOUSE OUTLIERS.indd 39
39
2/20/13 9:37 AM
Mulvaney is saving up for three college tuition bills. He said he could not justify spending upwards of $25,000 a year to rent an apartment near the Capitol. “My church is two blocks away, the gym is in the basement, and the Capitol is across the street. What more do you want?” asked Mulvaney. “You do wonder sometimes if a vote you made that they didn’t like leads to somebody doing maintenance outside your door at two in the morning.” aul Broun’s family business has long been politics. His father, Paul Sr., served 38 years as a senator in the Georgia General Assembly. But the elder Broun served as a Democrat, making the younger Broun an outlier in his own family when he decided to run for office in 1990 as a Republican. After years of practicing medicine throughout rural Georgia, Broun felt called to run. The fact that he had a sense
40
J. Scott Applewhite/ap
n
of calling would not have occurred to the Broun of 1986. Then a 40-year-old Broun was an atheist spending most of his nights on the couch of his medical office in Americus, Ga. He and his wife, Nikki, had been married for a short time but were already headed for a divorce. It would have been his fourth failed marriage. On a Saturday morning he woke up on his office couch feeling like he had to find some Mulvaney: “The modern way to change his situation. A Gideon Bible compromise sat on a nearby table. Just a few Sundays in Washington before, while watching a football game on is purchased television, Broun had seen the camera scan a ... with debt.” sign in the crowd that read “John 3:16.” Broun turned to that verse in the Bible, and, after reading its promise of salvation to those who believe in Christ, he asked himself, “Could this be true?” He prayed out loud: “God, if You are real, show me by putting me on the right track.” This summer Broun and Nikki will celebrate their 28th wedding anniversary. God changed both their lives. As a result, Broun says the Bible plays a central role in how he acts and votes as a congressman. But the call he felt didn’t bear immediate fruit. He lost a race for a House seat in 1990. He lost again in 1992. And, in 1996, he came in fourth in the Republican primary for a U.S. Senate seat, gaining just 3 percent of the vote. But 11 years later, Broun entered a 2007 special House election and won a runoff by 394 votes against the state party leader’s pick. When a local reporter asked how he pulled off the upset, Broun responded by saying, “I can only give credit to my Lord Jesus Christ because He did it all.” Now 66, Broun has won reelection three times, facing no Democratic challenger in 2012. He recently entered the 2014 race for retiring GOP Sen. Saxby Chambliss’ Senate seat, but credits his early string of defeats for giving him the boldness to follow his convictions: “If I had been elected earlier, I would have been just another politician more concerned about how things look politically and whether this will foster or hinder my reelection. I had to get to the point where I am dedicated, win or lose, to stand for what’s right.” That is why he did not hesitate to cast his speaker vote for former Rep. Allen West instead of Boehner. Broun said Congress had failed to address the root of the nation’s fiscal crisis. A former Marine, the Georgia lawmaker said Boehner was too nice in his negotiations with the White House: “The president is a bare-knuckled street fighter, and we need a
WORLD • March 9, 2013
5 HOUSE OUTLIERS.indd 40
2/20/13 9:38 AM
Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/newscom
amendment to offset billions earmarked for Hurricane Sandy aid with a 1.6 percent across-the-board cut in discretionary spending. The effort failed, with lawmakers saying that Congress does not traditionally offset emergency spending. Mulvaney also will go after the Republican sacred cow: military spending. In the last Congress he teamed up with liberal Democrat Rep. Barney Frank to offer a one-year freeze on defense spending. He got the Republican votes, Frank got the Democratic votes, and the measure passed. Mulvaney appears to practice what he preaches when it comes to fiscal restraint. He sleeps in his congressional office on a foldout bed. The father of 13-year-old triplet girls,
J. Scott Applewhite/ap
Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/newscom
on the right track: Broun, right, with Allen West.
bare-knuckled street fighter to go against him. It is time for Mr. Boehner to take the gloves off.” Broun, who began doing house calls in 2002 (charging $100 per examination), introduces as his first bill in every congressional session the Sanctity of Human Life Act. It says life begins at fertilization. His openness about his religious beliefs has made him a frequent target for ridicule in the national press. In 2009, he introduced a resolution recognizing the role the Bible played in U.S. history by proclaiming 2010 the year of the Bible. Last fall the media mocked him for calling the big bang theory and Darwinism “lies straight from the pit of hell” during an address at a Baptist church in Hartwell, Ga. “There is no rule that says I have to check my faith when I go through the doors of the house chamber,” said Broun, a member of the Prince Avenue Baptist Church in Athens, Ga. “I can stand the heat. The only thing that intimidates me is this looming financial meltdown.” ouie Gohmert became a Christian at age 6 while attending a Baptist church in Mount Pleasant, Texas. “Some thought that was too young, but I knew exactly what I was doing. Even today I sometimes pray for the clarity of faith that I had when I was 6.” But faith in his convictions led Gohmert to stand up alone and oppose Boehner long before the formal January speaker vote. During a closed-door meeting of House members last November, days after Republican losses in the elections,
n
ominated Gohmert n former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to replace Boehner as the next speaker. (The speaker doesn’t have to be a member of Congress.) No one seconded Gohmert’s nomination. He knew that would happen, but he proceeded with the nomination because it would allow him to make a three-minute speech before every single Republican House colleague. With lawmakers often going in and out of a barely full House chamber during legislative debates, this was a rare captive audience. He told his colleagues they had been on the same track for too long. They had failed to rein in spending, failed to slow down Obamacare, and failed to tackle entitlements. “No matter how nice your coach is,” Gohmert said, “if your team is not winning, then it is time to change coaches.” When he finished, the meeting proceeded as scripted. The lawmakers renominated Boehner as the GOP’s candidate for speaker. Boehner began his acceptance speech by turning to Gohmert and saying, “I love you too, Louie.” “You don’t get a committee or subcommittee chairmanship when you nominate somebody else for speaker,” said Gohmert, 59, who voted for West over Boehner in January’s official House speaker vote. “But I am more concerned about doing what’s right and keeping our promises. The great thing about being at peace in pursuit of what you believe you are supposed to be doing is that victory is outside of our control.” This was not the first time Gohmert, who teaches Sunday school at Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, tried to make a case for dismissing the old guard. As a lawyer in Texas in the early 1990s, he grew dismayed over a veteran Republican district judge’s ethical lapses. When Gohmert tried to argue that the judge had served too long, the GOP establishment in the county wouldn’t go along. “They said, ‘He is the first Republican ever elected in our county so we just feel like we owe it to him to let him have whatever job he wants,’” Gohmert recalled. “I didn’t feel like being a public servant was something people were entitled to.” Gohmert challenged the incumbent judge in the primary and won with 70 percent of the vote. He heard more than 10,000 cases during his 10 years on the bench, earning a
M a r c h 9 , 2 0 1 3 • W O R L D
5 HOUSE OUTLIERS.indd 41
41
2/20/13 9:38 AM
GOHMERT: “If your team is not winning, then it is time to change coaches.”
measure to strike the word lunatic from federal law. He argued, “When the most pressing issue of the day is saving our country from bankruptcy, we should use the word to describe the people who want to continue with business as usual in Washington.”
n
WORLD • MARCH 9, 2013
5 HOUSE OUTLIERS.indd 42
of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, he proposed legislation allowing members of Congress to carry guns in Washington. His unorthodox ways extend beyond legislation: When city leaders in Lufkin, Texas, ran out of food and water for refugees in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita in , Gohmert rented two U-Haul trucks, loaded them with thousands of pounds of water and food, and drove one of them the miles to Lufkin. He then drove to a Walmart and reloaded the trucks with blankets and pillows. In , a military pilot from Gohmert’s Texas district died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. When the Army would not transport the deceased soldier’s body beyond his duty station in Ft. Drum, N.Y., Gohmert, a former Army captain, arranged for transportation and accompanied the remains to Gladewater, Texas, where the family wanted the man buried. Gohmert has not refrained from finding unique ways to continue to press his case about the dire state of the nation’s finances. Late last year he was the lone no vote in the House on a
STEPHEN CROWLEY/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX
reputation for unique rulings. In , he ordered a man with AIDS to secure written informed consent statements from future sex partners as part of a probation deal tied to a car theft conviction. Gohmert issued the order after the man’s sister testified that her brother said he did not care whom he infected. Gohmert said he often encountered laws that caused more trouble than solutions. Why, for example, as a condition of probation for illegal immigrants, did he have to require them to appear before their probation officer every month, which in effect encouraged them to violate the law by remaining in the country? “You are not supposed to legislate from the bench, so I started considering a run for Congress,” he said. Defeating another incumbent in , Gohmert became the first Republican since Reconstruction to represent northeast Texas in Congress. In Washington he has continued to offer outside-the-box ideas: He opposed a two-month tax holiday as an alternative to Obama’s stimulus bill in January . After the shooting
after the speaker vote, it is clear that the dozen outliers did more than give Boehner a black eye. The Republican leadership has pivoted toward a more fiscally conservative position, and fiscal conservatives say they are now included in the GOP’s decision-making process. As a result, the party united behind a strategy to approve a three-month extension of the debt limit (until May) with much less contention than with previous efforts to increase the debt ceiling. The move allowed Republicans to realign the upcoming series of fiscal deadlines in a more favorable order. They wanted the controversial debate over another long-term borrowing limit increase to occur last in the sequence of pending fiscal deadlines. (The first deadline is the March “sequester,” or the already approved series of automatic, acrossthe-board spending cuts. The second deadline is a late March showdown over keeping the government running at current levels.) Fiscal conservatives are not going to get everything they want. Their election losses already have led to tax hikes. But conservatives like the ones who voted against Boehner have made careers out of standing firm in the face of long odds. They continue to believe they are engaged in a moral battle over the country’s financial future. And they believe the upcoming debates allow them to take their case to the public that Washington’s runaway spending is the nation’s enemy. A
Email: lpitts@worldmag.com
2/20/13 9:39 AM
...
Christ Centered • Family Focused
na
- CSI - Computer Game Programming - Chemistry - Psychology - Physics
o li
- Anatomy and Physiology - Christian Music Jam - Pre-Law / Mock Trial - Biology - Photography - Art
ar
Ac a
Col. 3:23
ummer Camps . . . S c mi e d
or t N in th f o e Mountains
h
C
Early Registration Discounts Currently Available! Mission / Educational Trips to Europe and the Bahamas
Christ-Centered Academic Summer Camps
Trips for Students or Families
For 8th-12th Grade Students at Lees-McRae College
- Service - Baseball - Soccer - Volleyball
Students Have Attended our Camps From Every State in The U.S. and 7 Countries!
Christ-Centered Online Classes
For 4th-12th Grade Homeschooled Students Over 150 Live, Interactive Online Classes - Biblically Based Journalism - Crime Scene Investigation - Intro to Radio Ministry - Foreign Languages - Robotics - Web Design - Pre-Law - Math
Contests for Students
• Research Paper Contest • Academic Envelope Art Contest
- English - Science - Art - Business - Bible - Computer - Music - And More!
Snow Tubing / Science Weekend
A Winter Fun and Educational Family Weekend
White Water Rafting / Science Weekend A Summer Fun and Educational Family Weekend
Landry Academy College Scholarships
2-Day Science Lab Intensives
• $5,000 One Time Scholarship • $2,500 Four Year Scholarships
Held at 30+ Cities Throughout the U.S. For 4th-12th Grade Homeschooled Students - Biology / Anatomy and Physiology Lab - College-Prep Writing - Physical Science Lab - Advanced Biology Lab
- Advanced Prep for Science Majors - Physics Lab - Chemistry Lab
CREDIT
For more information visit . . .
www.LandryAcademy.com
5 HOUSE OUTLIERS.indd 43
2/15/13 4:47 PM
Friend or foe? For pro-life Republicans, opposing comprehensive immigration reform puts many in league with pro-abortion and population control groups
A
by J.C. Derrick in Washington, D.C.
44
sentiments on immigration to the test by pushing for reform—even though Democrats soundly beat Republicans at the polls among Latino voters in last year’s presidential election. Standing against comprehensive reform is Washington’s influential antiimmigration lobby, already credited with successfully taking down immigration reform efforts in 2007. Groups working to reduce immigration are led by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), NumbersUSA, and the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). While these groups draw ample support from otherwise pro-life Republicans, they are driven by extreme environmentalist views and focus heavily on radical population control.
CREDIT
As a candidate in 2008, then-Sen. Barack Obama promised to have in his first year in office “an immigration bill that I strongly support.” Almost five years later, absent White House action to date, Obama used his Feb. 12 State of the Union address to speak again on immigration reform: “Our economy is stronger when we harness the talents and ingenuity of striving, hopeful immigrants.” Obama’s inaction on immigration has been viewed with suspicion: Perhaps he prefers to continue using the issue as a political tool rather than push for a solution to a broken system. But Republicans like Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, the son of Cuban immigrants, are ready to put the president’s
WORLD • March 9, 2013
5 IMMIGRATION GROUPS.indd 44
2/20/13 9:28 AM
credit
p h o t o b y L A N C E W Y N N /G r an d Ra p i d s P r e s s / L an d o v
One of the strongest voices for population control via limits to immigration is John Tanton. In 2011 The New York Times called him “the most influential unknown man in America.” A Michigan doctor, Tanton spent the early part of his career starting local Planned Parenthood and Sierra Club chapters in the 1960s and ’70s. For two years he served as national president of Zero Population Growth. He then turned his attention to immigration, directly or indirectly helping found FAIR (1979), CIS (1985), and NumbersUSA (1997), groups that separately engage the public, produce research, and lobby Congress for the same thing: lower immigration. Today these groups say they have the ear of lawmakers from both sides of the aisle, while it’s mostly Republicans who place a high priority on securing the borders before creating new pathways to legal immigration. The groups played key roles in defeating changes to federal immigration law in 2002 and 2007, and have worked with statehouse Republicans to enact laws restricting immigration in Arizona, Georgia, and Alabama. On Capitol Hill and in state capitals, Republicans push hardest for tougher laws, but many board members and financial backers of FAIR, CIS, and NumbersUSA are anything but social conservatives. Tanton serves on the FAIR board with Sarah G. Epstein, one of many past or present board members to work also for Planned Parenthood. Epstein once called China’s one-child policy “compassionate and fair” and is now working to obtain FDA approval for the dangerous quinacrine sterilization drug—“a permanent contraceptive solution” that sterilizes women by burning the fallopian tubes and upper uterus with acid. Population control financiers, led by Colcom Foundation, donate millions to FAIR, CIS, NumbersUSA, and other groups like Negative Population Growth—an organization committed to cutting world population from its current 7 billion to below 2 John Tanton: billion. FAIR also has Retired eye received funding from surgeon and the Pioneer Fund, a immigration group seeking to activist.
M a r c h 9 , 2 0 1 3 • W O R L D
5 IMMIGRATION GROUPS.indd 45
45
2/20/13 9:28 AM
restore “the Darwinian-Galtonian perspective to the mainstream”—a reference to Charles Darwin and his cousin, Francis Galton, the father of eugenics. Population control efforts arise out of support for abortion, eugenics, and reduced immigration, and are used to further extreme environmentalist beliefs. “U.S. environmental sustain-
and brighter than Americans is nonsense,” she wrote. Rosemary Jenks, director of government relations at NumbersUSA, said her group doesn’t deceive lawmakers about its purpose: “We’re very clear about what we are.” But GOP lawmakers who don’t favor the groups’ population control and pro-abortion policies
Most conservatives reject the philosophy of population control and do see human beings as assets, not liabilities—certainly [the] pro-life movement does. – Richard Land
appear content to cast themselves alongside them as immigration hawks. A John Tanton letter to Gary Gerst, NumbersUSA board chairman, detailed plans to hire a lobbyist who would work to “change Republicans’ perception of immigration so that when they encounter the word ‘immigrant,’ their reaction is ‘Democrat.’” With the help of /, it seems to have worked for awhile: The House Immigration Reform Caucus, which favors border security over any other changes to immigration law, hit members in . Yet only remain as the th Congress begins, with more Republicans distancing themselves from enforcement-only positions on immigration. Republicans’ efforts to restrict immigration have hurt them politically, according to Hispanic Leadership Fund President Mario Lopez. Lopez recently wrote a report published in The Human Life Review documenting the entangling associations between anti-immigration and population control groups, and he told me Republicans have created a self-fulfilling prophecy. The pitch, he
ED REINKE/AP
ability is not possible unless we greatly reduce immigration numbers,” NumbersUSA president Roy Beck wrote in on the th anniversary of Earth Day. Yet that extremist ideology hasn’t stopped GOP lawmakers—including Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, and former Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif. (both members of the conservative Republican Study Committee)—along with other pro-lifers from working with the groups. Do conservatives mind these associations? Pro-life Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, currently a member of the House Immigration Reform caucus, said, “If any group or organization supports the same thing that most of my constituents do, then to that extent we are in agreement.” The influence of anti-immigration groups goes beyond Congress: Conservative activists like Eagle Forum president Phyllis Schlafly quote CIS research as unbiased fact. Last year she cited CIS reports painting immigrants as underachieving welfare recipients sucking life out of the U.S. economy. “The notion that foreigners are better
said, is: “‘It’s OK to say you hate immigrants because they’re never going to vote for you anyway.’ Then Republicans go out and do it, and the population control groups say, ‘See I told you so.’” Many factors contribute to Republican views on immigration, but competing worldviews are also shaping the heart of the debate: Are people an asset or a liability? For Christians who believe humans are made in the image of God, they’re an asset. For those who believe humans are destroying the earth with their CO emissions, they’re a liability. Rosemary Jenks at NumbersUSA said her group advocates for lower immigration levels to improve the economy and quality of life. She said allowing low-skilled immigrants into the country is “importing poverty.” World Relief and other organizations want to change that perception among evangelicals, asking them to read one scripture about immigrants per day for days. The National Association of Evangelicals, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, and other groups are promoting the “I Was a Stranger” challenge—based on Matthew —in their member churches. Richard Land, president of SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, told me about percent of Southern Baptists agree with his view of immigration reform, which includes a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers, or illegal immigrants. He believes most conservatives cooperate with anti-immigration groups because they don’t know the real objectives behind the rhetoric: “Most conservatives reject the philosophy of population control and do see human beings as assets, not liabilities— certainly the pro-life movement does.” The current immigration reform debate in Washington could turn on how far conservatives—including a new generation of lawmakers like Rubio—choose to extend their pro-life beliefs. A
WORLD • MARCH 9, 2013
5 IMMIGRATION GROUPS.indd 46
2/20/13 9:31 AM
You won’t drown in student loan debt. The LOAN REPAYMENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAM guarantees you will receive assistance in repaying your student loans if you need help after you graduate. For more information please visit CREDIT
go.arbor.edu/WMLRAP 106 E. Main St. | Spring Arbor, Michigan | 800.968.0011
5 IMMIGRATION GROUPS.indd 47
2/15/13 10:44 AM
5 IMMIGRATION GROUPS.indd 48
2/15/13 10:46 AM
WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO WALK WHERE JESUS WALKED? Jesus
forged
His
ministry
along
the
Sea of Galilee. As you walk its breathtaking shores you are transported across thousands of years and you feel the Bible – and your faith – come alive as never before. Experience the wonder of the Holy Land in person. You’ll never be the same.
Make your dream journey come true go to goisrael.com/bestdeals
5 IMMIGRATION GROUPS.indd 49
2/15/13 10:46 AM
URBAN FRONTIERS: Many cities are in financial trouble, but some offer a sense of freedom for the pioneer-minded in WORLD’s 2013 annual Cities coverage.
Brig
I historian Frederick Jackson Turner declared the American frontier closed: Pioneers no longer needed. A half century ago John F. Kennedy declared, “We stand today on the edge of a New Frontier … of unfilled hopes and unfilled dreams.” His successor, Lyndon Johnson, proclaimed at the University of Michigan in , “Our society will never be great until our cities are great,” so he would “assemble the best thought and the broadest knowledge from all over the world” to build in those cities and elsewhere “the Great Society.” Some miles from where Johnson spoke, Christians and others are struggling for survival in a new frontier, the Brightmoor neighborhood on the northwest side of Detroit. No great society here: As the Motor City lurches toward likely bankruptcy, residents increasingly go without city services. The result is fear among some but a sense of freedom for others. Ask city officials for permission to put in a composting toilet? Why bother—it will be months or years before they respond, so just do it. Board up a vacant house and start a farm? Get some nails, get dirt under your fingernails. Raise chickens? Cluck, cluck. This special section begins with a look at life on the Brightmoor frontier. We then look at developments in New Orleans during the four years since our cover story on that post-Katrina frontier, head west to churches growing in downtown Los Angeles, and circle to entrepreneurial pioneers in three great cities of the former Soviet Union: Tallinn, Vilnius, and Kiev. —Marvin Olasky
WORLD • MARCH 9, 2013
5 CITIES INTRO.indd 50
TRUE GRIT: Gwen Shivers harvesting vegetables on a vacant lot in the Brightmoor neighborhood of Detroit.
2/18/13 2:18 PM
ightmoor ighters Population loss and official neglect haven’t kept residents of one Detroit neighborhood from banding together to rebuild by SUSAN OL ASK Y in Detroit
MARCH 9, 2013 • WORLD
5 CITIES INTRO.indd 51
2/18/13 2:18 PM
R
Yet, hope floats in a -block micro-neighborhood called Brightmoor Farmway, with neighbors pursuing a person-by-person, block-by-block strategy, and embracing Detroit’s “post-apocalyptic” possibilities, when city government no longer provides services. On one block, raised-bed gardens stretch out over lots—about an acre. The land belongs to a young man who hopes to make a living growing high-end organic vegetables for local restaurants. On another, blackboard paint covers the exterior of a boarded-up house, providing a clever way to announce neighborhood events. Other art-covered, vacant and boarded-up houses throughout the Farmway sport flowers and trains, sunsets, and Dr. Seuss–like trees. Some carry slogans along with artwork: “God Makes Beautiful Things
Out of Us,” and “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” That slogan, painted on boards covering the windows of an abandoned school, sums up the neighborhood doctrine.
B
Farmway started informally with several families working together on a “youth garden” down the street from the Schumacks’ house. After several years, those families started a nonprofit organization, Neighbors Building Brightmoor (NBB), to continue the work they were already doing—building gardens, making friends, and keeping blight at bay. In , families decided to hold a neighborhood Harvest Fest, and people showed up. About —half of them children— came from the -block area. The existence of so many children surprised neighbors because they rarely saw them playing outside. Schumack speaks of children who sit “inside a house watching TV or playing video games, because out there it’s dangerous and ugly and nasty, and they grow up not knowing what beauty is. … That’s to me the worst of everything. … I can’t live with that.” Creating a safe environment for children became an NBB goal. By removing exterior walls and leaving interior walls and the roof, volunteers turned a debris-filled vacant house into a children’s playhouse. Located next to a neighborhood pocket park redeemed from the ruins, the playhouse boasts a small stage for musical performances and plays. In the summertime children roast marshmallows over a fire pit and chase fireflies under the trees. NBB put
WORLD • MARCH 9, 2013
5 CITIES INTRO.indd 52
2/18/13 2:20 PM
CREDIT
The Schumacks for years had prayed for an opportunity to do urban gardening and be a good influence in Brightmoor. They bought their home from a woman fleeing the neighborhood after seeing her house broken into three times. It’s now worth much less than what they’ve put into it, but they’re not running. After police closed a drug and prostitution house down the street, the Schumacks bought it and fixed it up for about ,. It’s now appraised for about ,—not very smart investing if making money (or even treading water) is the goal. That didn’t keep them from doubling-down on the neighborhood. They recently bought three small houses across the street for a total of ,: a good deal, maybe, although market value is hard to judge. The seller had them priced at , two years ago and , last year. Riet Schumack shrugs off questions about the long-term investment value of the properties: “We’re all in,” she says, describing their commitment to the neighborhood. She noted an upside: They bought the houses before “the scrappers” had stripped out the copper pipes and wiring to sell as scrap. I first visited Brightmoor three years ago (“Beyond ‘ruin porn,’” March , ). Like Detroit overall, it has lost close to one-third of its population since . Some people left because they couldn’t afford , to replace deteriorating sewer lines. Others had enough of crime, poor city services, and bad schools. Three out of five Brightmoor lots are now vacant.
HOUSE: STEPHEN McGEE/GENESIS • OPPOSITE PAGE: MODE SHIFT • PREVIOUS SPREAD: REBECCA COOK/REUTERS/LANDOV
URBAN FRONTIERS
S in the Detroit area since . In she and her husband Mark, an engineering professor at the University of Detroit-Mercy, moved to Brightmoor, a four-square-mile, hard-pressed neighborhood on the city’s northwest side. Some people call it Blightmoor.
credit
house: Stephen McGee/Genesis • opposite page: mode shift • previous spread: REBECCA COOK/Reuters/Landov
“We’re all in”: Schumack and Jessica Easterleing, 9, talk about the Farmway while Ondrea Bryant, 3, checks her vegetables (above); Schumack points out the route of the Farmway (left); a boarded-up house painted with blackboard paint is being used for neighborhood announcements (facing page).
on potlucks, sponsored petting zoos, cleaned up a field for ultimate frisbee, and led nature walks. Efforts snowballed as more neighbors caught the vision. Over the past three years, gardens and pocket parks have sprouted throughout the 21-block area. Each garden or cleaned-up lot announces that someone—Scott, Wayne, Old Dude, Nikki, Kat, Kenny, Jess, Jeremy, Craig, Ray— has agreed to care for that site. “You can board a place up,” Schumack says, “but if there’s no one to sponsor it, it will just look a mess.” She points to a stretch of unkempt houses, some owned by residents and others occupied by tenants who have
shown little interest in the neighborhood. If they aren’t interested in cleaning up their own yards, NBB refuses to do it for them. Schumack says, “You have to become involved. … It’s Neighbors Building Brightmoor. Neighbors helping neighbors. There is no service industry here.”
O
utside the Farmway, t raditional neighborhood revitalization efforts can’t seem to halt Brightmoor’s downward spiral. John O’Brien heads up Northwest Detroit Neighborhood Development (NDND), which since its founding in 1989 has built 231 new rental houses and renovated a 23-unit apartment building. Money came from the Low Income Tax Credit program (LITC), a government-funded program that subsidizes rents for people within certain income guidelines. NDND, hoping construction would stabilize the neighborhood, also built or renovated 126 homes for purchase by people who
M a r c h 9 , 2 0 1 3 • W O R L D
5 CITIES INTRO.indd 53
53
2/18/13 2:20 PM
S
HOUSE: STEPHEN McGEE/GENESIS WINDOW: WILLIAM WIDMER/REDUX
: “If it were up to the city, they would get us all out of here tomorrow.” In the meantime, she says, her neighbors view themselves as a demonstration project for post-apocalyptic living. Wood-burning stoves and composting toilets are in. Some, like the Schumacks, keep bees and raise goats, chickens, and rabbits. Neighbors support themselves with market gardens, watered by rainwater catch systems: If gas prices keep going up, they think their vegetables might
POST-APOCALYPTIC LIVING: One among be able to compete with produce many abandoned homes—city officials do shipped from across the country. not have funds to tear them down—with Neighbors are also using colorful murals made by Brightmoor hoop houses, a kind of low-tech community members (top); the work of scrappers (above); the youth garden (right). portable greenhouse, to extend the growing season. Some are don’t want to say, ‘No, you can’t do looking into rocket mass heaters, a that.’ So they smile and say, ‘Don’t tell super-efficient, wood-burning heat us anything. … We’re not asking system. Is this experimentation strictly anyone anything.’ We’re just doing it.” legal? Detroit zoning laws don’t Brightmoor resident Katharina permit farming, but that could soon Walsh, who trains teens to create change. Chickens, rabbits, and bees murals on boarded-up houses and to will be in, but goats will still be out. translate the ideas of younger children Schumack says an unwritten rule into house-sized art, meets with neighguides interactions between the city bors to hear what kind of art they’d and the Farmway: “The city ignores us, like on nearby houses. She doesn’t both negatively and positively. They
WORLD • MARCH 9, 2013
5 CITIES INTRO.indd 54
2/18/13 2:22 PM
STEPHEN McGEE/GENESIS
URBAN FRONTIERS
qualify under another government program. Those efforts largely failed. Timing was part of the problem: The subprime and foreclosure crisis hit Detroit hard. Today, at least one of the NDND houses built fewer than years ago sits boarded up. Listed at , to , in , it is now worth less than ,. Under the terms of the government program that funded construction, the house had to be sold, not rented, so it ended up with boards over the windows and door. “An embarrassment,” O’Brien said. O’Brien still says stabilizing the neighborhood depends on construction of new housing with funds from outside, but the latest citywide long-range plan, “Detroit Works,” which came out in early January, makes new funding seem unlikely. A video made by the Federal Reserve at the beginning of the Detroit Works process argued for government and private foundations to align their goals and direct money into healthier neighborhoods, while letting less healthy ones go. Brightmoor, it said, was too far gone to save. The final document softened those recommendations, but if planners have their way, Brightmoor will receive even less in city services. The city can’t afford to keep up fire, sewer, garbage, street lights, and snow removal in such sparsely populated areas. Already the neighborhood feels the effect: The city still provides police, but the fire station closed. Street lights work, but no inspectors come to check on them, so burned-out bulbs don’t get fixed unless neighbors make a fuss. The day I visited, several inches of frozen snow covered unplowed streets.
seek approval from city hall: “We don’t have time to follow regulations. … If landlords have a problem, I don’t have a problem telling them their priorities are out of line.” Schumack and some of the people moving into the neighborhood are Christians, as are many long-term residents, but the philosophy guiding development in the Farmway depends on sight, not faith: “Hope comes from highly visible and short-term evidence of renewal.” The names of local
turned down Miss Gwen’s grant request, the long-time resident said no worries, she’d raise the money herself. She and a friend held two fish fries and made $1,000. Schumack admires her neighbors for being “hustlers” who “make do with what you got. [That’s] what it takes to live in a neighborhood like this one—and it might be what it takes to live in a future world.” Businesses are starting up: A neighbor with woodworking skills employs local teens to make carved and painted wooden signs and wooden benches
The NBB 2011 annual report declares, “There is no short cut! Keep at it. You can’t restore instantly what was destroyed over 30 years of decline.” That tortoise-like approach has drawn media and foundation attention. The Marjorie Fisher Foundation funded construction of a Kaboom! orangeand-green playscape designed with input from the community and built by 250 residents and volunteers. Nearby is a fitness course and picnic area. A wooden sign built by local teens announces the Eliza Howell Nature Trail, a wood-chip path built by volunteers that begins at the playground and travels for a mile along the Rouge River. A year and a half after installation, the playground still sports no graffiti, one evidence of neighborhood pride and ownership. In a video made on playground construction day, a young black woman said to the camera: “This is our park. … We’re not going to let anyone sit here and mess it up. Because I’m right here. I’m watching.”
“The city ignores us, both negatively and positively. They don’t want to say, ‘No, you can’t do that.’ So they smile and say, ‘Don’t tell us anything. ... We’re not asking anyone anything.’ We’re just doing it.” —Riet Schumack
house: Stephen McGee/Genesis window: William Widmer/Redux
Stephen McGee/Genesis
A
ardens reflect big concepts like g “neighborhood empowerment” and “individual initiative”: Myra’s Bird Haven and River Trail, Miss Gwen’s Edible Play-scape, Char’s Butterfly Trail, a Community Pumpkin Patch, Pingree’s Community Potato Patch, and others. Schumack says residents have lots of practical skills to share. “I’m in awe of what I see here. Miss Gwen is my greatest example.” When a foundation
adorning some of the Farmway’s “50 parks, gardens, and places of interest.” Once neighbors decide what they want to do, plenty of outside groups help with small amounts of money and time. In 2011, volunteers (1,400!) contributed 16,000 or so hours of labor. They helped NBB maintain 125 lots, grow more than 5,000 pounds of produce, employ almost 60 teens, and reach nearly 400 children.
s I sat in Schumack’s van admiring the playground, a truck pulled up to the curb a few houses behind us. Schumack watched out of her rearview mirror, “Oh, no, oh, no. Scrappers. We chased them from our street yesterday.” She grabbed her phone and punched in a number. (She has all NBB members’ numbers in her phone.) Then she jammed her van into reverse. One of the scrappers sat in the truck and the other disappeared into a vacant house. He reappeared carrying a door. Schumack jumped out of the car: “Put it back. We don’t want scrappers in this neighborhood. … We’re going to start calling the police.” The scrappers insisted they had permission to take the door. They threw insults, but eventually backed down and returned the door. Then they drove off. Schumack said, “Every day we chase them away from somewhere. Five times in the last two months. They make messes. … They open houses up, dump over garbage cans. … Once it’s a mess, that’s a signal to other people to come. … You got to be vigilant.” A
M a r c h 9 , 2 0 1 3 • W O R L D
5 CITIES INTRO.indd 55
55
2/18/13 2:23 PM
And where is New Orleans headed?
and more innovation. The biggest gap now: an enormous shortage of Christian schools. Long-term environmental problems remain: Wetlands around New Orleans continue to disappear. The urban environment still has hazards, as often-mistrusted police seem unable to stop the surge that has made New Orleans once again the nation’s murder capital and a drug haven as well. (Gambit, a New Orleans alternative weekly newspaper, has spotlighted teenage heroin use, and a Drug Demand Reduction Coalition reported that young adults in New Orleans use drugs at double the national average, with percent of th-graders selling drugs.) But what about the individuals profiled in our cover story: Where are they now? Pastor J.B. Watkins (St. Roch Community Church in the impoverished th Ward) has had to conduct many funeral services for murder victims, some as young as , but he also says, “We have much to be grateful for … - people regularly attending Sunday service … numerous weddings and baptisms … the park next to the church is full of organized sports activities … people are constantly reminding me of how the church is blessing them.” The St. Roch Community Development Corporation, housed in the church, renovated IMPROVED: a nearby property that artist Aaron Collier A new levee and his wife purchased. The building includes wall in the an apartment where the Colliers live, studio Lower th Ward.
GERALD HERBERT/AP
T on New Orleans that WORLD ran four years ago brought in lots of letters, in part because the city had received abundant national attention four years before when Katrina hit. As much of Detroit is a frontier town now, so New Orleans was in , and I wanted to see how the pioneers are getting along. The overall trend is positive. The area’s levee system, improved at a cost of . billion, worked well during Hurricane Isaac, which made landfall last Aug. - and stalled for hours, building a to -foot surge in one area that rivaled Katrina’s. Governmentally, Mayor Mitch Landrieu is an upgrade over ex-Mayor Ray Nagin, indicted in January on counts of corruption. Economically, New Orleans has a jobless rate of . percent, with many young people moving in and many business start-ups employing them. Living costs and state and local tax burdens less than those of many other cities encourage entrepreneurship. Katrina’s clouds even had some silver linings: City lending institutions did not have the opportunity to fall as far into sub-prime loans as their counterparts in other cities did. With many homes literally under water, builders did not churn out spec homes that would soon be underwater financially. Educationally, the multiplication of charter schools—most New Orleans children now attend them—has led to more children learning how to multiply (and read, and write). Katrina forcibly closed failing schools where school officials had feared to tread, and the result has been improved test scores, greater discipline,
by MARVIN OLASKY
WORLD • MARCH 9, 2013
5 CITIES INTRO.indd 56
2/18/13 2:26 PM
WATKINS & GREEN: HANDOUT • HARMON & WILLIAMS: CHUCK COOK/GENESIS • CANNATA: MATTHEW HINTON/THE TIMES-PICAYUNE/LANDOV
URBAN FRONTIERS
Where are they now?
watkins & green: handout • harmon & Williams: Chuck Cook/Genesis • Cannata: MATTHEW HINTON/THE TIMES-PICAYUNE/landov
Gerald Herbert/ap
spaces for Collier and five other artists, and a modest exhibition space. Troy Glover—trapped in a house when Katrina hit, floated out on a door, survived days in the Superdome, bused to Texas, returned to New Orleans to graduate from high school in 2009—is still involved with St. Roch and attempting to finish college. He still helps with the church’s youth summer camp. Toy Harmon, who was pregnant with her first child four years ago, now has two little boys “who have turned our lives upside-down in a wonderful way. … This is our city. This is our children’s city. We have a call to pray for the city and to serve her.” She and her husband Doug are “amazed by the number of families and individuals who continue to move here to be part of the rebuilding.” Bank president Guy Williams says New Orleans government is improving: “Political corruption thrives when people think it’s amusing, but when you’re trying to save your community you can’t mess around. … The idea that corrupt politicians are amusing is gone.” He has also seen the formation of many small businesses: “More people see life as uncertain, so ‘I’d better do it now.’” In 2012 innkeeper Joe Rabhan’s Bed & Breakfast had its best occupancy and revenue record going back 11 years, pre- and postKatrina. He’s happy that New Orleans received 21 tourism awards last year, including Conde Nast Travelers’ World City and Top Ten City awards: Travel + Leisure named it the best city for shopping. Four years ago pastor Ray Cannata said he had eaten in 650 different New Orleans restaurants and wanted to get to 1,000. And yet, a man has to know his limits: “When I hit 747 places in 2011, that was all the non-chain restaurants within the city limits at that time,” so he stopped counting. He notes that the city’s film industry is growing and so are the quality and quantity of its festivals: “My own Mardi Gras krewe (the Krewe of the Rolling Elvi—we dress up like creative versions of Elvis and ride mini-scooters) has grown from just 35 people before the storm to 130.” Ben McLeish runs the St. Roch Community Development Corporation, which now emphasizes financial literacy, jobs training, and small business development. McLeish also tried to develop one young man, Eric Green, whom he had met when Eric was a mischievous seventh-grader. Eric came to the wedding of Ben and Stephanie McLeish and became like a son to them, living with them for a year. They caught catfish out of the Mississippi River.
As Eric climbed the rungs of his teenage years, though, he often fell off the ladder. Sometimes he called McLeish to take him to the hospital or pick him up to escape someone who wanted him in the hospital. Drugs, crime, trouble. Sometimes, as on Christmas Eve, 2012, McLeish was able to talk with him about Jesus. Twelve days later, in a blog post titled “Loved dearly and deeply missed, my son,” McLeish wrote: “You were on an intense search to make pain & brokenness go away but it seemed like nothing could medicate the deep wounds. We reassured you of our love for you and our deep concern that the path you were on would lead to your demise.” Shortly after Christmas, 21-year-old Eric apparently overdosed. He never woke up. Where are they now? McLeish wrote in his blog letter to Eric, “I have sought solace in the story of the Prodigal Son and hope and trust that you have made your way home to our Heavenly Father who has rushed out to embrace you and throw a party for you— not because you somehow repented as you passed away but because the profession of Christ Jesus as your savior you once made was true.” still at it: J.B. Watkins and his family; Toy Harmon and her husband; Ray Cannata; Guy Williams; (clockwise from top left). Eric Green (below).
M a r c h 9 , 2 0 1 3 • W O R L D
5 CITIES INTRO.indd 57
57
2/18/13 2:25 PM
Semi-liberat capitals URBAN FRONTIERS
Residents in three former Soviet cities are moving meter-by-meter forward (and sometimes back)
C
by M ARV IN OL ASK Y in Eastern Europe
T
current story comes from Tallinn, nearly a millennium old and under Danish, Swedish, Russian, or German control during most of its existence. Estonia was independent for years after World War I and has now made it to once again, but architectural remnants of its diverse incarnations remain: present-day
glassy corporate offices, brutal Soviet concrete apartment blocks from the recent past, and a charming Old Town (on UNESCO’s World Heritage list) with medieval buildings and cobblestone alleys. The good news is that Tallinn has some extraordinary entrepreneurs in their upper s and s: old enough to remember deprivation under the
Soviets and food shortages in the initial years of independence, not too old to have stilled their entrepreneurial enthusiasm. For example, Urmas Järve—enrolled by his mom in computer and English languages when he was small—left school early years ago, at age , because he was already deep into computer programming. That hasn’t hurt him because the new Estonian emphasis is on competence, not credentials. Järve grew up in a house with a white picket fence, an apple tree in the front yard, and room to grow potatoes in back. Now he works in sales and management at a high-tech company he partially owns, has an in-town apartment, and drives a Lexus. He and his friends represent the antithesis of the lying Soviet regime: They want frank talk about problems and quick exposure of governmental inefficiency, and have no patience for either socialism or crony capitalism. Another young Tallinn entrepreneur, Henrik Pōder, works amid curvilinear, blond wood-and-metal desks with vines and acoustic tiles overhead and beige linoleum underfoot. He worries about “government officials who have no idea what we’re talking about. The
RACHEL LEWIS/LONELY PLANET IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES
- . Those of us who live in urban areas survive and sometimes thrive because all kinds of people we may rarely meet—firefighters and technicians, sewer workers and doctors, managers and entrepreneurs—are doing their jobs. In a well-ordered city we expect a little corruption but mostly honesty, and when that faith in essentially fair dealing shatters, many urbanites begin living lives of quiet desperation. What would it be like to live in cities where almost everything is corrupt, in countries where for half a century lying was essential and truth-telling virtually suicidal? That was the plight of Estonians and Lithuanians from to , when the Soviet Union finally fell. For Ukrainians, Soviet rule lasted two decades longer, so the oldest generation had no memories of freedom to pass along to children and grandchildren. The recent progress in the capitals of those three countries—Tallinn, Estonia; Vilnius, Lithuania; and Kiev, Ukraine—is halting but nevertheless remarkable.
WORLD • MARCH 9, 2013
5 CITIES EASTERN EUROPE.indd 58
2/18/13 1:35 PM
ated
Rachel Lewis/Lonely Planet Images/getty images
Picturesque: Tallinn’s Old Town.
M a r c h 9 , 2 0 1 3 • W O R L D
5 CITIES EASTERN EUROPE.indd 59
59
2/18/13 1:36 PM
politicians should run a company and learn what it’s like to do that.” Remembering past hardships, Estonians did not spend more when economic crisis hit five years ago: They painfully cut government spending, are now reaping the benefits in economic growth, and have become known worldwide as a flat-tax, business-friendly land of creativity and enterprise. But some also call Estonia the least religious country in the world: What will the -year-olds be seeking when their age has doubled and gray hairs march toward the Gulf of Finland?
to government-issue health staffers: “It’s a big mess. The most important sector is the most messed-up. Dirty. dirty, dirty, dirty.” Three new private clinics I visited are clean, clean, clean, both physically and in transparency: They post price lists and attract visitors from Britain and other countries with national healthcare and long delays.
countries, shows what can happen when government promises too much and can’t deliver.
T
isn’t unique to Lithuania. Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, has no Old Town/World Heritage Site: World War II battles largely destroyed the city’s center. Some Soviet construction
Vainiene• said she’s paid attention to our U.S. debates over Obamacare and come up with a decidedly pessimistic prediction: “U.S. healthcare in … people give people bribes, holding their envelopes … waiting in line and dying.” Everyone wants access to healthcare, but Lithuania, like other
EQUINOX CELEBRATION & OLD TOWN: PETRAS MALUKAS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
FASCINATING: Graffiti in Vilnius; the Old Town of Vilnius.
gracefully took after the old, but many new, concrete buildings are ugly. So is the healthcare system. One story from Ukrainian Ph.D. student Anatolij Babinsky: When his wife had a caesarian section, he had to offer financial “gifts” to nurses, attendants, and doctors. While she was in intensive care, the pediatrician wouldn’t even check the baby, and nurses would not bring the baby to his wife, unless Babinsky paid extra. He believes bribes are wrong, but he paid up: “When it’s your wife and child, you want to see them in good health.” Ukraine, of course, had Soviet rule for years, and before that the
WORLD • MARCH 9, 2013
5 CITIES EASTERN EUROPE.indd 60
2/18/13 1:36 PM
KIEV: GLEB GARANICH/REUTERS/NEWSCOM • RUSSEL & McDONNEL: SUSAN OLASKY
URBAN FRONTIERS
V
has an Old Town designated as a World Heritage Site: It’s the largest in Eastern Europe that went virtually untouched by World War II, and its jumble of Renaissance, Baroque, and other architectural style—now with graffitied walls—is fascinating. So is its jumble of a healthcare system, which includes dingy old buildings of the University Hospital, the governmental flagship facility, and gleaming new private clinics. The Lithuanian constitution promises free healthcare for all, but as Rūta Vainiene• of the Lithuanian Free Market Institute put it, her country’s two alternatives are, “Go private and pay again, or you bribe.” She spoke of how state-paid doctors open a drawer in their desks so patients who want medical attention can put down a wad of cash and “absentmindedly” leave the office without reclaiming it. Or, since the government determines what type of care patients can receive, “to get better medicine, cancer must be heavier, so patients say ‘please worsen my bad news.’ Doctors learn to lie.” It’s hard to throw off a half-century of deceit. Vainiene• pointed out other negatives of Lithuania’s socialized medicine system, such as overuse by some older people and underpayment
equinox celebration & old town: PETRAS MALUKAS/AFP/Getty Images
kiev: Gleb Garanich/REUTERS/newscom • Russel & McDonnel: susan olasky
t yranny of the czars: Such a legacy is hard to shake. When liberation miraculously came in 1991, those with governmental power sold state-owned industries to their pals, who became rich. The result, according to Andrei Barkov, managing director of Nadiya Ukrainy, a HOPE International maker of micro-loans: “Huge industrial operations privately owned by guys
who wear Versace and have a dozen mistresses.” Ukraine’s crony capitalism is an upgrade over communism, but neither inspires entrepreneurial risk-taking among people who had absorbed for decades a Russian expression, “tallest stalk gets the sickle.” The small business owners I talked with in Kiev had often been government employees before the fall of Communism, and their attitudes differed from those of the Tallinn high-tech entrepreneurs: Nina Korzh sells perfume in an entrylevel marketplace and competes against many other perfume sellers with similar merchandise. She was “out on the street with no job” in 1995, so she went into business, but would prefer being a salaried worker: “If a salary is decent and guaranteed, you feel good and you don’t have to worry about buying or selling stuff. In business you can never say for sure, and you have to take risks.”
Valentina Russel was a construction engineer. She entered the marketplace in 1995 “because there were no jobs and I wanted to be better off. I’m a Capricorn by my horoscope and I read it and understood that I needed to act.” She’s done well and now has a higherend drapery shop inside a mall. A HOPE micro-loan has also helped candy-seller Oxana Tsarik, who was
an upgrade: A street vendor awaits customers outside the central railway station in Kiev (above); Valentina Russel (right); Mark McDonnel (below).
optimistic—“I’m hoping for the best”—and smiling as she explained her competitive advantage: “I smile. Most Ukrainians never smile, haven’t you noticed?” Her smile would melt the hearts of customers, but she has a business problem: Summer heat melts her chocolates. The prime reason for the stern faces even on political posters is cultural, but in part may be economic: Barkov says, “The environment for small business is worsening.” Yes, Ukraine’s entrepreneurs can readily sell cheap goods from Turkey or China, an activity that produces
negligible profits, but barriers to entry make it hard for them to move up to a factory that turns tomatoes into ketchup or even to a beer-and-cigarette stand. Since small business owners do not know what the government will do, the smart money is on sitting tight and starting no new projects. One of Barkov’s branch managers, Vitaly Tolstikov, summed up the prevalent mood: Entrepreneurialism is hard, people are earning less, and “these days are the worst.” But then he pointed out Bible verses—John 3:16, Proverbs 6:6—on one wall of his office: “They help start a conversation. The clients ask questions, ‘Why are you guys different?’ We talk to the clients about Jesus … and at the same time, we help them improve their social status if they use our loans in the proper way.” Barkov and Tolstikov recognize that the underlying problem is religious, and the re-empowered Orthodox church is part of the problem. Many church hierarchs enjoy governmental patronage and provide no real alternative to worship of the state, which means ordinary Ukrainians often turn to worship of the bottle. Decades of atheistic teaching in schools continue to have an effect: Many Ukrainians see Christianity only as a set of prayers recited at baptisms and funerals. Evangelical missionaries tried to change that understanding when they were free to come to newly independent Ukraine in 1991. The initial response was exciting, but time had shown that many Ukrainians only momentarily pledged allegiance to Jesus: As missionary Shannon Ford, in Ukraine since 1999, puts it, “Everyone in the Ukraine has been saved five times.” But he remembers wonderful baptisms by the river, and those who persevere. Kiev Theological Seminary teacher Mark McDonnel has also worked for years to help shift superficial commitments into life-transformers. In opposition to the Orthodox church’s divide of secular and spiritual, he tries
M a r c h 9 , 2 0 1 3 • W O R L D
5 CITIES EASTERN EUROPE.indd 61
61
2/18/13 1:41 PM
to promote the idea of serving God in a secular environment— and in opposition to the tendency to see children with disabilities as burdens to be discarded, he’s helped to develop special-needs ministries. Some of his colleagues have given up, yet he retains hope.
URBAN FRONTIERS
H
money, much sin,” she said. Vasily Kachan, pastor of the church hosting the Tomorrow Club, spoke of his father’s years in a prison camp, his pastorate near the Chernobyl nuclear explosion, and a subsequent church transplanting. Tomorrow Clubs in one sense don’t seem like a big deal—but in this long-suffering land where the big deals for centuries have turned bad, hope comes from the bottom up. A
PAST AND FUTURE: An elderly woman looks on as people march in Kiev to commemorate the victims of a famine orchestrated by the Soviet government in (above); a Tomorrow Club meeting.
KIEV: GENIA SAVILOV/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • TOMORROW CLUB: SUSAN OLASKY
OPE I in Ukraine literally banks on tomorrow: Profits from its micro-loan business go to “Tomorrow Clubs,” which are now Ukraine’s largest children’s ministry. Through of these evangelical clubs, , volunteers teach nearly , children—three-fourths from unchurched families—about God’s grace. I visited one Tomorrow Club that meets on Saturdays in a small church building with yellow walls and a gray tile floor. Seven volunteers in their s were leading two dozen children ages to in Bible games and crafts. The children in such clubs learn they are made in God’s image: Ukrainian governmental schools rarely acknowledge that image, but some school principals welcome Tomorrow Club after-school efforts. Orthodox priests are trying to stop the slow growth of evangelical churches by telling Ukrainian Protestants they won’t be welcome back for the only events that populate most old cathedrals: baptisms, marriages, and funerals. But the weekly community that new churches and their Tomorrow Clubs foster can trump the occasional Orthodox festivals, much as weekly Christian home fellowship groups in the Roman Empire beat out their big-event temple competitors. Besides, Ukrainian evangelicals are survivors. One Tomorrow Club helper, Natasha Yedina, , made it to the outskirts of Kiev from Kazakhstan despite robbery, the shooting of her mom who turned down advice to have an abortion, family drunkenness, and a host of other problems: “much
WORLD • MARCH 9, 2013
5 CITIES EASTERN EUROPE.indd 62
2/18/13 1:41 PM
L.A. grace A spiritual renaissance comes to downtown Los Angeles by Sophia Lee in Los Angeles p h o t o s b y G r e g S c h n e i d e r /G e n e s i s
O
n an early Sunday morning in downtown Los Angeles, young women in slinky dresses stumble out of nightclubs. Several hours later, other young women in sundresses walk to church, Bibles in hand. For more than 70 years, a sign capitalizing “Jesus Saves” has been flashing its evangelical message. But for a good chunk of those decades, they were two silent words without a home. Churches have been trickling out of downtown since the mid-1950s, joining their congregants on an exodus out into the suburbs. The reverse has been happening over the last 10 years. Downtown, once a strictly 8-to5-weekday ghost town, has been surging back to life. Ever since the city passed the adaptive reuse ordinance that allowed developers to revamp vacant buildings into luxury lofts and commercial buildings, downtown has become a destination not just for foodies and night revelers, but also for potential residents. Since 1999 the number of downtown residents—then 18,000—has tripled. Boutiques, restaurants and bars are filling up the oncegood empty buildings and streets, news: and churches such as New City New City Church on Spring Street are Church.
M a r c h 9 , 2 0 1 3 • W O R L D
5 CITIES LA.indd 63
63
2/18/13 1:47 PM
K
over dinner and blurted, “What if we planted a multi-ethnic, multisocioeconomic church that reaches out to both skid row residents and loft dwellers?” The room went silent. He found himself sharing that vision with anybody who would listen, and each time he talked about it, he started weeping. “Maybe God is telling us something,” his wife, Grace, told him. Two years later, New City held its first service at a nightclub. Haah wanted New City to crack the downtown liberal view of churches as “right-wing” and substitute the “understanding that we’re all messed
up and we need Christ.” New City meets at the Los Angeles Theater Center and starts worship with contemporary praise songs led by a young band in skinny jeans and vintage boots. Dark- and light-skinned hands rise up, swaying as the crowd sings, “What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”
GREG SCHNEIDER/GENESIS
H’ for a downtown parish church grew in tandem with downtown’s residential boom. He had been leading Love LA, his former church’s outreach ministry to the skid row community. He became troubled by a survey of skid row residents that revealed they considered the Sunday afternoon worship and food distribution to be a church: “We were taking these people to what looks like a church, but doesn’t have the depth of a church.” One evening, Haah was voicing his concerns to the volunteers at Love LA
FILLING A SPIRITUAL VOID: Worshippers at Sovereign Grace church (above); Angelenos on skid row (right).
WORLD • MARCH 9, 2013
5 CITIES LA.indd 64
2/18/13 1:47 PM
BROWN: ERIC RISBERG/AP
URBAN FRONTIERS
trying to fill a spiritual void. At least two-thirds of the about or so New City members are downtown residents. Half of those are loft dwellers. The others come from skid row—a dense strip of poverty, social services, and the highest concentration of chronically homeless people in the nation. Whites, Latinos, blacks, and Asians each make up about one-fourth of the congregation.
After the service, the parishioners gather over coffee and cold juice and stay long after the service to chat, while kids weave through the crowds, running and shouting. “You can see the glow in the faces of the people here when they walk out of the service,” said Dimson Velasco, a resident at Los Angeles Mission, a nonprofit service provider for the homeless. Velasco said he wasn’t a church-goer until he found New City. “I hurt myself in so many ways,” he said. “I was struggling with jobs, with drugs, isolation, suicide. But God had something else for me. He healed me.” Velasco now hopes to attend seminary and become a pastoral intern at New City.
Greg Schneider/Genesis
brown: Eric Risberg/ap
A
bout a year before New City held its initial service, Sovereign Grace Church had its in 2007 with a different focus: to be a church that affects the whole city, not just downtown. Alex Choi, lead pastor of Sovereign Grace, chose downtown because it’s the closest thing to a centralized heart in Los Angeles. Worshipping in the financial, political, and cultural hub of Los Angeles infuses the church with a powerful sense of responsibility for the city, Choi said, as residents drive past skid row each day to their luxury lofts just one block away: “The proximity of the rich and the poor is unavoidable in city life.” Unlike New City, Sovereign Grace is not a neighborhood church. Its dominantly Asian-American, working p rofessional congregation doesn’t reflect the socioeconomic or ethnic diversity of downtown: “Our church is very, very L.A. We have models, artists, doctors, lawyers, actors, fashion designers, everything.” Choi said church members want “to do music, to do art, to do law, to do business as Christians,” and they ask: With so many of these people going to church, why isn’t the world’s culture being transformed?
5 CITIES LA.indd 65
California screaming
A state heading toward insolvency is becoming a thriving field for Christian ministries by Angela Lu Hopeless. Headed off a cliff. “Keep a real estate agent’s number on speed dial.” Conservative commentators didn’t mince words after Californians in November voted for two tax increases and handed Democrats a legislative supermajority, allowing them to raise taxes without opposition. Proposition 30 was the largest tax increase in the history of the nation, raising taxes on top earners by as much as 29 percent and increasing the nation’s highest state sales tax. Prop 39 increased taxes on out-of-state companies by $1 billion. California’s troubles go deeper than taxes: e A powerful teachers union that spends $200 million per year on politics to protect its interests, making it nearly impossible to reform one of the country’s worst school systems e $500 billion of unfunded liabilities in California’s retirement system e Unemployment rate at 10.2 percent, and $10 billion owed to the federal government to keep joblessness benefits coming e State ranked most hostile to private enterprise because of overregulation, coastal zoning laws, inflated housing costs, high tax rates, and environmental laws e Funding for a $68 billion bullet train that is often called the “bullet train to nowhere” It’s no wonder that many people want out of the Golden State despite its miles of beaches and February sunshine. Financially, it seems foolish to stay in a state blind to its own problems. Politically, it’s not exciting to be in a state where 55 electoral votes go blue no matter how you A TAX ON YOU: vote, and local congressional races sometimes come down to two California Gov. Jerry Brown talks Democrats running on nearly identical platforms. about his support But spiritually, the calculus changes: Hope exists on the West Coast for Proposition 30. from Los Angeles to San Francisco in spite of the state’s irresponsible leaders and materialistic culture. And as Christians and gospel-centered churches multiply in influential Hollywood and Silicon Valley, the message of hope reaches far beyond city and state lines. Reality LA, a church that meets in a high-school auditorium in Hollywood, attracts fashionable young people drawn to the city’s entertainment industry. They share stories of seeking satisfaction in cults, drugs, sex, worldly success, and peer approval—and coming up short. Through God’s working, they’ve come to know Christ: What started as a church plant seven years ago now has more than 3,000 members, and about 40 community groups spread all over the city. The Reality church network, which started in Santa Barbara in 2003 with pastor Britt Merrick (son of surfing legend Al Merrick) has since expanded to Stockton and San Francisco, where it meets in the rainbow-flagged Castro District and has grown quickly since opening its doors in 2010. In the government-subsidized residential hotels of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district— known for crime, prostitution, and homelessness—the Christian organization City Impact is active. With the help of pastor and bestselling author Francis Chan, volunteers knock on doors not just to hand out food but to disciple the residents, hoping to raise leaders to start a home church in each building. Christian rapper Lecrae sells out a show at the historic Hollywood Paladium, just blocks from the strip clubs, bars, and flashy lights of Hollywood Blvd. At the concert young African-American, Latino, Asian, and white hip-hop fans sing along to lyrics about how they’ll be persecuted for following Christ. (See “Hip-hop hope,” Oct. 6, 2012.) And that’s just the tip of God’s work in California’s cities: Ministries to bikers and prostitutes, immigrants and surfers, entertainers and homeless people are growing. Many affluent Californians facing higher taxes will leave. But others will stay to work. M a r c h 9 , 2 0 1 3 • W O R L D 65
2/18/13 1:48 PM
Until Sovereign Grace relocated to its current venue at a ballroom in the LA Hotel, Sunday service convened in the middle of a downtown art gallery. Choi preached directly in front of a giant painting etched with vulgar words, and the congregants sat surrounded by nude paintings. Choi, who calls himself “very conservative,” purposely didn’t cover the lewd paintings, because “The city is dirty. The city is sexual. The city is godless. We wanted to be able to teach our people that your faith has to grow in the middle of sin—in the middle of the city.”
URBAN FRONTIERS
J
I’ , mild Saturday morning at Bottega Louie, but the -plus people aren’t filling up the backspace of this Euro-trendy restaurant for brunch. They’ve gathered to tour the surrounding downtown Los Angeles— not as tourists, but as potential residents. Tour leader Hal Bastian, , director of economic development for the Downtown Center Business Improvement District, has volunteered to do these housing tours for years. His tour takes in a luxury loft, the organic produce section and sushi bar at a gleaming Ralph’s, and in front of that supermarket a man rattling a coffee cup and asking, “Spare some change?” Daina Solomon, another recent downtown resident, remembers her tour with Bastian three years ago. She and her mother moved from Santa Monica and now live with a border collie and a tabby cat in a freshly constructed apartment situated directly above two hip restaurants, and only one street away from skid row. New York transplant Roger Gendron, , cut his commute by moving downtown six years ago but particularly wanted to do it because he missed the urban environment of his home city. The lawyer remembers that, during the first few months after he bought an apartment on Spring Street, he was the lone person on stretches of sidewalk once sunset hit— but then the shops and activity started popping up all along the street. Now, Gendron said, he can “spend weeks and months here without needing to leave downtown”—and he rarely does. He sold his car and does most of his errands on foot or by Metro. He now knows all the business owners and neighbors within a three-block radius by name. Every Sunday, he shops at the farmers market two blocks up from where he lives in Spring Street, filling his reusable bag with lettuce and lemons from every stand so that new vendors feel welcome. —S.L.
GREG SCHNEIDER/GENESIS
R, another pastor who “felt a calling” to build a church downtown, began in to follow the revitalization of downtown. That turned from hobby to burden and calling, especially when he saw the number of downtown residents doubling and tripling while the number of churches stayed stagnant. In Ross and his wife Shelley moved downtown and planted Live Church LA a few blocks away from their apartment: it meets at Club Nokia, a hip concert venue in L.A. LIVE, downtown’s newest and flashiest multibillion-dollar entertainment complex. On Sundays when the VIP room is filled for another event, the service takes place on the terrace that overlooks the I- freeway. All staff members, including Ross, are unpaid volunteers. Congregants are mostly in their s and s, downtown residents who found Live Church through Yelp or Google. Ross has encountered hostility: Comments on one downtown-based blog that reported Live Church LA’s launch ranged from “Lovely, more nutbag Christians,” to accusations about churches “preying on the poor and uneducated.” Ross sees “a huge wall to tear down” but says “people are craving spirituality”—and when he started attending City Hall meetings and asking for ways he and his church could volunteer, city workers responded with shock: “It was like it’s never been done before. … Apparently it’s hard to find Christian churches that are vibrant in this area.” Ross now gets his salary as associate director of People Assisting The Homeless/ Home for Good (PATH), an organization that helps move chronically homeless veterans into permanent homes. One Saturday during a move, Live Church members showed up with bed sheets, toiletries, and clothes. One member hired a U-Haul van to tow belongings and donations into the beneficiaries’ new home. A
Saturday juxtapositions
WORLD • MARCH 9, 2013
5 CITIES LA.indd 66
2/18/13 1:48 PM
REGISTER TODAY!
MISSIONS AND MINISTRY DIRECTORY
To advertise in upcoming directories, contact Dawn Stephenson: dstephenson@worldmag.com or 828.232.5489
800-488-1888 · IntheBeginning2013.org
IN THE BEGINNING: GOD, ADAM, AND YOU
GRAND RAPIDS March 15–17, 2013
PHILADELPHIA April 19–21, 2013
Joel Beeke Kevin DeYoung (MI) Liam Goligher (PA)
Jon Payne Richard Phillips Derek Thomas
In Partnership with A L L I A N C E O F
C O N F E S S I N G
®
E VA N G E L I C A L S
PHILADELPHIA CONFERENCE ON REFORMED THEOLOGY 2013
GREG SCHNEIDER/GENESIS
5 CITIES LA.indd 67
2/15/13 5:01 PM
MISSIONS AND MINISTRY DIRECTORY
SAVE % Up to 15 Order before 2/28/13 Save 10% by 5/31/13 Promo Code 131VBSWLD
St anding
in the Battle for T ruth Strong
VBS for 2013!
With Kingdom Chronicles, children learn about the armor of God and how to be strong in the Lord! They’ll love the songs, games, and the daily skits.
AnswersVBS.com
The HEART of ADDICTION A Biblical Curriculum
This Leader’s Guide is a wonderful resource to The Heart of Addiction book and workbook for anyone who is discipling individuals struggling with various besetting, life-dominating strongholds (addictions). Usage of The Heart of Addition curriculum continues to expand throughout our Christcentered support group network. Minds are being renewed, hearts encouraged, and lives transformed as they embrace Mark’s counsel of finding a Trusted Christian Friend, biblical counselor, or disciple-maker to come along side them as they “roll up their sleeves” and dig into these materials in connection with Bible study. Mark’s presentation is an easy-to-understand/rubber-meets-the road, compassionate approach aimed at unpacking the relevance of the gospel message as contained in Scripture to the epidemic problem of addiction in our world. With sincere gratitude, Daniel Gavin Executive Director, Addictions Victorious, www.AddVicInc.org Dr. Mark Shaw is the Founder and President of Truth in Love Ministries (www.histruthinlove.org) in the greater Birmingham, AL area. He has served the Lord in the past as a senior pastor, residential rehabilitation director, and outpatient clinical director. With certifications from the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors (NANC) and the International Association of Biblical Counselors (IABC), as well as a Doctor of Ministry in Biblical Counseling, Dr. Shaw offers sound biblical truth that brings clarity to hurting and hardened souls. He is also a Certified Alcohol and Drug Counselor with the Alabama Association of Drug and Alcohol Addiction, so he is very familiar with the language and culture of addiction. His wife, Mary, is a Registered Nurse who is now serving Mark and their four children as a full time “helper suitable” at home and as a volunteer biblical counselor with Truth in Love Ministries. 978-1-936141-13-5 1-936141-13-2
THE HEART OF ADDICTION LEADER’S GUIDE MARK SHAW
The Heart of Addiction Leader’s Guide is designed to connect the Gospel to addiction counseling and addiction counseling to the local church. Most secular addiction programs have a 10% or less success rate. We believe the body of Christ can do a better job at helping those struggling with addictive sins, but in order to do so, we must emphasize that we have a different message than what the world teaches. We do this by reading and teaching God’s Holy Word, the Bible. It is our prayer that utilizing this Leader’s Guide will help you to demonstrate the relevance and power of the Word of God. In addition, we pray that you will find this book to be a rewarding study of Scripture that will impact you personally. If you commit the time necessary to preparation for the lessons, you will be adequately prepared to see the Holy Spirit’s fruit in the lives of your participants, and the blessing of your increased spiritual growth. We have attempted to create an easy, practical Leader’s Guide that will help you clearly teach each lesson. The expansive Appendix provides additional resources and activity options.
LEADER’S GUIDE The
HEART of
ADDICTION
MARK & MARY SHAW
502 Third Street NW Bemidji, Minnesota 56601 www.focuspublishing.com
When people choose to believe that their “addictions” are a disease, they are powerless to overcome their problems. This program will make the distinction between what the world terms a “disease” and what Scripture demonstrates is a life-dominating sin nature problem. In this curriculum you will find biblical tools to help you examine your heart’s motives at the root of the addiction. Check out “The Heart of Addiction” for your church addiction program. Quantity discounts available. Introductory Price
Set of Course Books: 502 Third Street NW Bemidji, MN 56601
1.800.913.6287
www.focuspublishing.com
5 CITIES LA.indd 68
$20.00 Book, Workbook & Leader’s Guide
2/18/13 1:50 PM
Notebook
Lifestyle > Technology > Science > Houses of God > Sports > Money > Religion
Love for the long haul Will and Colene Norton say the secret to years of ‘compatibility’ in marriage is God BY SUSAN OLASKY
COLUMBIA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
>>
W to be married years? Will Norton, , and his wife Colene Woodward Norton, , say the secret is God. The Nortons met in at Columbia (S.C.) International University. He was the son of Swedish immigrants, who grew up in Chicago. She was a South Carolina belle. They married in June and less than a year later were headed to the Belgian Congo to establish the Bible Institute of Ubangi. During World War II travel was difficult. The Nortons found passage on a freighter leaving Port Arthur, Texas, loaded with high-octane aviation fuel in -gallon drums. As Norton describes the journey—why they got off in Sierra Leone rather than Liberia; how they found passage on a French ship to Cameroon and then took a train to the end of the line; how they ended up in a Presbyterian mission and from there rented a pickup truck; and how they concluded the ½-month journey with “a three-hour ride in a dug–out
Email: solasky@worldmag.com
5 LIFESTYLE and TECH.indd 69
canoe through pouring rain”—he emphasizes that good planning didn’t get them to Africa. God did. That sensibility permeates the Nortons’ discussions of marriage. Like missions, marriage is ludicrous from the world’s perspective. How can you know when you marry that you’ll be compatible years later? Norton says, “As a married couple, when you know God has brought you together and you have begun with God, you continue
on with Him.” That confidence strengthened them through the hardest times, which included the death of two children in infancy. Norton says, “Tragedies happen, but in each tragedy we discovered a new element of the grace and love of God.” Will Norton’s papers reside in the Billy Graham Center Archives at Wheaton College. They document a long life of service as a college teacher, dean, and seminary president. They
MARCH 9, 2013 • WORLD
2/15/13 10:59 AM
Notebook > Lifestyle Norton’s advice to young couples is good advice for any believer: “In all the tragic events, remember the love of Christ. Do not be surprised when the battles come. Expect them. Read and learn His word in the Bible. God will tell you what to do. As your relationship deepens with Him, your relationship with your spouse will deepen, too.” All those years of living by that wisdom helped the Nortons when he turned and faced mandatory retirement from Wheaton. A former student asked him to consider going to Jos, Nigeria, to start a seminary. He wondered, “Could I manage now in a new
Take a pass
Verbica and Pearle Salters
based on the movie with Whoopi Goldberg, and they were having some success, according to Variety. When I went, I could see why: The lead singers had talent, the music was lively, and some of the jokes were about legalism and empty ritual. And yet, the butt of many Sister Act jokes was not religiosity but God, and the whole idea of holiness. The god in the play was so small. The basic feel-good message was that people need friends but God is an option: Sister Act evangelized for a one-dimensional theology, all horizontal and no vertical. Are we so desperate to see the existence of Christianity recognized in a musical that, Stockholm-style, we’ll suffer abuse and like it? The church buses were not enough to keep Sister Act going: It closed soon after I saw it, so I never wrote a review—good riddance! But it’s now having a national tour: The schedule shows it’s just finished Boston and Pittsburgh, and from now to June will be in Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Houston, Tempe, Orange County, Seattle, Kansas City, Baltimore, and San Antonio. If someone says to you, “Brother, here’s a NO LAUGHING musical with religion that MATTER: Actress Raven-Symoné you should see,” I recomduring a mend that you reply, performance of “Sister, I need to wash the Broadway my hair tonight.” musical Sister Act. —Marvin Olasky
JOAN MARCUS/THE HARTMAN GROUP/AP
The Hollywood/Broadway edition of the “Stockholm syndrome”: Coming soon to a theater near you? Let me explain. News coverage of hostage crises typically feature psychologists intoning about the “Stockholm syndrome.” The term originated nearly years ago in Sweden when bank employees, held hostage for six days and then freed, praised the perpetrators. The syndrome is not rare, according to the FBI: One out of four despairing hostages starts seeing any small act of humanity by the captors as a huge positive, and later defends them. Variants of such “traumatic bonding” include battered wife syndrome, where a man beats, harasses, and intimidates a woman until she, “like a whipped dog,” is ready to lick his feet. Some evangelicals, abused for years by mainstream culture creators, go Stockholm. Did the Matrix movies include some lines that (with stretching) seem Christian-like? Praise them, praise them. Does Time or Newsweek have a depiction of Jesus on its cover prior to Easter or Christmas? Buy a copy at the checkout stand. I saw in New York City last year one evangelical Stockholm syndrome example: Publicists were trying to get church groups to come to the Broadway musical Sister Act,,
setting and in a new culture?” Colene, who was , prayed for confirmation and God showed her “what matters is serving Him and doing the will of God.” The next morning, she began packing. The Nortons now live in Go Ye Village in Tahlequah, Okla. White-haired and bearded, Will Norton may not see as well as he used to. They exchange gentle banter as Norton pushes Colene in her wheelchair around the retirement village. The couple’s th anniversary comes in June, and Norton says, “We thank Him that He is Lord of our union, of our oneness in marriage.” —with reporting by Winnifred
WORLD • MARCH 9, 2013
5 LIFESTYLE and TECH.indd 70
2/15/13 11:00 AM
DRONES: CONSERVATIONDRONES • T-RAY: NYPD
include papers from his years of service in the Belgian Congo from to and his three years in Jos, Nigeria (-), where he was the founding principal of JETS seminary. During all those years of service, the Nortons raised three sons, who taught them more about God’s love: “Love expanded and grew in this dimension. … Our sons were brought into our interactions with God.” Colene Norton worked for many years as a special education teacher. She also worked alongside her husband at his various seminary jobs, using her energies to organize prayer and encourage women preparing to serve the Lord.
Notebook > Technology
Wild eye
Drones take to the skies to hunt illegal hunters BY DANIEL JAMES DEVINE
JOAN MARCUS/THE HARTMAN GROUP/AP
DRONES: CONSERVATIONDRONES • T-RAY: NYPD
>>
W in African and Asian parks have it rough these days. Outnumbered, out-funded, and sometimes outgunned, they battle roving gangs of poachers who indiscriminately kill elephants and rhinos and saw off their tusks and horns for fast cash. Ivory tusks can sell for , per pound on the black market, and often end up as statuettes in China. Many rhino tusks make their way to Vietnam, where people grind them to powder and eat them in hopes of curing cancer. They are worth nearly , per pound. Some rangers have a new weapon in their arsenal: In South Africa late last year rangers launched drones into the skies above the ,-square-mile Kruger National Park. Using heat-sensing technology, the drones detect illegal hunters and beam their location back to ranger headquarters. The spy planes arrived at a crucial time: Poachers killed a record number of rhinos in South Africa last year—, up from just six years ago. Most were killed at Kruger. Last June the World Wildlife Fund announced it would begin using drones costing about , each to monitor rhino and tiger poaching in Nepal. Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, home of four of the world’s last seven northern
Email: ddevine@worldmag.com
5 LIFESTYLE and TECH.indd 71
white rhinos, plans to launch a drone in March that will travel up to miles per flight, scanning the ground by day or night. Conservationists in Kenya are also fitting some elephants with collars equipped with GPS and accelerometers that will send out an alert if the elephants stop moving or behave erratically. Unlike many military drones, the robotic craft used by rangers are small. They can be launched by hand and are relatively inexpensive. They aren’t a foolproof solution, though. Damien Mander, founder of the International Anti-Poaching Foundation, reported that his team crashed one of its drones three days after introducing it to Niassa National Reserve in Mozambique, ripping off its wings. Software glitches plagued his fleet, too. Some conservationists say the drones have been oversold. “We need to see results before we allocate resources,” a spokesman for the Kenya Wildlife Service told an Al Jazeera reporter. “We need to know whether poachers are capable of bringing drones down, just like they can bring down other aircraft.” But a drone has already bagged four suspected poachers at Niassa: The aircraft’s thermal imaging camera picked up the embers of a fire, revealing the suspects’ campsite to rangers, who arrested them.
While drones hunt for poachers on the savanna, police hunt for handguns in New York City, where concealed carry permits are rare. Their latest tool is an expensive scanner as bulky as a washing machine, mounted on a tripod or truck, that can detect a handgun beneath clothing feet away. The “T-Ray” scanner measures terahertz radiation, a form of electromagnetic energy humans emit naturally. On the scanner’s display, any object blocking the radiation, such as a gun, is highlighted on a person’s body. The device raises the possibility of indiscriminate scanning of citizens. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the scanner would only be used under “reasonably suspicious circumstances.” —D.J.D.
T-Ray scanner
T-Ray body scan
MARCH 9, 2013 • WORLD
2/15/13 11:08 AM
Notebook > Science
Nanoscale ingredients have made their way into foods, though the health effects are poorly understood BY DANIEL JAMES DEVINE
>>
W that powdered doughnut if you knew it was dusted in titanium nanoparticles? Whether it worries you or not, nanomaterials—involving particles a few billionths of a meter in size—are infiltrating the food industry. Titanium dioxide, a substance that enhances whiteness, is found in candy, gum, and toothpaste. Silver nanoparticles are used in food packaging for their antimicrobial properties. Other nanoscale additives make liquids creamy without adding fat. Some food producers eschew nanotechnology, but a new report suggests many either don’t know whether their product supply chain contains the particles or are unwilling to admit it. As You Sow, an environmental and human-rights group, asked , companies in the food industry whether they used nanotechnology. Only responded. Of those, two admitted their products contained nanoparticles, and weren’t sure. As You Sow’s own study of powdered doughnuts found Dunkin’ Donuts Powdered Cake Donuts and Hostess Donettes both contained titanium dioxide less than nanometers in size—though it’s not clear whether the particles were engineered or byproducts of manufacturing. (Hostess has since declared bankruptcy.) Nanoparticles can be absorbed into the bloodstream after being inhaled or ingested, and are small enough to penetrate cells. Some studies have shown them to be harmful to rodents. Last April, the Food and Drug Administration said there wasn’t enough data to determine whether nanoscale food ingredients are safe. Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency is studying the safety of titanium dioxide and four other nanomaterials: According to the As You Sow report, government agencies in spent times as much on nanomaterial product development as on safety testing. It may be a mistake to assume all nanomaterials are guilty until proven innocent, though. Andrew Maynard, director of the Risk Science Center at the University of Michigan, told me in that science indicates some nanomaterials cause harm, while others don’t: “You can’t put everything in the same bucket.”
WORLD • MARCH 9, 2013
5 SCIENCE and HOG.indd 72
63 percent
Decrease in deaths among children under in Rwanda between and . Since the genocide that left , Rwandans dead, the country has become a healthcare success story, thanks in part to foreign aid, with life expectancy rising from years to years. Although childhood malnutrition remains high, deaths from childbirth, AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria have plummeted over the past decade. (British Medical Journal)
2,600 feet
Depth of the borehole American scientists drilled in Antarctic ice while searching for life in a subglacial lake. The researchers found what appeared to be bacteria living in water samples collected from Lake Whillans, a shallow body of water sandwiched between the Antarctic continent and ice cap. They plan to confirm their novel discovery using DNA sequencing. —D.J.D.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE • CAT: S-DMIT/GETTY IMAGES • RWANDA: LIONEL HEALING/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • LAKE WHILLANS BOREHOLE: WHILLANS ICE STREAM SUBGLACIAL ACCESS RESEARCH DRILLING
Unlikely additives
Median number of small mammals, such as chipmunks and rabbits, that die each year in the jaws of U.S. domestic cats, according to a new estimate. The nation’s million to million stray cats are responsible for most of the killings. Including household pets that occasionally roam outdoors, cats may kill more than billion birds annually— ranking the purring predators as greater threats to bird and mammal wildlife than humans. (Nature Communications)
Stay connected: Sign up to receive email updates at worldmag.com/email
2/15/13 11:15 AM
YASUYOSHI CHIBAYASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
12.3 billion
photo illustration: krieg barrie • cat: s-dmit/getty images • rwanda: LIONEL HEALING/AFP/Getty Images • Lake Whillans borehole: Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling
Yasuyoshi CHIBAYASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images
Notebook > Houses of God
People wait outside on Jan. 11 for the opening of Cristolândia, a church offering free breakfasts, lunches, showers, and haircuts to crack addicts and the homeless in downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil. Former drug users and the homeless serve as full-time workers at the church, located in an area known for crack cocaine use.
M a r c h 9 , 2 0 1 3 • W O R L D
5 SCIENCE and HOG.indd 73
73
2/18/13 11:55 AM
Notebook > Sports
Money for nothing much For baseball’s best, high salaries have often yielded poor production
WORLD • MARCH 9, 2013
5 SPORTS and MONEY.indd 74
I In , Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins landed an eight-year, million contract only to battle a knee injury throughout the first year of his deal. He has yet to recover the form that earned him MVP honors in . I In , the Seattle Mariners rewarded Adrian Beltre for the home runs and . batting average he’d posted the year before with the Dodgers. The Mariners signed the slugging third baseman to a five-year, million deal only to see his homers dip to and his average plummet to .. Beltre never recaptured the magic of . I In , the Colorado Rockies made Mike Hampton the highest-paid pitcher in history with an eight-year deal worth million. Over the next two seasons, his ERA ballooned to more than double what it had been over the previous two-year stretch.
I In , Cincinnati Reds outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. began his nine-year, . million deal with significant statistical drops in every major offensive category. He would battle injuries and inconsistency for the next decade, never once recapturing the dominance he exhibited in the late s. I In , the New York Mets signed Bobby Bonilla for five years and million. The slugger was coming off back-to-back seasons as a legitimate MVP candidate for the Pirates, but saw his batting average fall for the Mets by more than points to .. I In , Wayne Garland parlayed an exceptional season the year before with the Baltimore Orioles into a new job and , percent raise with the Cleveland Indians. His -year, . million contract was big money for the time but produced dreadful results that are timeless. He pitched only halfway through the deal, amassing a record of - in those five years. A
MAUER: NAM Y. HUH/AP • BELTRE: DAVID ZALUBOWSKI/AP • HAMPTON: KEVORK DJANSEZIAN/AP • GRIFFEY: BEN MARGOT/AP • GARLAND: G. PAUL BURNETT/AP
downward slide into grossly overpaid mediocrity. Albert Pujols seemed headed for a similar decline last year in the first season of his -year, million contract with the Dodgers. He batted just . with no home runs in April. Pujols pulled out of that slump but posted the worst season totals of his -year career. Here’s a look at some of the biggest post-contract busts in baseball’s history:
Email: mbergin@worldmag.com
2/20/13 8:36 AM
KRIEG BARRIE
>>
I , B R played hardball, demanding a contract that would pay him at least six figures. New York’s Daily Mirror speculated that any such deal would only stretch over a single season, because “the Yanks found out from past experience that Babe doesn’t do his best stuff when protected by a long-term contract.” The paper got it wrong—on two counts: Ruth got his money, inking with the Yankees for , over three years; and the team got production, to the tune of home runs the first year and eye-popping slugging for many seasons thereafter. But as with almost every number associated with his name, Ruth’s statistical spike following his record-setting contract is something of an anomaly. Throughout Major League history, teams bargaining for big money to produce big results have often seen just the opposite. Most of the largest contracts on record have correlated with a marked swoon in player production. The Seattle Mariners are hoping for a Ruth-like exception. They made hard-throwing ace Felix Hernandez the highest-paid pitcher ever Feb. with a seven-year deal worth million. Hernandez is a three-time All-Star and the AL Cy Young Award winner. And he is just years old. But history suggests the signing is a major gamble. Consider Alex Rodriguez, whose -year, million deal set an all-time record in . The Yankees third baseman produced no such records on the field, dipping sharply from the MVP numbers he’d posted a year before and beginning a
BY MARK BERGIN
Notebook > Money
Patient for profits
Christian business people investing in developing countries seek a ‘triple bottom line’ BY WARREN COLE SMITH
KRIEG BARRIE
MAUER: NAM Y. HUH/AP • BELTRE: LYNNE SLADKY/AP • HAMPTON: KEVORK DJANSEZIAN/AP • GRIFFEY: BEN MARGOT/AP • GARLAND: G. PAUL BURNETT/AP
>>
R S vividly the day in when everything he believed about charity exploded. Smith led a Seattlebased Christian ministry called Agathos, which operated an orphanage in his native South Africa. One day, he saw a young man who had graduated from the Agathos program, now a young adult with a high-school education. But he was “sitting around idle, possibly drunk, I don’t know for sure,” Smith said. “He had an education, but unemployment was percent. He had nothing to do, and very little hope. I came to realize that Agathos was doing some good in caring for the orphans, but it wasn’t nearly enough, and it depended on a never-ending river of money coming from elsewhere. It was not sustainable.” That experience birthed Earthwise Ventures, a for-profit business that has so far built a -foot, -passenger ferry now operating on Lake Victoria to help re-build Uganda’s dysfunctional transportation infrastructure, a vital ingredient for economic development. Today, Earthwise employs more than people in Kampala and in — according to Smith—generated about , in revenue and is “on the road to profitability.” Earthwise built a second ferry at its headquarters in
Email: wsmith@worldmag.com
5 SPORTS and MONEY.indd 75
Everett, Wash., and that boat is in transit to Uganda. The investment capital for Earthwise— more than million so far—came mostly from Christian investors in the United States, and they’re part of a growing “patient capital” movement that seeks not only a return on investments, but also the chance to create businesses that generate jobs for people who had previously depended on handouts. Florida-based Aslan Global Management has become a leader in the patient capital movement. Aslan manages more than , acres of farmland in Ukraine and Mozambique. The International Chamber of Commerce named Aslan’s Ukraine operation “Farm of the Year” for the past three years in a row. Aslan’s CEO Jes Tarp was a pastor and college professor when he went to Ukraine as a teacher in . That experience led him to establish Aslan and acquire its first farm in . Tarp said, “I became convinced that business, not charity, was the real hope of the poor.” He said charity as practiced in the West is well-intentioned and sometimes vital in disaster-relief situations but is also often “defective or inadequate.” Tarp believes “business has more to offer. It allows you to build an economic foundation.” That’s why
Tarp and other Christians in the patient capital movement talk about a “triple bottom line”: financial returns, but also social and spiritual returns. Grand Rapids, Mich.–based Partners Worldwide began as a Christian ministry that connects business leaders in the United States with entrepreneurs in developing countries. Though the goal of these connections was primarily networking and mentorship, Partners CEO Doug Seebeck said many of its U.S. partners were making financial investments with the entrepreneurs in developing countries. In Partners formed a for-profit arm, Partners Worldwide Entrepreneurs (PWE), to formalize the process. By the end of , PWE had invested . million in India, South Africa, and the Philippines. One investment, Dignity Coconut, employs Filipinos who produce fresh coconut products for world markets. Seebeck said PWE recently finalized a , investment in a grain storage facility in Zambia. The storage facility will not only reduce spoilage in this foodinsecure country, it will also help create rational, sustainable pricing for commodities often subject to wild swings in price due to weather and seasonality. The patient capital movement is still in a learning mode. Many developing countries have significant political or safety risks. In some countries, the lack of a functioning court system makes it almost impossible to enforce contracts or get clear title to land. In some countries, the government owns most agricultural land. Aslan, for example, manages , acres in Mozambique under the terms of a -year lease. It just entered into a -year lease for , acres in Tanzania. But Partners’ Doug Seebeck said the additional risks also create the possibility of additional rewards. “When you give someone a handout, you hold off hunger for a day,” he said. “But business creates the dignity that comes with a meaningful job, along with a real possibility of eradicating poverty.” A
MARCH 9, 2013 • WORLD
2/19/13 5:20 PM
Notebook > Religion
Papal departure After an eventful eight years, Benedict XVI becomes the first pope in over years to resign BY THOMAS KIDD
>>
WORLD • MARCH 9, 2013
5 RELIGION.indd 76
Recent blog posts by an Old Testament professor at Pennsylvania’s Messiah College have raised questions about the Bible’s authority, and how Christians should view the Bible’s violent passages, such as Israel’s destruction of the Canaanites in Joshua -. While conservative Bible scholars would typically argue that those passages do not endorse religious violence in general, they would not normally deny that the episodes were divinely permitted. But Messiah’s Eric Seibert, writing at the religion website Patheos.com, contends that “not everything in the ‘good book’ is either good, or good for us.” He says that Christians can never condone violence, “even when the Bible suggests otherwise.” Seibert, author of The Violence of Scripture: Overcoming the Old Testament’s Troubling Legacy, and a minister in the Brethren in Christ denomination, laments that the Bible’s violent passages have “been used to justify warfare, oppress women, condemn gays and lesbians, support slavery, and legitimate colonization, to name just a few of its troubling legacies.” Boyce College professor Owen Strachan calls Seibert’s views “shameful,” especially considering that Seibert teaches at what is generally regarded as an evangelical college. “Whatever God does is right,” Strachan says, and “all that God teaches us in Scripture is right.” Strachan suggested on Twitter that Messiah administrators should fire Seibert, because his views clearly clash with the college’s statement of faith. The pacifist Brethren in Christ Church, the founding denomination of Messiah College, affirms on its website that the whole Bible is the “authoritative and reliable Word of God,” but it also subordinates the Old Testament to the New, saying that the New Testament must serve “as interpreter of the Old.” The college’s “nonsectarian” statement of faith affirms that the Bible is “the inspired, trustworthy and authoritative Scripture.” —T.K.
POPE: ANDREW MEDICHINI/AP • FOLLOWERS: GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • JERICHO: HANDOUT • SEIBERT: HANDOUT
P B XVI announced his retirement, effective Feb. , following an eight-year tenure marked by a commitment to traditional Catholic teachings on theology and social issues, as well as a push for a “new evangelization” of nominally Christian countries, especially in Europe. The -year-old pope cited his declining health as the chief reason for his resignation. Even though Benedict had discussed the prospect of resigning before the formal announcement, it came as a surprise. For centuries, popes have stayed in office until their deaths. George Weigel of the Ethics and Public Policy Center notes that the last pope to step down this way was Celestine V in . A Vatican spokesman expressed hope that Roman Catholic cardinals would choose a new pope by Easter. Many evangelical Christians, in spite of important theological differences with Catholics, have viewed Benedict and John Paul favorably because of the leaders’ emphasis on the dignity of human life in all its stages, from the unborn to the sick and elderly. Benedict has also championed religious liberty and has highlighted the threat presented by radical Islam, especially in a controversial speech in which he favorably quoted a Byzantine emperor who described Muhammad’s endorsement of violence as “evil and inhuman.” Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary commented that while he disagreed with Benedict about a number of issues, he believed that evangelicals should applaud his defense of marriage, human life, and religious freedom, and his opposition to Marxist “liberation theology” within the Catholic Church. Critics argue that one stain on Benedict’s tenure is the continued presence in the Catholic hierarchy of leaders implicated in covering up of widespread sexual abuse of children by priests. Cardinal Roger Mahony—recently GRACEFUL EXIT: Pope stripped of his adminisBenedict XVI trative duties in Los (above); faithful Angeles over revelations react during the that he had helped cover Angelus prayer led by Pope up clergy sexual abuse— Benedict XVI will be among the cardifrom the nals who will choose the window of his next pope. apartments.
Email: tkidd@worldmag.com
2/20/13 9:52 AM
THE WORLD MARKET Classifieds are priced at per line with an average of characters per line and a minimum of two lines. Bold text and uppercase available for per line; special fonts and highlighting available for an additional charge. You will receive a percent discount with a frequency of four or more. All ads are subject to the approval of WORLD. Advertising in WORLD does not necessarily imply the endorsement of the publisher. Prepayment and written confi rmation will be required of all advertisers. † : Connie Moses, WORLD, PO Box , Asheville, NC ; phone: ..; fax: ..; email: cmoses@worldmag.com
EMPLOYMENT I The Human Equation: Register now for Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary’s annual Spring Theology Conference, March -. The conference theme for is “The Doctrine of Man,” exploring and answering modern confusion over the human equation: Who is man, how was he created, and what are his purposes in this world? See gpts.edu/conference for more information and online registration. I Shelter Care has a rich history of over years of helping troubled youth and families, has openings for mature couples. The program located in Akron, OH, uses a family model with many supportive helps. Each couple is responsible for children. Position is full-time and includes salary and an excellent benefits package. Contact us at admin@sheltercareinc.org or phone () - for more information. I Covenant Christian Academy in Cumming, GA is seeking Reformed Christian teachers: CCA is actively seeking ms/hs teachers to begin work in August . CCA is an independent Reformed Christian school with students in grades K-th entering its nd year in Christian education. Visit www.covenantrams.org for more information regarding the school. Teaching and coaching positions are available in the th-th grade due to increased enrollment in these grade levels. All English applicants must be AP certified. Applicants must possess a bachelor’s degree in their teaching area, a minimum of years experience, be a professed Christian, adhere to the Westminster Confession of Faith and catechisms, and be in regular attendance at a Bible-believing church. Compensation will be competitive and commensurate with the qualifications of the chosen applicant. Compensation includes Salary as well as Life, AD&D, and a b plan through PCA RBI. If interested, send a resumé and salary requirements with WLD in the subject area of your email to Headmaster Johnathan Arnold at jarnold@covenantrams.org. Contact: Johnathan Arnold, Headmaster, Covenant Christian Academy, Post Road, Cumming, GA ; () -. I Trinity Classical Academy, a Christian school located in Southern California, has teaching positions open for the - school year. We are seeking applicants at all grade levels, and in all subject areas. Latin and classical composition are examples of the available positions. Trinity serves students in the general education, special education, and resource needs populations. We offer competitive salaries and benefits. Please visit our website at www.trinityclassicalacademy.com to download an application, found under our employment tab. Please send completed applications to Shawn Doohen, Director of HR, at PO Box , Santa Clarita, CA - or email your application to shawn. doohen@trinityclassicalacademy.com.
JOB OPENINGS CREDIT
I ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE/PAYROLL/BOOKKEEPER: Looking for an Exciting, Full-time/Part Time opportunity to work in a fast-paced environment!!!! Look No Further! Summit ToolsLimited is hiring a Bookkeeper, Payroll and Pay Receiver. Contact, summittoolslltd@gmail.com for more info.
5 RELIGION.indd 77
MINISTRY EMPLOYMENT I CHRISTIAN TEACHERS NEEDED IN NORTH IRAQ. Join our teams serving at the School of the Medes in Dohuk, Sulymaniah or Erbil, Iraq. , students enrolled, all instruction in English, Western curriculum, grades K-, greatest need for English, History and Science teachers at high school level. Salary plus a % of housing and airfare provided depending on qualifications. www.servantgroup.org.
SCHOOL EMPLOYMENT I Make a deeper dent in this world with your Parenting/Teaching experience. Cono Christian School provides boarding programs for teens struggling with relationships and academics. We are lookingfor a few more versatile adults who understand both. See www.cono.org/
involved.html. Contact: Headmaster Tom Jahl at thomas.jahl@cono.org. I Trinity Classical Academy, a Christian school located in Southern California, has teaching positions open for the - school year. We are seeking applicants at all grade levels, and in all subject areas. Latin and classical composition are examples of the available positions. Trinity serves students in the general education, special education, and resource needs populations. We offer competitive salaries and benefits. Please visit our website at www.trinityclassicalacademy. com to download an application, found under our employment tab. Please send completed applications to Shawn Doohen, Director of HR, at PO Box , Santa Clarita, CA - or email your application to shawn.doohen@ trinityclassicalacademy.com.
Help Spread the Easter Message to the Unreached About 2.8 billion people have never heard nor known the truth of the resurrection. Indigenous ministries assisted by Christian Aid Mission send native missionaries to the frontlines, bringing the gospel to these unreached people. To invest in God’s Kingdom, contact: Christian Aid Mission Phone: 434-977-5650 P.O. Box 9037 info@christianaid.org Charlottesville, VA 22906 www.native-missions.org
Christian Aid . . . because we love the brethren.
WRCL13
The C12 Group experience is truly dialed-in for Christian business owners and CEOs. The monthly full-day meetings with like-minded peers and one-to-one consultations with a full-time Area Chair deliver value far beyond conventional executive coaching models. C12 MEMBER
“C12 is the single-most important commitment I make to improve my business in every aspect.”
Building GREAT Businesses for a GREATER Purpose
Call (336) 841-7100 • www.C12Group.com
2/15/13 11:27 AM
THE WORLD MARKET ICovenant Christian Academy in Cumming, GA is seeking Reformed Christian teachers: CCA is actively seeking ms/hs teachers to begin work in August . CCA is an independent Reformed Christian school with students in grades K-th entering its nd year in Christian education. Visit www. covenantrams.org for more information regarding the school. Teaching and coaching positions are available in the th-th grade due to increased enrollment in these grade levels. All English applicants must be AP certified. Applicants must possess a bachelor’s degree in their teaching area, a minimum of years experience, be a professed Christian, adhere to the Westminster Confession of Faith and catechisms, and be in regular attendance at a Bible-believing church. Compensation will be competitive and commensurate with the qualifications of the chosen applicant. Compensation includes Salary as well as Life, AD&D, and a b plan through PCA RBI. If interested, send a resumé and salary requirements with WLD in the subject area of your email to Headmaster Johnathan Arnold at jarnold @covenantrams.org. Contact: Johnathan Arnold, Headmaster, Covenant Christian Academy, Post Road, Cumming, GA ; () -.
EMPLOYMENT I TEACHERS URGENTLY NEEDED IN CAMBODIA! ELIC has an urgent need for teachers of English in Cambodia. This is an outstanding opportunity for singles, couples, families and second-career adults. Two-year commitment. Opportunities to return to North America. Serve on a vibrant team. Teach at the university level to future leaders in every sector. Previous teaching experience not
required. Complete training provided. Thirty years of sending and caring for teachers in Asia. Additional strategic opportunities in Mongolia, China, Vietnam & Laos. We can get you there. www.elic. org. () -. I WHEATON ACADEMY AVAILABLE POSITIONS—Immediate openings: head football coach, part-time accountant; - full-time teachers: science – biology; science – physics; Spanish; English, math, and Director of Athletic Performance; Coaching: head football (immediate opening); assistant boys’ soccer (fall ). The mission of Wheaton Academy, “to nurture growth in students through excellence, relationships and service, to the Glory of God,” has remained the centerpiece of everything that has gone on at our school since . The most important element in making a WA education effective is the strong leadership of “Living Curriculum TeachersSM.” We believe LCTs must have a growing and dynamic relationship with Christ, must be excellent in their field, must hold high standards, and be capable of inspiring a range of students to reach their potential. If WA sounds like a good fit for you, please check our website www.wheaton academy.org for current openings; send resume and pre-application responses to employment@wheatonacademy.org. Summer Job Opportunities: Summer English Institute for international students led by Wheaton Academy, hosted at Gordon College (Boston) – seeking ELL teachers, RAs, TAs, Nurse, office staff, and other positions. See www.WAnetUSA.org/ employment for complete information.
SERVICES I Christians helping Christians with medical expenses. Samaritan Ministries; () -, ext..
Bringing children & families together through the ministry of adoption Adoptions of U.S.-born infants, and International placements Visit us on the web at www.LoveBasket.org, or call 1-888-LOV-BSKT. since 1982
Need a Christian Realtor in Phoenix? Over 900+ homes sold in the Southeast Valley . . . Mesa . . . Tempe . . . Chandler . . . Gilbert . . . Scottsdale Certified Residential Specialist (CRS) and Graduate Realtor Institute (GRI) Professional Designations
MINISTRY OPPORTUNITIES I BE A MISSION NANNY. Volunteer women needed to serve overseas with missionary families as domestic/childcare help. www.MissionNannys.org.
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES I Proverbs Women and Others: Solid Ethics, Solid income. From Home. www.proverbsbusiness.com. Call Beth () -. I Christian Home Based Business: High Tech Manufacturer offers unique opportunity for Christian families; () -. I Moms/Dads work from home & make a difference. Toll free () -.
GIFTS & PRODUCTS I Two new books for young Christian readers now available on Kindle! Sinbad and Selassie: The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad & Sinbad & the Dark Continent: The Ninth Voyage of Sinbad. I Free Sunday School Materials International: The Tales of Donkey Ollie are now available for international ministries who wish to reach children. The -book series is available digitally and can be easily translated and reprinted. These books feature the animated character Donkey Ollie broadcast worldwide on television. Samples of the books can be requested. Contact: Boat Angel Outreach Center, E University Drive, Suite , Mesa, Arizona . () -; www.boatangel.com/donkeyollie.
is “The Doctrine of Man,” exploring and answering modern confusion over the human equation: Who is man, how was he created, and what are his purposes in this world? See gpts.edu/conference for more information and online registration.
EDUCATION I OPEN YOUR OWN READING CENTER: Make a difference in the lives of others. Operate from home. It’s needed. It’s rewarding. Great results. NOT a franchise. Earn -/hr. We provide complete training and materials. www.academicassociates.com; () -.
JOURNALISM EDUCATION I Major in journalism at a Christ-centered liberal arts university— www.cornerstone.edu/journalism.
RETIREMENT I Christian Retirement: Seniors + Want to retire and enjoy a slower pace of life in the foothills of the Ozarks? Then consider “GO YE VILLAGE” A Life Care Community in Tahlequah, OK. Complimentary guest room and village tour. For information: () - or www.goyevillage.org.
REAL ESTATE
THEOLOGY CONFERENCE
I Maine Properties. Recreational, woodland, investment, & residential. Owner financing; () -; www.themainelandstore.com. I NEED A CHRISTIAN REALTOR in the PHOENIX area? Call Dan or Carol Smith with Dan Smith Realty; () -; www.dansmithrealty.com.
The Human Equation: Register now for Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary’s annual Spring Theology Conference, March -. The conference theme for
I Defend the faith: Heart, soul, mind, & strength. www.WitnessKit.com.
WEB RESOURCES
400,000 people are reading WHY ISN’T YOUR AD H E R E?
Honest • Professional • Old Fashioned Values
Dan & Carol Smith
Dan Smith Realty (480) 820-6833
www.dansmithrealty.com email: homes@dansmithrealty.com
5 RELIGION.indd 78
For information about advertising, call: 828.232.5489 | fax: 828.253.1556 email: advertise@worldmag.com
2/15/13 11:28 AM
Mailbag ‘Forty years in the wilderness’
Jan. I rejoice in the saving of even one life, but I cannot see much cause for optimism. At million the total number of aborted American babies could soon surpass the worst genocide in history (under Mao Zedong in China) unless a significant change occurs. We will then have to live with the infamy. Marvin Olasky mentioned the coarsening of America. How true! How sad! How convicting! —J M T, Lawrenceville, Ga.
I had to quit reading the report on abortion because it was tearing me up. Who told us it’s honorable to kill a baby in the womb and first-degree murder to kill it outside the womb? —R T, Rocky Mount, Va.
and sorrows like these, and we have felt God’s comfort. Ending these tiny lives for convenience and money through abortion is such a crazy contrast to the pain and tragedy of losing a child you long to meet. —M M, Lynnwood, Wash.
At the th anniversary of this horrific edict, the grief in my heart has been overwhelming. I have worked in the pro-life arena nearly since its inception but have not done all I could. I counsel young women and couples but don’t get on my knees often enough. The judgment on us all from a holy God is and will be great. —S L, New Braunfels, Texas
On Jan. my day began with learning about the wonder of prenatal development in my college class, a Lifespan Development course, and ended with a lesson from Psalm . It was a poignant way to observe the th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and reminds me all the more of how precious life is. —A M, Fayetteville, Ark.
We have four sweet kids but have suffered three miscarriages in the last months. God doesn’t waste tragedies
Send photos and letters to: mailbag@worldmag.com
5 MAILBAG.indd 79
If we could provide more care and help for unwed, pregnant women, perhaps fewer of them would abort their children. Some suggestions to make adoption easier and birth less expensive are to start more charity clinics, to provide more legal help for those wanting to adopt, and to overhaul adoption regulations. We should look to businesses, denominations, and even the nonreligiously affiliated to do their share. —E. J, Durham, N.C.
‘Doing better on hard cases’ Jan. Conservative politicians should stop reacting as if every question is well-intentioned. These rape questions are attacks on their pro-life positions. They should respond with a stronger attack by pointing out how Planned Parenthood and their allies don’t report statutory rape and other sexual abuse. —P S, Elliottsburg, Pa.
‘Broken arrows’ Jan. I appreciated this column. Our children are the arrows and we have the responsibility for aiming them in the right direction. Arrows do no good if they are left in the quiver. —D H, Rock Hill, S.C.
When my daughter was maybe a month old, I had ordered in pizza but she picked that moment to be inconsolable. I was hungry and holding this screaming baby, smelling pizza that I couldn’t eat, and could hardly believe this would be my life from then on. Now I’m the mother of three and I’ve had my bouts of selfishness, but I’m thankful that God is patient with me. This time is precious and passes so quickly. —J F, Phoenixville, Pa.
As I write this, my wife is in our hospital room feeding our newborn daughter. Thank you for your insight into Psalm . —A DC, Anaheim, Calif.
Your observation of the new definition of the word parent was eye-opening. Not only is our society changing the way to rear children, it’s redefining it, and making it more parent-centered. This column reminded me of my parents’ effective child-rearing. They took their role seriously and it wasn’t about them. —L F, Atlanta, Ga.
‘News from the front’ Jan. I found the story about some states legalizing physician-assisted suicide astonishing. Under no
MARCH 9, 2013 • WORLD
2/15/13 11:41 AM
Mailbag
LOHUTOK, SOUTH SUDAN submitted by David & Liza Hopper
circumstances should this be allowed. If someone has a limited amount of time to live, they should embrace the time left and enjoy it to the fullest. —E J, Atlanta, Ga.
‘All but over’ Jan. Thank you for your update and wisdom regarding the Hobby Lobby case and the impact upon our religious freedom. I am praying for God’s intervention because I cannot see hope for any significant assistance from the courts right now. —K K D, Danville, Calif.
I hope Hobby Lobby calls the government’s bluff and closes its doors rather than comply with the healthcare mandate. —T V, Clarksville, Mich.
‘From this day forward’ Jan. Recently while I was counseling a -year-old gentleman who has never been married but very much wants to be, he pulled out this column. He said he appreciated Andrée Seu Peterson’s rejection of the “it’s too late now” mentality and how she pointed to the promises of
5 MAILBAG.indd 80
God as the antidote. I found it encouraging, too. —T MC, Chula Vista, Calif.
‘Learning curve’ Jan. Regarding John Dickerson’s take on addictions, we have failed to understand the incredible power available through the Holy Spirit. The embarrassingly sick people in our churches meet in their own small groups separate from mainstream church life, while many of the “nice” saved people on Sunday morning are hiding brokenness just as deep as any alcoholic. If we hope to reach the world, we need to experience the power of God ourselves, not just talk about it. —M T, Kingsley, Mich.
‘Flashing red’ Jan. Thank you to Mindy Belz for such a clear, concise account of the Benghazi debacle. We missed our chance when Mitt Romney decided not to make an issue of it, even after President Obama admitted that he knew it was a terrorist attack while continuing to speak of “demonstrations.” —V T, Tucker, Ga.
2/15/13 4:51 PM
Wo rl d J o u rna l ism i nstitute
‘Choosing to sing’ Jan. 26 The interview with Joni Eareckson Tada hit a responsive chord in me. God disciplines us because we are His children and because He loves us, but He is not all warm and fuzzy. —Kathryn Lee, Indianapolis, Ind.
‘The Raven’ Jan. 26 I’m not sure how “Baltimore knows better” about Ray Lewis. I know he was never convicted, but it seems there is much more to the story of the Super Bowl murders. I do hope Christ truly rules his life now, but I would be cautious about jumping on the Lewis hype machine. —Mike Myslinski, Johns Creek, Ga.
‘A town clothed in misery’ Jan. 12 The U.S. reaction to the Sandy Hook tragedy shows how deeply we have fallen as a nation from true faith in Jesus. We hardly notice that God’s hand of protection has been removed. We instead resort to flimsy regulatory schemes like “gun control” that have never worked, or we watch uncritically as politicians shamelessly posture to advance their agenda and their prospects for higher office. This is a time to repent. —James T. Davis, Heunghae-Eup, South Korea
Corrections Chaplain Tommy Davis was 16 when arrested for assault in 1989 and he was sentenced in 1991 (“Firestarter,” Feb. 9, p. 61).
Convergence Journalism Course May 19-31* in Asheville, NC *plus writing before and after Moved from New York City. Full tuition and housing scholarships for students. Class limited to 14.
Training in writing, photography, sound recording, videography. College credit available.
The best students will have paid internship opportunities with WORLD, WORLD Radio, or secular newspapers. Course instructors: Marvin Olasky • Russell Pulliam Robert Case • Mindy Belz Nick Eicher • Joseph Slife Tiffany Owens • Drew Belz Jamie Dean • Susan Olasky
For more information, go to worldji.com/programs/view/51
Police shot dead Charles Whitman, whose shooting spree in Austin, Texas, killed 14 people on Aug. 1, 1966 (“Gleeful nihilist,” Feb. 9, p. 30).
letters & photos Email: mailbag@worldmag.com Write: world Mailbag, PO Box 20002, Asheville, nc 28802-9998 Please include full name and address. Letters may be edited to yield brevity and clarity.
5 MAILBAG.indd 81
2/15/13 4:53 PM
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: www.cono.org/involved.html Dave Toerper, Admissions: 888-646-0038 x250 Thomas Jahl, Headmaster: thomas.jahl@cono.org Cono Christian School, Walker IA
GENEVA COLLEGE If you’re trying to figure out what to do next with your life, consider this. We believe God has big plans for you. And that includes becoming everything He meant you to be.
With more than 40 majors, we have the programs you need to compete.
GRADUATE PROGRAMS G
GENEVA COLLEGE
G R A DUAT E PROGR A M S
ADULT DEGREE COMPLETION with Online Options A
With 11 locations, and new online learning opportunities available, we make it convenient for you to finish your degree.
Choose from 7 high-demand, advanced professional degrees.
800-847-8255
724-847-6571
800-576-3111
Geneva.edu/undergraduate
Geneva.edu/graduate_programs
Geneva.edu/adcp
5 SEU PETERSON.indd 82
KRIEG BARRIE
UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS
2/18/13 11:57 AM
Andrée Seu Peterson
Going first A portable, pithy mantra that will leave you transformed
>>
KRIEG BARRIE
A with my husband I always want peace— but I want him to go first. One time I went first. I believed I was in the right and he in the wrong; nevertheless I approached and spoke peace, and it took a lot to do it. My mild-mannered husband responded sharply that particular time, so I let him have it: opened the gunnysack and dumped everything out, reaching back to decades before I knew him. This raises an obvious question about the policy of “going first”: What do you do if you obey the Lord and go first, and it doesn’t work—the other person doesn’t reciprocate kindly in turn? The answer, be it ever so unpalatable, remains the same. You go first again. And then again. And then again. This is because, you see, going first is a concept, not an ordinal number. It doesn’t really mean a literal once-and-done operation performed at the beginning of an encounter, after which you may return to your usual sloppy modus operandi. My husband tells me I have grown since we met in . I replied that I had asked the Lord to transform me by the renewing of my mind, and in the course of time the Lord gave this simple instruction: “Go first.” I knew it was God because I knew exactly what He meant. If love were vitamins, I had been keeping my husband at the minimum daily allowance levels—always calibrating, always careful not to exceed him in demonstrations of affection. It is a bankrupt strategy, and the Spirit said it had to go. I wanted to say, “I can’t do it, Lord,” but I knew full well it had come to this. “Go first” seemed like an impossibility, but at the same time it seemed like my deliverance. It was the next step in sanctification. If I tried any longer to go around it I would never grow, and I would always end up bumping into that wall anyway. And since nothing can be more miserable than bumping into that wall for the rest of my life, I was ready to bear down and run straight through it. “Go first,” as a portable mantra, has the advantage of being pithy. It comes to mind when hours have gone by that my husband hasn’t stroked my insatiable appetite for reassurance, and suggests
Email: aseupeterson@worldmag.com
5 SEU PETERSON.indd 83
a preemptive “I love you” on my part. It nudges me to initiate intimacy when the flesh is saying “over my dead body.” I started seeing all the places where I wasn’t “going first.” When the kids haven’t phoned for a while and I felt bad, I heard in my spirit: “Go first.” When that old, Faustian counselor of relationships in my head said, “Jump before you’re pushed,” “Go first” counseled to renounce self-protection. When a friend didn’t wave in church, “Go first” said not to assume she dislikes me, and to go up and say hello. At a certain point of habituation, “Go first” kicks into a different dimension and becomes a whole-life orientation. As the expulsive power of a divine command leaves less and less room for the old squatters of fear and self-concern, I better understand Jesus’ saying that the best way to evict demons from a domicile is to displace them with better occupants. You can’t worry about your self-respect when all the space in your head is filled with your brother. Transformation by the renewing of your mind does not occur through the nine or things you are doing well because they come naturally to you and are the kinds of things you would probably do anyway. (I know a woman who loves housecleaning, for example.) Transformation happens at the place of your greatest weakness, in the tug-of-war of Spirit and flesh (Galatians :) when you decide you are willing to die. When we were kids, my cousin Linda had the best dieting tip ever: You have to like the feeling of your tummy growling. To reach out in love when the devil says it isn’t safe—that’s transformation into Christ’s image by one degree of glory to another ( Corinthians :). We can be different next year. So different that even our spouses will notice. A
MARCH 9, 2013 • WORLD
2/15/13 12:14 PM
Marvin Olasky
Words search
New names, new stories, new journalists, new songs
>>
B- . Bootstrap benevolence. Dignity-nurturing conservatism. Empowered emancipation. Civic compassion. God-grounded giving. Grassroot economics enhancement. Purposeful poverty prevention. I’ll explain momentarily what those phrases signify, but let me first establish the context. Once more the hills are alive with the sound of musings. Maybe that’s because so many Republicans have fled the plains since the November drubbing and sought solace from political oracles: National Review recently had in its pages one of the greatest gatherings since Delphi. I enjoyed their suggestions for reviving conservatism, but here’s what’s weird: We already have an approach that’s proven historically (generations of Americans prospered by it) and politically (the only Republican elected president since ran on it). For Christians, here’s the most important attribute of all: That approach is biblical. Its name: compassionate conservatism, understood as a government decentralizing device and not the expansionary Bush administration mutation. Communities of caring. Stronger cities through compassionate communities. Neighbor-to-neighbor nexus. Home-based solutions. Community care. Opportunity conservatism. Those names in italics are suggestions from WORLD readers on how to rebrand the concept of compassionate conservatism. Happily, George W. Bush’s team passed out bags of buttons at the
GOP convention announcing, “I’m a compassionate conservative.” Sadly, the Bush administration then tarnished the brand by making it seem like “biggovernment conservatism.” True, soaring domestic spending came as part of a deal whereby Democrats approved war spending requests, but that’s one more reason why Iraq is now, within American politics, a four-letter word. So, I believe we have the approach that can resurrect Republicans. Compassionate conservatism is the way to go for the health of the country, since it allows most of us to help the poor without falling into entitlement bankruptcy. It’s the way for small-government advocates to have political success: The election showed once again that when voters see only two choices, getting help from government or getting help from no one, government wins. We need a third choice called “civil society,” the things we can do together without growing government. Why not keep it simple and call effective poverty fighting “Effective Compassion?” Make an acrostic with terms that show what makes it effective: Elevating, Freeing, Formative, Empowering, Challenging, Transforming, Inspiring, Vital, Encouraging. Bill Bennett offered good advice on June at that National Review gathering: “Never yield the high ground of compassion to the liberals. Never yield to the idea that they care more about the children than we do. Millions of fatherless children are awful policy. And caring doesn’t mean more money. Please, let’s at long last seize this issue from them. They have owned the issue in the public mind, have controlled most of the Entries are coming in for the , Amy Writing Awards, which WORLD for the first time is levers of the education system, and have administering. We’re looking for journalistic excellence in articles published in large or small totally screwed it up. Let’s take it back.” secular publications or on websites, including college newspapers, alternative publications, We almost took it back from and news blogs. For more information, go to worldmag.com/amyawards. through . We can try, try again, but We’re also receiving applications for the May - World Journalism Institute course to we may need a name on the banner be held in Asheville, N.C. (moved from New York City). Students will learn about writing, different from “compassionate conservaphotography, sound recording, and videography. For more information, go to worldji.com/ tism.” My thanks to all who suggested programs/view/. the names in italics above—and more Thanks to Brian LoPiccolo, Nathan Petersheim, Mike Pueschell, Ben Ghormley, and that I don’t have room to list—but I don’t John-Mark Sheppard, who all recorded and placed on YouTube the great Leonard Cohen tune, think we have the right name yet, so I’m “Hallelujah,” with words of mine based on the biblical account of David’s sin and repentance not ready to declare an end to the (“Take every song captive,” Dec. , ). To listen, go to YouTube and type in Hallelujah, naming contest that began in January. Cohen, Olasky. Instruments used: piano, guitar, and cora, an African harp. Let me know what you think. A
WORLD • MARCH 9, 2013
5 OLASKY.indd 84
KRIEG BARRIE
Email: molasky@worldmag.com
2/15/13 11:55 AM
At Worldview Academy we don’t teach ARROGANCE. We challenge students to think with DISCERNMENT and to weigh EVERY IDEA against the TRUTH. We train students to ENGAGE with all kinds of people and ask the questions that bring LIGHT to life. We help students understand the worldviews that CAPTURE MINDS and CHANGE THE WORLD. Worldview students are CONFIDENT in faith BOLD in their actions SERVANT hearted and they LAUGH often.
You should register today. Don’t tolerate being on a waiting list.
There is no leadership camp like it on the planet. krieg barrie
800.241.1123 • WWW.WORLDVIEW.ORG
5 OLASKY.indd 3
2/15/13 11:52 AM
PROTECT YOURSELF FROM AMERICA’S GREATEST THREAT THE
DEBT BOMB!
“The biggest national security threat facing our country is our national debt.” - Admiral Mike Mullen, Fmr. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff History clearly shows how many of the world’s greatest empires have fallen, not as a result of brute military force, but rather, as a result of reckless government spending and the massive accumulation of debt. The current and approaching debt of the U.S. is the largest sum in the history of the world. Renown Harvard economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, (“This Time It’s Different”), point out the historical record clearly demonstrates the “tipping point” when a nation generally passes the “point of no return” is when a nation’s debt to GDP ratio hits 90%, a figure America recently surpassed in 2010!
HOW EMPIRES FALL
SUDDEN DESTRUCTION, LIKE A THIEF IN THE NIGHT
The U.S. does not have years to defuse the debt bomb. Harvard historian Niall Ferguson states, “the economic collapse normally comes quickly, like a thief in the night”. A massive hidden tax (in the form of higher inflation) could soon be coming as the government desperately tries to harness the debt dragon. The value of the dollar could be decimated, along with traditional retirement savings in 401K’s and IRA’s. For centuries, both savers and investors have turned to hard assets, most notably gold and silver to protect their purchasing power in the face of a paper currency devaluation or even collapse. If you are concerned about our current fiscal nightmare and want to learn more about some proven methods you can take to protect your financial assets from what could be a devastating economic scenario, call now for your FREE OFFER.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR PURCHASING POWER
TWO SPECIAL FREE REPORTS:
A Better Way to Own Gold - Investing in precious metals is simple, but understanding the right method and form of gold and silver to purchase is paramount. This informative report clearly describes the various pitfalls, benefits, and unique opportunities in acquiring the right gold and silver products for you.
How to Survive The Coming Meltdown in America - The writing is on the wall. U.S. debt is accelerating at
an unsustainable pace. As the Fed continues to debase the dollar, the threat of a hyperinflationary depression looms on the horizon. This report will explain in detail how to be completely prepared.
FREE Bonus CD -
“Understanding America’s Debt Crisis” A complimentary CD containing the recent interview with Focus on the Family and U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, author of “The Debt Bomb” will be sent FREE with our two special reports. To Receive All Three FREE Offers, Call anytime on our toll free 24 hour recorded information line. ICA, “America’s Most Trusted Precious Metals Firm”, serving our customers coast to coast since 1972 and carries the highest A+ rating with the BBB. www.mcalvany.com
1-866-211-7606
5 OLASKY.indd 4
2/15/13 12:06 PM