Joni Eareckson Tada Hope in the thick of pain & chemo
Oc to b e r 23 , 201 0
2010 election
The governors
Census, redistricting, opposition to Washington, and changing demographics make state contests key Thoroughbreds Randall Wallace and Secretariat
O CT O BER 2 3 , 2 0 1 0 / V O L U M E 2 5 / N U M BER 2 1
CONTENTS F E AT UR E S
34 States’ fights
COVER STORY While House and Senate races are getting a lot of attention, this year’s gubernatorial races may do more to shape American politics over the next decade
40 Job security
It’s job No. 1 for the nation’s teachers unions, and they are willing to oppose education-reform-minded politicians to preserve it
44 Citizen watchdogs
As concern mounts about lapsed Justice Department enforcement of voting rights laws, local groups monitor voting themselves
48 Politics of health
The known costs plus the unknowns put clinics in jeopardy in the communities Obamacare was supposed to help
52 Frontier reformer
With an East Coast resumé and Tea Party credentials, the GOP nominee for Senate from Alaska is not your average Joe
DISPATCHES 5 News 14 Human Race 16 Quotables 18 Quick Takes
54 Pulpit partisans
Prodded by President Obama and his office of faith-based initiatives, some churches are being drafted into policy promotion
58 A different calling
Secretariat director Randall Wallace tells stories from the big screen he says he couldn’t tell from the pulpit
23
ON THE COVER: Clockwise from left: Meg Whitman (Calif.), Rick Perry (Texas), Bill Brady (Ill.), Rick Snyder (Mich.), Tom Corbett (Penn.), Carl Paladino (N.Y.), Charles Baker (Mass.), Nikki Haley (S.C.), Rick Scott (Fla.), Scott Walker (Wis.), John Kasich (Ohio)
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notebook 65 Lifestyle 67 Technology 68 Science 69 Houses of God 70 Sports 71 Money 72 Law
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Voices 3 Joel Belz 20 Janie B. Cheaney 32 Mindy Belz 75 Mailbag 79 Andrée Seu 80 Marvin Olasky
haley: RICH GLICKSTEIN/MCT/Landov
Joni: Used with permission of Joni and Friends; Wallace: John Bramley/Disney; others: (clockwise from left): Justin Kase Conder/AP; Dave Einsel/Getty Images; M. Spencer Green/ap; Rex Larsen/The Grand Rapids Press/AP; Michael Bryant/Philadelphi Inquirer/MCT/newscom; Christopher Sadowski/Splash News/newscom; JOSH REYNOLDS/AP; Chris Keane/Getty Images; The Palm Beach Post/ZUMA/Newscom; Jeffrey Phelps/AP; Jay LaPrete/AP
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Joel Belz
A good guidebook
Get involved in the political arena, say two former Bush aides, but do so biblically
D
epending on how you look at it, it’s easy to see a new little book on American politics from Moody Publishers as either just a wee bit late or maybe a tad early. City of Man, by Michael Gerson and Pete Wehner, is a few weeks late in that its appearance in bookstores comes a scant 30 days before the high-profile 2010 midterm elections. If a significant number of thoughtful readers were expected to have taken the book seriously and adjusted their behavior as a result, it would have been good to have the book around sometime last spring. Or, if an even greater number of serious Christian citizens might hope to integrate this book’s message with their behavior in the months and years ahead, then it would be sad if City of Man were to get buried in the hurly burly of this fall’s political circus. The book is good enough, though, and also important enough, to rise above either handicap. Neither Gerson nor Wehner, who both served as speech writers and policy advisors in the White House of George W. Bush, ever seems embarrassed to call himself a political conservative or an evangelical Christian. They don’t dilute their good thinking by striking a squishy pose as “thoughtful moderates.” They’ve earned the right to suggest a course of action for their conservative and Christian audience. That course of action—if I might be permitted to oversimplify City of Man—is to be careful on the one hand to root one’s political agenda in biblical principles, and then on the other hand to pursue that agenda with biblical civility. Gerson and Wehner fault the so-called Religious Right on both those fronts, suggesting that over the last generation conservatives have hurt themselves sometimes by including agenda items that aren’t necessarily biblical priorities for political activity, sometimes by excluding agenda items that are, and way too often by doing both those things in an unmannerly way.
Email: jbelz@worldmag.com
While making those points, Gerson and Wehner take notable care to show good manners themselves. They vigorously take issue with the late Jerry Falwell and with Pat Robertson— but you’ll find no cheap shots. They concede that the political arena is a tough one in which to operate, and that the temptation to be less than civil is constant. Gerson and Wehner know their history—and in these brief 136 pages, they use it (but sparingly!) to remind us how the roles of individual people, of the churches those people are members of, and of the nations in which they are citizens too often get garbled and confused. Then, having sorted out those roles, they step the reader through the issues of (1) human rights, (2) law and order, (3) the family, and (4) wealth and prosperity. On all four fronts, City of Man faithfully nudges the reader toward a traditionally conservative position—but grounds the reader in an argument far more compelling than merely traditional conservatism. It’s important, for example, to understand the four sections in the order presented, since a good understanding of human rights is critical for an understanding of the other areas of thought. And a good understanding of human rights, the authors stress, always starts with a theological perspective that sees humans as made in the image of God. All of this is hard work—and the product isn’t necessarily trimmed in black and white or finished with sharp edges. But that doesn’t mean, Gerson and Wehner warn, that Christians should yield to temptation in either of two directions: They shouldn’t back off in pietistic retreat, giving up on political engagement as if it were dirty, unseemly, and unproductive. Neither should they oversimplify the issues as if we already know all the answers. The authors of City of Man are optimistic that diligent endeavor by thoughtful and respectful Christians will bear fruit in the culture at large; but they warn that the endeavor almost always requires patience. If conservatives are as politically successful on Nov. 2 as pollsters suggest they might be, City of Man could be a good guidebook for some of the victors as they occupy new and alien territory—helping them avoid the trap of squandering their success. A Oct o b e r 2 3 , 2 0 1 0 W O R L D
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“ City of Man is a two-fer. It’s an enormously important book on politics and on religion.” Fred Barnes Executive Editor, the Weekly Standard
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“...exactly the call the rising generation needs to hear.” Timothy Goeglein Focus on the Family
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Dispatches NEWS HUMAN RACE QUOTABLES QUICK TAKES
Drone wars NEWS: On the anniversary of the Afghan war, a new kind of war heats up
Mohammad Sajjad/ap
by mindy belz
>>
At least five attacks on NATO fuel trucks in a week pose new threats to coalition forces fighting Taliban and al-Qaeda militants in Afghanistan, and additionally burden an already tense relationship between the United States and Pakistan, just as war in the region entered its 10th year on Oct. 7. Gasoline-powered flames roared overhead and engulfed vehicles Oct. 6 at the PakistanAfghanistan border after gunmen torched more than 24 tankers carrying fuel to U.S. and other forces. A similar attack five days earlier incinerated 40 NATO transports. The attacks took place after Pakistani authorities closed a key border crossing in retaliation for a NATO helicopter
attack in the area of the Khyber Pass that killed three Pakistani troops on Sept. 30. The closure left more than 6,000 transports stranded alongside highways leading to the border crossings— one leading to Kandahar where U.S. forces are fighting the Taliban, and another near Kabul, the capital. About 100 s topped vehicles in all were torched by gunmen during the first week of October, and at least four people killed. The explosions signify an escalation of violent conflict following disclosures of terror threats leveled at European cities. On Oct. 3 the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany issued new terror alerts warning of possible commandostyle attacks in major European cities. At the same time NATO stepped up attacks by U.S. Predator and Reaper drones in the northwest tribal region incendiary: Pakistani soldiers stand near a burning NATO oil tanker in Nowshera near Peshawar on Oct. 6. Oct o b e r 2 3 , 2 0 1 0 W O R L D
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Dispatches > News
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W O R L D Oct o b e r 2 3 , 2 0 1 0
The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization convenes Oct. 17 in Cape Town, South Africa. The first congress took place in 1974 in Switzerland, was headlined by Billy Graham, Samuel Escobar, Francis Schaeffer, Malcolm Muggeridge, and John Stott—and first presented the term unreached people group. It was followed in 1989 by a Congress in Manila, and the third gathering draws 4,000 world leaders to “promote unity, humbleness in service, and a call to action for global evangelization.”
Looking Ahead Race to the finish
Nevada Sen. Harry Reid and his challenger, Republican Sharron Angle, will square off for a debate in Reno, Nev., on Oct. 19 ahead of the November mid-term elections. In Illinois, Democrat Alexi Giannoulias and Rep. Mark Kirk will debate on the same day in their race to fill President Barack Obama’s former Senate seat.
World’s largest
Officials in Armenia say they have constructed the world’s largest aerial tramway that meets all international standards, and that it will open on Oct. 16. The tramway will take tourists over a scenic gorge to a historic monastery about 140 miles from Yerevan, the country’s capital and largest city. Bosh, James, & Wade
Race to the finish, part 2
In another high- profile Senate contest, candidates to fill the Senate seat vacated by Mel Martinez in 2009 will debate in Tampa on Oct. 19. Republican favorite Marco Rubio will face Independent Gov. Charlie Crist and Democratic Rep. Kendrick Meek.
EU meetings Leaders from the 27 European Union nations will begin a two-day meeting on Oct. 21 to discuss austerity plans as the continent seeks stability during worldwide recession. The nations have already agreed to spending cuts, but, as in Greece, the austerity measures are proving unpopular at home.
Heat show All eyes will be on
Boston for the first night of the NBA s eason. But it won’t be to see the defending Eastern Conference champion Celtics. Rather, fans across the country will be tuning into the TNT telecast of Miami versus Boston on Oct. 26 to see how LeBron James and Chris Bosh, the Heat’s high-profile free agent additions, mix with long-time Miami star Dwyane Wade.
drone: AFP/Getty Images • McKILLOP: TRUSTEES OF THE SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH/Newscom • Bosh, James & Wade: Victor Baldizon/NBAE/Getty Images • Giannoulias: Jeff Haynes/Getty Images • crist: Chris O’Meara/ap • flag: Image Source/getty images
of Pakistan, an area now tagged the global headquarters of al-Qaeda. The unmanned drones, flown remotely out of Creech Air Force Base in Nevada in a joint CIA and Air Force operation, remain a source of controversy. In 2009 there were 51 reported drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas, compared with 45 carried out during the entire Bush administration’s supervision of the war. In 2010 there have been 81 reported drone strikes through Oct. 6. A February report issued by the New America Foundation, using military and world press reports, found that drones killed up to 1,200 individuals, “of whom around 550-850 were described as militants in reliable press accounts,” suggesting an across-the-board civilian fatality rate of 32 percent since 2004. Some military experts find that civilian death rate unacceptable. “I realize that they do damage to the al-Qaeda leadership,” David Kilcullen, an Australian Army officer who served as U.S. Gen. David Petraeus’ top adviser in Iraq, told the House Armed Services Committee last year, reporting that drones had killed 14 senior al-Qaeda leaders, but also 700 Pakistani civilians. “The drone strikes are highly unpopular. They are deeply aggravating to the population. And they’ve given rise to a feeling of anger that coalesces the population around the extremists and leads to spikes of extremism,” he said, concluding: “We need to call off the drones.” While many favor the drones because they perform combat tasks without putting U.S. military personnel directly at risk, the program could come into question should Republicans prove successful at taking leadership of the House or Senate in next month’s elections. At least $120 million in funding for the Predator program has come through earmarks— allowing lawmakers to avoid an open vote on the controversial program—and GOP leaders in Congress have vowed to end earmarks under their leadership. A
Global evangelism
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Dispatches > News
Thought police A case against Dutch politician Geert Wilders went to court in Amsterdam starting Oct. 4 and could land the 47-year-old conservative lawmaker and head of the Freedom Party up to a year in jail and a fine. Wilders is charged with inciting discrimination and hatred and with insulting a people on religious grounds. Responding to what he calls Muslim-led “street terror,” Wilders has called for banning the Quran and further immigration from Islamic countries to the Netherlands. In the United States he has been a vocal critic of building a new mosque near New York’s Ground Zero. Muslims in the Netherlands charge that his remarks have poisoned attitudes toward them: “My family and I no longer feel safe in the Netherlands because Mr. Wilders is continually making hateful remarks about Islamic Dutch people,” said one complaint read out by the judge. Wilders said in an opening statement, “I am standing trial . . . because of my opinions on Islam . . . and because the Dutch establishment— most of them non-Muslims—wants to silence me. I have been dragged to court because in my country freedom can no longer be fully enjoyed. In Europe the national state, and increasingly the EU, prescribes how citizens—including democratically elected politicians such as myself—should think and what we are allowed to say.”
Four tornadoes touched down in northern Arizona early Oct. 6, derailing 28 cars of a parked freight train, blowing semis off the highway, and smashing dozens of homes. Authorities reported no deaths but minor injuries in what are the first injury-causing tornadoes in Arizona since 1968. The sparsely populated state reports on average four tornadoes a year, but the National Weather Service office in Flagstaff issued 28 tornado warnings on Oct. 6 alone as a storm system moved across the region.
Name calling
Scientists from all over the world have spent a decade at sea counting the creatures of the deep, and as a result they have discovered about 6,000 new species in the first Census of Marine Life, released this October. In the Gulf of Mexico, they found an aquatic Venus fly trap, and in the Pacific Ocean they discovered a furry crab dubbed the “yeti crab.” They found a species of blind lobster, a snail that lives in the steaming fissures on the ocean floor, and a deep-sea clam thought to be extinct. The information will be added to global libraries cataloguing species and DNA. The 2,700 scientists working on the $650 million project counted about 250,000 species in total, and they estimate that for every one species they can name, four remain to be discovered.
Beware the Taliban label. Freshman incumbent Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., took a nosedive in polls after he labeled his opponent “Taliban Dan” in a controversial ad aired in late September. Within 48 hours Grayson was trailing former state Senator Dan Webster by 7 points, 43 percent to 36 percent—and Webster, a Republican, had raised $100,000 in campaign contributions. In the ad Grayson played clips of Webster, who is a Christian, saying that wives should submit to their husbands and replaying the refrain, “Submit to me. . . .” But unedited footage of the speech showed that Webster was in fact telling husbands to focus not on the Ephesians 5:22 verse but on later verses that tell husbands to love their wives. Grayson’s ad was condemned by FactCheck.org and the Orlando Sentinel.
wilders: Koen van Weel/ap • tornado: GENE BLEVINS/Reuters/Landov • webster: e50/ZUMA Press/Newscom • yeti: a. fifis ifremer CREDIT
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Dispatches > News
In for life Faisal Shahzad was sentenced to life in prison on Oct. 5 after he admitted to trying to detonate a crudely made car bomb in New York’s Times Square in May. A U.S. citizen originally from Pakistan, Shahzad pleaded guilty to a 10-count indictment in June, including charges of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting an act of terrorism. If given 1,000 lives, “I will sacrifice them all in the name of Allah,” Shahzad, 31, told U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum.
Submit, or else
New federal regulations threaten private colleges and universities by Marvin Olasky
Religious illiteracy Atheists know the most about religion, says a recent survey, followed by Jews, Mormons, and then evangelical Protestants. The Pew Research Center’s “U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey” shows that in some areas, Americans are startlingly ignorant about their own religions. Fewer than half of Catholics are able to name Genesis as the first book of the Bible. Only 28 percent of white evangelical Protestants know that Protestantism teaches
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W O R L D Oct o b e r 2 3 , 2 0 1 0
salvation through faith alone, and only a slim majority of Catholics can identify their church’s doctrine on communion. Seventy percent of Jews know that Martin Luther inspired the Reformation, but less than half of Protestants do. The survey also reveals misunderstanding about the constitutional restrictions on religion. Only 36 percent of the respondents knew a public-school teacher may teach a comparative religion class, and only 23 percent knew a teacher may teach the Bible as literature, although the Supreme Court permits both.
illustration: krieg barrie • shahzad: Elizabeth Williams/ap CREDIT
About eight out of every nine K-12 students, and two out of every three college-age students, go to government schools. You’d think that Washington officials would be satisfied with that dominance, but no. The Department of Education has proposed new rules that could potentially give state governments control of private colleges and universities. The prospective change has received little public attention, even though the new rules—unless they inspire heavy public protest—will take effect on Nov. 1, one day before this fall’s elections. The growth of for-profit and online educational institutions is creating the rationale for such governmental expansion. The idea is that without governmental control students will fall prey to fast-talking salesmen who lure them into flimsy courses that leave them stuck with heavy loan payments and unprepared for career progress. That sometimes happens, but the new rules would require each state to enact “substantive” rules and regulations with which to judge private educational institutions. That goes beyond the licensing and registering that is now typical, and beyond state fraud and consumer protection laws. States would have to supervise college attendance and admissions policies, examine the success of graduates in obtaining employment, and to some degree rule on course offerings. Vagueness about the degree of proposed government scrutiny is leading to different reactions to the proposals. The American Council on Education and over 75 other higher education and accreditation organizations are protesting many regulatory aspects of the proposal, noting that education “is an area where a one-size-fits-all approach does not work.” Former Colorado Senators Bill Armstrong and Hank Brown, now serving as the presidents of Colorado Christian University and the University of Colorado, go further: They contend that “the Department’s power grab carries with it an implicit invitation for various pressure groups to seek legal mandates requiring colleges and universities to implement their pet theories about curriculum, degree requirements, faculty qualifications, teaching methods, textbooks, evolution, phonics, ROTC, climate change, family policy, abortion, race, sexual orientation, economic theory, etc.” Beyond the question of how bad the regulations are rises a further question: As with healthcare, why not deal specifically with education problems, instead of putting an entire industry under government control? Nonprofit regional accrediting agencies already scrutinize most colleges and universities. The proposed rules would move authority from the private to the public sector and require all institutions to submit or go out of business. A
Wins & losses Even in politics, falling down can lead to a new kind of strength By warren cole smith
>>
Carol T. Powers/The New York Times
Since 2001, Tim Goeglein had helped run the White House Office of Public Liaison, a heady job that gave him almost daily access to President George W. Bush. All that came to an end on Feb. 29, 2008. Blogger Nancy Nall Derringer did a web search on an unusual name in a column Goeglein had been writing for several years for his hometown newspaper, the Ft. Wayne (Ind.) News-Sentinel. She discovered Goeglein had copied verbatim a 1998 editorial from the Dartmouth Review. She blogged about the plagiarism, and The News-Sentinel discovered at least 27 of Goeglein’s 38 pieces for the paper had been plagiarized. By midafternoon the next day, Goeglein’s career in the White House was over. For Goeglein, that began “a personal crisis unequaled in my life, bringing great humiliation on my wife and children, my family, and my closest friends, including the president of the United States.” His two-decade political career had included nearly eight years in the White House and stints as spokesman for Gary Bauer’s presidential campaign and for former Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., who is again running for the U.S. Senate this year. “But I was guilty as charged,”
he admitted. Why did he plagiarize? “It was 100 percent pride.” But what happened next was, Goeglein said, an example of “God’s providence and mercy”—something rare in Washington political circles. A call came from White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten saying, “The boss wants to see you.” A summons to the Oval Office is normally an honor, but Goeglein didn’t want to face the president. Once inside the Oval Office, Goeglein shut the door, turned to the president, and said, “I owe you an . . .” President Bush simply said: “Tim, you are forgiven.” The gregarious Goeglein said, “For the first time in my life, I was speechless.” Goeglein tried again: “But, sir. . .” The president interrupted him again, with a firm
“Stop.” Then, President Bush added, “I have known grace and mercy in my life and you are forgiven. We can spend our time together talking about the last eight days, or we can spend our time talking about the last eight years.” Goeglein eventually relaxed and sat with the president in the Oval Office for “a long time,” sharing memories of the previous eight years. That launched a healing process for Goeglein. He spent the next year out of the public eye, doing consulting work to support his family and decompressing from the intensity of the White House. It was a time of soul-searching, repentance, and reflection. Goeglein said that even at his lowest point, he had several things going for him: “My faith was unshaken. My family was a rock. Friends and colleagues were grace personified.” Goeglein also met frequently during this period with his pastor, Christopher Esget, of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Alexandria, Va. In January 2009, he became the Vice President for External Relations at Focus on the Family, representing the ministry in Washington. “Washington, D.C., is the most powerful city on earth,” Goeglein said. “It’s a place where you can accomplish great things.” But he said he now knows another kind of power—the power of love and forgiveness. “Political power can lead to pride,” he said. “That was my sin. One hundred percent pride. But offering and receiving forgiveness is a different kind of strength. That’s the kind of strength I want to develop now.” A
Dispatches > News
On Election Day 2008, Democratic turnout was the highest since 1964. On Nov. 2 many of those voters are more likely to stay home while Republicans are energized to vote. Sixteen percent more Republicans said they are planning to vote next month than Democrats, according to an Oct. 5 poll from ABC News/Washington Post. That explains why so many historically Democratic seats are in play now. Even Rep. Barney Frank (above), D-Mass., the powerful chair of the House Financial Services Committee who won his last race by 43 points, has a serious challenger. Republican businessman and U.S. Marine Corps Reserve officer Sean Bielat, 35, is about 10 points behind in polls, a gap that could widen or disappear based on turnout. Frank is likely to win, but Democrats are worried: Bielat has raised a lot of money and Sen. Scott Brown won Frank’s district in the special Senate election in January to fill Sen. Ted Kennedy’s seat. In 2008, Republicans lost their last House seat in New England. This year they are eyeing at least half a dozen that they could win.
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Marriage hit its lowest prevalence in over a hundred years, said the U.S. Census Bureau, as 46.3 percent of adults ages 25-34 said they had never been married, exceeding for the first time the number married in that age category, at 44.9 percent. Only 52 percent of adults 18 and over said they were married as of last year, compared to 57 percent in 2000. Demographers tied the decline to the economic downturn compounded by cultural trends away from marriage: Among the highest category of unemployed by age are those 20-29 years old.
Brazil’s new powerbrokers Dilma Rousseff’s “project to transform Brazil” was to become the first female president of the largest democracy in Latin America. By Oct. 31, the project may be reality, as experts predict the 62-year-old Worker’s Party candidate will win a runoff for the presidency. “After 500 years, Brazilians want a woman,” said Rousseff. Brazilians also want more of the economic growth that has marked the tenure of Rousseff’s mentor—outgoing President Inacio Lula da Silva. Household incomes in Brazil have risen 32 percent during da Silva’s two terms, and the economy has grown nearly 4 percent each year. Her failure to garner 50 percent of the votes needed to avoid a runoff with opponent Jose Serra came in part because of another woman: Green Party candidate Marina Silva, who won 19 percent of the vote, and shaved support from both frontrunners.
Crimes against humanity Congolese militia commander Sadoke Kokunda Mayele was arrested Oct. 6—and accused of leading some 200 fighters in atrocities that include gang rapes of over 300 people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)—after being turned over to UN authorities by his own fighters. The UN released a longawaited report on Oct. 1 detailing crimes that include mass rape and the killing of civilians committed in the DRC from 1993 until 2003. The 550-page document describes majority Tutsi forces, under the command of now Rwanda President Paul Kagame, committing reprisal attacks on Hutu civilians pursued into Congo as they fled the genocide in Rwanda.
frank: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images • bielat: Deborah L. Hynes/ap • rousseff: ANTONIO SCORZA/AFP/Getty Images • kagame: ALEXANDER JOE/AFP/Getty Images CREDIT
New England comeback?
I don’t
Q.
Who has been winning souls and planting churches in Russia and the former USSR since Communism collapsed?
Q.
Who provides financial support for native missionary evangelists in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet empire?
A.
Native missionary evangelists like Slavik Radchuk have won millions to Christ and planted thousands of new churches in Ukraine, Russia and other former Soviet states.
A.
Since 1991 Christian Aid has expended millions of dollars to support Slavik Radchuk and other native missionaries who conduct huge evangelistic campaigns and reach millions through radio and TV broadcasts in the Russian language which is understood in 15 countries of the former USSR.
Q. How is Christian Aid financed? A. Christian Aid is supported entirely by freewill gifts and offerings from Biblebelieving, missionary-minded Christians, churches and organizations. Q. Are other indigenous missions in need of financial help for their missionaries? A. Christian Aid is in communication with more than 4000 indigenous missions, some based in almost every unevangelized country on earth. They have over 200,000 missionaries in need of support. All Christians who believe in Christ’s “Great Commission” are invited to join hands with Christian Aid in finding help for thousands of native missionaries who are now out on the fields of the world with no promise of regular financial support.
For more than 50 years Christian Aid Mission has been sending financial help to indigenous evangelistic ministries based in unevangelized countries. Currently more than 700 such ministries are being assisted in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe. They deploy more than 75,000 native missionaries which are spreading the gospel of Christ among unreached people within more than 3000 different tribes and nations.
Christian Aid . . . because we love the brethren.
Christian Aid Mission P. O. Box 9037 Charlottesville, VA 22906 434-977-5650 www.christianaid.org
When you contact Christian Aid, ask for a free copy of Dr. Bob Finley’s book, THE FUTURE OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. 58:068 ADWRQA
Dispatches > Human Race Accused
Randall Terry is planning events around the country that will feature ripping pages from the Quran and throwing them to the ground, and the organization he founded wants everyone to know that it wants nothing to do with those events. In a sharply worded statement, Operation Rescue pointed out that Terry stepped down as leader of the group in 1990. Since then, according to the statement, “Mr. Terry has chosen a path that has included negative lifestyle choices, financial mismanagement, misleading donors, and bizarre media events which in no way reflect the core principles of Operation Rescue.”
celebrated
Relocated President Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, 50, announced Oct. 1 he was leaving the White House to run for mayor of Chicago. Emanuel, who had to find a new place to live after the couple renting his Chicago home refused to end the lease early, will now have to persuade Chicagoans that he is still one of them despite his stint as a Washington insider. Obama tapped senior adviser Pete Rouse, 64, to succeed Emanuel.
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Montana man Walter Breuning celebrated his 114th birthday last month, solidifying his status as the world’s oldest man. Born in 1896, Breuning is also the fourth-oldest person in the world; a French woman and two American women are slightly older.
Executed Teresa Lewis, who was convicted of masterminding the 2002 murders of her husband and stepson in a bid for insurance
money, died by lethal injection Sept. 23. In her final moments Lewis, 41, apologized to her late husband’s daughter. It is the first time in nearly a century that Virginia has executed a woman.
Died Actor Tony Curtis, who starred in Spartacus and alongside Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot, died Sept. 29 at age 85. Curtis was a prolific painter whose artwork is featured in galleries around the world.
Died Hall of Fame quarterback and kicker George Blanda, whose
PROLIFIC PAINTER: Tony Curtis.
26-year career with the Chicago Bears, Houston Oilers, and Oakland Raiders was the longest in pro-football history, died Sept. 27 at age 83. Blanda made history in 1970 when the then-43-year-old led the Raiders to four wins and one tie.
Died Singer Eddie Fisher, whose huge fame was overshadowed by scandals ending his marriages to Debbie Reynolds and Elizabeth Taylor, died Sept. 22. He was 82.
Died Actress Gloria Stuart, who debuted in the 1930s and resurfaced decades later to earn an Oscar nomination for her role in Titanic, died Sept. 26 at age 100.
long: john amis/ap •EMANUEL: YURI GRIPAS/AFP/Getty Images • BREUNING: Karl Puckett/Great Falls Tribune/AP • CURTIS: Kevork Djansezian/AP • BLANDA: TIMOTHY D. SOFRANKO/OAKLAND TRIBUNE/AP • FISHER: AP • STUART: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images CREDIT
Four individuals have accused Atlanta megachurch pastor Eddie Long, 57, of sexual coercion. Long, who built his New Birth Missionary Baptist Church into a congregation of 25,000 members, denies the charges, which include allegations he used expensive gifts and exotic trips to lure young men into sexual relationships. In 2007, Long was one of six wealthy megachurch leaders who fell under Sen. Charles Grassley’s scrutiny during a Senate investigation into the churches’ financial practices.
repudiated
“THEY’VE TURNED THE WO R L D U P S I D E D OW N ! ” That’s what people said about Jesus’ first disciples. In truth, they were turning the world right side up—reconciling people to God, bringing His truth and righteousness back into a corrupted culture. We, too, live in a world desperate for restoration. So become a change agent. Apply for The Centurions Program, a distance-learning adventure led by Chuck Colson. Join the movement. Visit www.centurionsprogram.o rg.
T U R N THE WORLD R I G HT SIDE UP.
Dispatches > Quotables “All of you know who I am.” President Barack Obama, after the presidential seal at his podium fell off and rolled across the dais during a speech at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington on Oct. 5.
“All I can say is ‘wow’—this is a game changer.” Robert Lanza, stem-cell researcher at Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass., on a new way to reprogram skin cells to appear and act like embryonic stem cells. The process, developed by Harvard researchers, does not involve the destruction of embryos. 16
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U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., and the House Minority Whip, on Republicans when they controlled Congress from 1995 to 2007.
“I respect the friendship component of this, but our country is much more important than our friendships here.” U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., on his disappointment that his GOP colleagues allowed Sen. Lisa Murkowski to retain her ranking status on a committee even as she mounts a write-in campaign against the party’s nominee for Senate in Alaska.
“My Marine never came home. I have a place for a Marine.” Deb Dunham, mother of 22-year-old Cpl. Jason Dunham, who was killed in Iraq in 2004 and received a Medal of Honor for his heroism. Dunham and her husband recently adopted a bombsniffing dog from the Marines named Gunner who was sent home from Afghanistan after being diagnosed with canine post-traumatic stress disorder.
lanza: Will Ragozzino/Getty Images • obama: Leslie E. Kossoff/Getty Images • cantor: Larry Downing/REUTERS/landov • demint: Mark Wilson/Getty Images • dunhams: courtesy Dunham Family/The Wellsville Daily Reporter/ap CREDIT
“Look, we know we screwed up when we were in the majority. We fell in love with power. We spent way too much money—especially on earmarks. There was too much corruption when we ran this place. We were guilty. And that’s why we lost.”
CREDIT
Dispatches > Quick Takes
Mouse trap Seeking to rid the U.S.-controlled island of Guam of a serious brown tree snake infestation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has come up with an overthe-counter strategy. Beginning in early September, the agency began bombing the forests around Guam’s naval base with dead mice stuffed with off-brand Tylenol.
Swiffer defense The Swiffer Wet Jet: Perfect for mopping up a floor without drips or buckets. Perfect too for fighting off an armed assailant who wanders into your home. A 71-year-old Spartanburg, S.C., man says he chased off a burglar with his Swiffer on Sept. 15. Phillip Graham was cleaning up in the home when a masked assailant came in the back door and ordered the man to the ground. That’s when Graham got annoyed. “I thought to myself, ‘You ain’t coming in this house, son. I’m going to see to it that you don’t get in this house,’” Graham told the Spartanburg Herald-Journal. Seeking to defend his home and his wife Irma (who was showering), Graham brandished his Swiffer as a prod and began attacking the suspect. The perpetrator quickly backed out and ran away. He is still at large.
Easy to track A parolee robbing a pizzeria in Ypsilanti, Mich., forgot one crucial aspect of pulling off his crime: an airtight alibi. A Washtenaw County Sheriff’s spokesman said Randolph Westbrook, 43, forgot to remove his GPS tether before walking into a Mr. Pizza restaurant on Sept. 22 and holding it up with a gun. Local law enforcement spotted the man riding a bicycle away from the crime scene a short time later, and eventually caught him in a wooded area when he tried to evade arrest on foot.
USDA scientists say the acetaminophen will kill any snakes that take the dead mouse bait. Ecologists say the snake has predators since reportedly being introduced to the island just after World War II aboard a military transport and has wiped out large populations of forest birds.
A cat-owning couple in Texas Township, Mich., is happy to have their fearless feline back after the cat scurried up a tree where it stayed for a week and a half. Pam Cameron and her husband say they phoned the local fire department, but firefighters didn’t have a ladder long enough to reach the cat, which had climbed more than 50 feet up a tree in their backyard. The couple used a bow and arrow to shoot a string up to a branch near the cat to raise a laundry basket filled with food and water to keep the cat alive. But after about 250 hours in the tree the cat was finally coaxed to the ground, where it promptly scratched up a neighbor helping the Camerons.
A road by any other name... A county commissioner in rural McIntosh County, Ga., believes he has a solution to one of the area’s most vexing problems: sign theft. According to county officials, the sign thefts from a few conspicuous roads are costing the county about $17,000 in replacement charges. But County Commissioner Mark Douglas says the fix is easy: Change the names of the roads to make them less attractive to souvenir seekers. The roads in question? Green Acres (a hit television series), Boone’s Farm (the name of a low-cost wine), and Mary Jane Lane (a synonym for marijuana).
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illustration: krieg barrie • cat: Mark Bugnaski/Kalamazoo Gazette/ap • brown tree snake: jason edwards/Lonely Planet Images/zuma CREDIT
thrived with no natural
Cat crisis
“WHAT’S THE POINT” Thanks to the microchip embedded in Dave Moorehouse’s lost Jack Russell terrier, authorities know exactly where the vagabond pooch is. But because of the United Kingdom’s Data Protection Act, they won’t tell Moorehouse. The 56-year-old from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, says the dog, Rocky, was taken off his leash from his home in January 2007. Now, more than three years later, the agency that monitors the pet’s microchip asked Moorehouse if he wanted to update the database with the name of Rocky’s new owner. “I told Anibase (the agency) that I didn’t want to transfer ownership because my dog had been stolen,” the self-employed bricklayer told the Telegraph. “I asked them for the name and address of the people who had my dog but they wouldn’t give me the details” because to do so would violate the Data Protection Act. “What’s the point of having your pet microchipped if you can’t get him back?”
moorehouse: Huddersfield Daily Examiner • Ensculptic: handout • Oktoberfest: Felix Hörhager/DPA/zuma CREDIT • madison: handout/ City of Lakeway, TX
Home sweet foam Looking for a sweet 4,000-square-foot house constructed entirely out of polyurethane foam? One Minnesota realtor has a deal for you. The locally famous Minnetrista, Minn., foam house known as “Ensculptic” has hit the real-estate listings with an asking price of $237,000. Built in 1969, the house’s façade has been likened to fungus. Without any right angles to aid calculations, real estate agents had to depend on some advanced geometry to calculate the square footage. And just in case no buyer wants to occupy the mushroom house, realtors listed the demolition cost to clear the foam building from the 8.4-acre property.
Big bash
Boot backlash
Organizers were hoping that the 200th anniversary of Oktoberfest would be known by its special bicentennial revelries. Instead, patrons of the historic German festival may remember the event for beer mug brawling. Police in Germany have reported a spike in beer mug violence in the festival, which began Sept. 19. According to police reports, this year’s Oktoberfest has seen a 66 percent increase in the number of people being struck in the head by the festival’s one-liter glass mugs. Local authorities believe they have sniffed out the cause: “One of the reasons is an excess of alcohol consumption.”
Even though Lakeway, Texas, municipal court judge Kevin Madison backtracked on his unpopular stance, the Texas judge may still have to prove his bona fides. Up until September, the judge had banned cowboy boots as part of the dress code of his courtroom. Madison said he had enforced the ban for a decade before media in nearby Austin, Texas, picked up on the story. Then, boot-wearing lawyers from across the state decried the measure. “No question about it. Boots are appropriate for the courthouse,” said former judge and U.S. Rep. Ted Poe of Humble. “It almost should be required attire, especially in Texas.” Poe says he and other lawyers always wear boots: “I even wear boots with a tux.” O C T O B E R 2 3 , 2 0 1 0 W O R L D
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Janie B. Cheaney
A precipice up ahead
As differences harden, politics becomes a choice between solid ground and empty air
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Email: jcheaney@worldmag.com
KRIEG BARRIE
re we there yet? The last three election cycles, we’ve been told, are “the most important in our lifetime.” The cry Most Important Election! is sounding a little like the cry Wolf!, and there’s the danger. Because the cry of Wolf! is occasionally true. Since last summer’s rowdy town halls and rallies, political elites have tried to dismiss the alarms as a flash in the pan, a temper tantrum, an “Astroturf” phenomenon that will quickly burn out. The great Tea Party talkdown doesn’t seem to have worked, though. The chattering classes might consider another possibility: It’s real. The bitterest of bitter pills might be sticking in their throats, just when it seemed their progressive dream was about to come true. Much was made of the September Town Hall meeting where Velma Hart, a respectable, civil, middle-class matron expressed her admiration for the president and asked when he was going to do something. Though swathed in language maddeningly obtuse (“Is this my new reality?”), one might hear echoes of another question asked a couple of millennia ago by another frustrated follower: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3). The leftward political wave seems to have frozen in mid-crest. It looks a bit silly up there, hanging loose while its pretensions and supporters drip away. But other tides are rising. As government saps initiative, the internet enables initiative. Thousand-page laws engender thousand-website responses. Media giants fall, skepticism rises. Assumptions once common are coming in to question: Are public workers really about serving the public? Are teachers unions really about education? Is a government program really the best way to buy a car, finance a mortgage, get a job? What’s going on? “Have you noticed,” asks a character in C.S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength, “that the universe, and every little bit of the universe, is always
hardening and narrowing and coming to a point? . . . If you dip into any college, or school, or parish, or family—anything you like—at a given point in its history, you always find that there was a time before when there was more elbow room and contrasts weren’t quite so sharp; and there’s going to be a time after when there is even less room for indecision and choices are even more momentous. Good is always getting better and bad is always getting worse: the possibilities of even apparent neutrality are always diminishing.” Looking back over the last 40 years or so, the fortunes of the United States appear as a tug of war between exceptionalists and globalists, conservatives and liberals, rule of law and rule of men. But as our differences harden and come to a point, the metaphor changes. That line we used to pull each other across in regular power swaps is beginning to resemble the line between solid ground and empty air. There’s a precipice up ahead, a decisive tipping point. It’s an economic tipping point, but more than that; money has a way of forcing issues that are actually philosophical and spiritual. There’s no more time to argue; our differences can no longer be penetrated with argument. There’s no more back and forth; both sides are headed for the cliff as fast as they can run. Who will get there first? If the “right” side wins this race, will they be able to turn the tide? Nine years ago, the World Trade Center collapsed in a pile of rubble. Is that (and the dispiriting wrangle about building a mosque nearby) our future, our “new reality”? Or might we rise again, revivalfired, clear-headed, stronger than before? Scary. But exhilarating. Christians are always running a race; we should be in good form. If not, get there. Wrestle in prayer, work out your salvation. There’s no “new reality” for us; we are partakers of the only reality. Everything else is passing scenery, but it’s the scenery wherein we harden and narrow and come to a shining point. A
Reviews MOVIES & TV BOOKS Q&A MUSIC
Renegades’ religion MOVIE: God in America gives more weight to the fringes of faithbased culture than to its roots by megan basham
WINTHROP: Courtesy of Anthony Tieuli © WGBH • LINCOLN: Courtesy of Tim Cragg © WGBH • GRAHAM: Courtesy of Billy Graham Center
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From the first arrival of the colonists, America was founded on a certain contrariness. Our Founding Fathers’ fathers fled their homeland to practice their faith their way (or the Bible’s way, they’d contend). Within a short number of years their descendants found that not only was the spiritual authority of England’s church intolerable, so was the civic authority of her king. So it’s no surprise that affection for the renegade has always been and remains part of the American character. But this does not explain why the PBS documentary God in America, airing in three parts over six hours on Oct. 11, 12, and 13, gives far more time and weight to the fringe personalities of religious faith than to those who had a far deeper and wider influence on our culture. Six hours is scant time to tackle a subject as enormous as how American worship has developed over the last
INFLUENCING AMERICA: Michael Emerson (left) as Puritan leader John Winthrop; Chris Sarandon portrays Abraham Lincoln (top inset); Billy Graham in 1947. Oct o b e r 2 3 , 2 0 1 0 W O R L D
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Reviews > Movies & TV
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from public schools resulted in riots. Orthodox Judaism and Catholic leaders who espoused causes more charitable receive no voice. Such a narrow focus on firebrands does little to serve the producers’ stated purpose to “deepen the public understanding of religion and spiritual experience in the life of the nation.” There are notable exceptions. The episode on the role religious faith played in framing our government is far more fair and factual than Christians have come to expect from public broadcasting. Using original documents, including Thomas Jefferson’s personal correspondence, and the analysis of experts, God in America illustrates how we have come to misunderstand the framers’ purpose for the establishment clause. Likewise, the segment on the development of President Lincoln’s faith and how it shaped his view of the Civil War and his actions in emancipating the slaves is also riveting and emotional. Belton doesn’t shy away from showing that Lincoln’s deepening faith directly led to a shift in his position—a shift that moved him from a pragmatist trying only to preserve the union to a moralist who realized his duty to abolish the greatest evil in American law at that time. PBS didn’t provide WORLD a review copy of the last two hours of the series, which focuses on recent history and the present. We can only hope that it follows the examples of the two exceptions and is more rigorous and thoughtful than the rest. A
The Social Network by Sam Thielman
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yes, all right, it’s hard to care about the Facebook movie. To those of us who used the website during our formative years, the movie feels like a bunch of middleaged guys getting together to condescend to the next generation. To those who’ve seen Facebook recreate the way young people interact, the movie looks like a faddish waste of time unworthy of as much attention as has been lavished on it. But that’s just the marketing. The movie itself is perhaps the best thing to come out of Hollywood this year, maybe in several years. Briefly, it tracks the progress of Mark Zuckerberg (a riveting Jesse Eisenberg), a coding genius who wants to make friends and doesn’t much care about money, as he creates an amazingly effective system for bringing people together that makes him more money than he could spend in a lifetime and costs him all of his friends in the process. The irony is bitter and perfect. Director David Fincher (Zodiac) imbues the proceedings with the tension and mystery of a good thriller, drawing us into Zuckerberg’s antisocial world even as he prepares to bring it crashing down around his ears. Pulled under by talented coder Sean Parker (a wonderful Justin Timberlake, believe it or not), Zuckerberg becomes caught up in all the things money can bring: cheap sex, drugged-out friends, and lots and lots of lawsuits (the film is rated PG-13 for several pre- and postcoital scenes—no nudity—and a lot of swearing and drug use). And there are moments when it’s impossible to feel sorry for Zuckerberg. Fast-talking, impatient, and thoroughly convinced of his own genius, he genuinely doesn’t seem to understand why everyone won’t just do what he says. The screenplay is the work of playwright and TV writer Aaron Sorkin, whose work on The West Wing is among the best-loved bad writing of the age, and as hateful as I’ve found his caricatures of conservatives and Christians in the past, The Social Network is devoid of any of the usual glib snideness.
Columbia Tristar Marketing Group, Inc.
500 years and how that worship has affected our history. Perhaps that’s why director David Belton adheres to the crib notes approach to Christianity, propagating the same old clichés without bothering to explore whether there was something more to, say, the Puritans than grim disapproval and intolerance. Nearly the entire segment on the Puritans is dedicated to dissident Anne Hutchinson, who claimed to hear direct revelations from God. Meanwhile, Jonathan Edwards barely rates a footnote. A later segment paints 19th-century heretic Charles Briggs, who argued against the inerrancy of the Bible, as a virtual hero of the faith. Narrator Campbell Scott intones, “Briggs lost his job, but he had started a revolution.” This is followed by an unidentified expert commenting, “A number of Christians said, ‘Finally, we do not have to accept the entire Bible as a book that has no errors in it. When our brains tell us this story conflicts with this story, we can say yes the Bible is an imperfect document. We don’t have to leave reason at the door when we go to worship.’” It would be easy for a religiously illiterate viewer to assume that Briggs’ view became the dominant one among Protestants. Such treatment isn’t reserved for Protestants. On the impact of Jewish and Catholic immigrants, the series focuses on Rabbi Isaac Wise, a reformer whose radical teachings provoked fistfights in the temple, and John “Dagger John” Hughes, the bishop whose efforts to have the King James Bible banned
MOVIE
MOVIE
It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Sam Thielman
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the writers of It’s Kind of a Funny Story have made it difficult to describe the film without making it sound like a complete downer. It’s the hilarious tale of a suicidal young man who . . . No, it’s a laugh-aminute romp set in a mental institution with . . . No, it’s the heartwarming story of what happens when a kid under tremendous pressure to succeed finally snaps . . . No. Anyway, it’s all of those things, but don’t Gilchrist let that put you off. Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s comedy follows Craig (Kier Gilchrist), a student at one of those ultra-competitive prep schools that looks like a continuously convening session of the junior United Nations. And Craig has a problem: He’s not temperamentally cut out to be an executive, like his parents want. He’s more of a gentle soul, and all the jockeying for position among his friends leaves him
confused and tense—as does his beautiful friend Nia (Zoe Kravitz), who teases him but dates his best friend. All of this leads pretty directly to Craig, go-getter that he is, checking himself into a mental institution before he has the chance to harm himself or others. The five-day stay throws Craig into contact with several of the other inpatients, adults and high-schoolers like himself. Most interesting of these is Bobby (Zach Galifianakis), a 30-something basket case who’s trying to get his life back on track so he can spend time with his daughter. It’s something of a relief to report that the Galifianakis message of this PG-13 movie is less “be yourself” than “helping other people is good for you.” The movie is one of the few films marketed to high-schoolers that might actually appeal to them, with a terrific music video sequence in the middle where each character’s disability is transformed into a glam-rock costume option. There’s a little swearing, a make-out scene that goes immediately and hilariously wrong, and the threat of violence, mostly against oneself. But mostly it’s a family movie that addresses a lot of hard issues, but remains a family movie.
Documentary
I Want Your Money gilchrist & galifianakis: k.c. bailey/focus features • i want your money: rg entertainment, ltd.
by Megan Basham
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it’s difficult to say who deserves more credit for what works in I Want Your Money, Ray Griggs or Ronald Reagan. On the one hand, Griggs hurdles the biggest documentary challenge by giving his self-financed film a standout title. He also employs a series of humorous vignettes wherein an animated Reagan schools Barack Obama and a roomful of political noteworthies on Economics 101. The imagined conversations may be a little goofy, but they don’t lack teeth. On the other hand, every time the real Reagan takes center stage, all the cartoons and commentary by a variety of talking heads fade into the background. His speeches are so well-reasoned and convincing, you can’t help but wonder why every Republican since him hasn’t followed his model. And when Jimmy Carter attempts to paint Reagan as a dangerous extremist, viewers won’t be able to resist a comparison between Obama and today’s Tea Party candidates. However, despite having the magic of the Gipper on its side, I Want Your Money (rated PG for thematic elements, brief language, and smoking) doesn’t fire on all cylinders. For starters, See all our movie reviews at worldmag.com/movies
Box Office Top 10 For the weekend of Oct 1-3, according to Box Office Mojo
cautions: Quantity of sexual (S), violent (V), and foul-language (L) content on a 0-10 scale, with 10 high, from kids-in-mind.com
S V L 1̀
The Social Network* PG-13....5 2 5 2̀ Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoolee* PG... 1 4 1 3̀ Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps* PG-13..............4 3 5 4̀ The Town R................................. 7 8 10 5̀ Easy A* PG-13............................. 7 2 4 6̀ You Again PG.............................3 3 2 7̀ Case 39 R. ................................... 0 0 0 8̀ Let Me In R..................................6 9 6 9̀ Devil PG-13..................................3 8 4 10 Alpha and Omega PG. ..........2 4 1 `
*Reviewed by world
ocumentaries are not d supposed to be stump speeches, and Griggs spends too much time on camera making pronouncements rather than assembling evidence. It’s the old “show, don’t tell” rule. Instead of saying, “The government’s first job is to protect the people, not run their lives or steal their ambition,” as he does, Griggs should spend time furthering his case that the government is increasingly running our lives. Then Griggs takes the easy path by not giving voice to the opposition. Either he didn’t film any left-leaning politicians or intellectuals defending their fiscal philosophies, or he decided not to use the footage. But even if I Want Your Money isn’t all a conservative-capitalist moviegoer could hope for, there’s one group for whom it’s an absolute must-see. Footage of Reagan unflinchingly defending supply-side economics reminds us how persuasive a candidate with the courage of his convictions can be. The 2012 p residential hopefuls would be wise to take note. Oct o b e r 2 3 , 2 0 1 0 W O R L D
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Reviews > Books
Time for a bargain
Author offers a useful reexamination of race and drugs in America By Marvin Olasky
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In this heated election season there’s one issue on which Prison Fellowship-oriented conservative evangelicals and their opposites on the left can agree: We have too many people in prison and not enough opportunity for exprisoners. Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (The New Press, 2010) provides evidence that legal defense for the indigent is not what it should be, that plea bargaining and justice often do not go together, and that sentencing rules for minor drug offenses should change.
But that’s not all: Conservatives should pay attention to this book because it challenges many assumptions about both race and drugs. Both 15-year-old AfricanAmericans on the streets and 30-year-old whites in public defender offices know what many of us don’t want to admit: that race plays a significant role in the criminal justice system. Another hard admission, because I don’t have an alternative to recommend: The war on drugs isn’t working, not only for all the readily visible reasons but because it rips apart families. The New Jim Crow also argues that affirmative action statistics have blinded us and made us think we’re further along on race than we really are—but the warped criminal justice system shows us how far we have to
Thomas Sowell’s Dismantling America (Basic, 2010) is a collection of his recent columns on governmental policies and a wide variety of issues. The title comes from his consternation about the Obama administration’s attack on so much of what has made America great, from political liberty to economic opportunity. He notes that “what is especially disturbing about the political left is that they . . . tend to see the problems of the world as due to other people not being as wise or as noble as themselves.”
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Joe Flood’s The Fires: How a Computer Formula, Big Ideas, and the Best of Intentions Burned Down New York City—and Determined the Future of Cities (Riverhead, 2010) is a cautionary tale about trying to decide complicated political and social problems by running numbers rather than listening to stories. Flood is right to be concerned about the way that “statistics have implanted themselves so deeply into the way cities and governments are run.” Stats are useful, but the decades of experience of people who have lived through problems sometimes teach us more. Flood’s specific reporting on the way that Mayor John Lindsay and others destroyed their city during the 1970s is also fascinating. —M.O. Email: molasky@worldmag.com
Robert Walker Photography/getty images
Destructive leaders
go. Affirmative action has contributed to the expansion of an AfricanAmerican middle and upper class, but it hasn’t helped blacks on the bottom. It’s also hurt poor and middle-class whites who cried foul and received the “racist” tag. Alexander notes that “civil rights advocates offered no balm for the wound, publicly resisting calls for class-based affirmative action.” She suggests that “the time has come to give up the racial bribes and begin an honest conversation about race in America.” The topic of the conversation should be “how us can come to include all of us.” She suggests “giving up fierce defense of policies and strategies that exacerbate racial tensions.” Maybe it’s time for a bargain: Liberals acknowledge that it’s time to declare victory and end the affirmative action that has helped better-off African-Americans who can now stand on their own feet. Conservatives pitch in for reform of drug, sentencing, and prison laws and rules that further harm the already hard lives of poor blacks (and whites). As Alexander writes about those accused of even minor drug crimes, “Once swept inside the system, people are often denied attorneys or meaningful representation and pressured into plea bargains by the threat of unbelievably harsh sentences.” Reforming that can start with a recognition by more Christians that the people who have been most penalized and stigmatized by the war on drugs are worthy of our concern.
NOTABLE BOOKS
Four books about God and suffering > reviewed by susan olasky
SPOTLIGHT
Lost in the Middle Paul David Tripp
Middle age brings with it regrets and disappointments about lost dreams, stalled careers, broken families, and bodies showing signs of our mortality. It can be a period of lostness, even for Christians, who can’t figure out what God is doing and why. Some people get so off-track that they turn away from God. Tripp writes, “A robust and practical theology of suffering is one of the most essential tools for making sense out of the struggles of mid life.” He uses stories from his years of counseling to show how heart idolatries subtly take the place of Christ in our affections. He offers clear, practical, and scriptural help meant to reorient us to see who Christ is and what He is up to.
By Grace Alone Sinclair Ferguson
Ferguson uses the verses of an unfamiliar hymn, “How the Grace of God Amazes Me” (ligonier.org/blog/ o-how-grace-god-amazes-me/) to approach grace from seven different angles. As he carefully works through Luke 15, several chapters of Job, Luke 23, and 2 Corinthians 5, Ferguson asks and answers questions suggested by the text, encouraging the reader to dig deeper. In one place he writes, “Chew on these passages like a dog gnaws a bone. Persevere with this teaching until it grips you. Struggle with it until it dawns on you, and you say: “O how the grace of God amazes me!” Ferguson’s book is a good guide to that process.
The Goodness of God Randy Alcorn
tree: istock • Caldwell : Elena Seibert
Ferguson says in his book that one of Satan’s tricks is to confuse us about God’s character. Alcorn addresses that and other questions about suffering in this slender primer. He includes stories, but his approach is more propositional and will appeal to readers who want to study the subject systematically. He examines briefly the prosperity gospel, the role of suffering in God’s redemptive plan, and alternative (Buddhist and other) explanations for evil and suffering. Alcorn writes that he found comfort in his search to find the answer to the question, Why is there suffering? He adds, “Genuine faith will be tested by suffering; false faith will be lost—the sooner, the better.”
City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell (Henry Holt, 2010) is a wonderful novel set in China in the early years of the 20th century. Its opening shows Will Kiehn, an old man in southern California, surveying his room with its “three scrolls depicting New Testament scenes,” his Chinese New Testament, “its spine soft and its pages worn.” On his dresser is a wedding picture of Will and his bride (they were married 37 years). The last thing he mentions is his wife’s diary, which he knows by heart: She “taught me the self-disciple I lacked, believed I was capable of far more than I did, and loved me as a young man as well as an old one.” The novel is a love story and a gripping adventure tale of two young missionaries who serve the Lord during droughts, famine, and political upheaval in China. It’s told through Kiehn’s recollections and through in-the-moment diary entries of his wife. Funny, exciting, and heartbreakingly sad, it showcases the power of the gospel.
A Place of Healing Joni Eareckson Tada Alcorn’s book is a popular overview, and Tada’s an urgent first-person battlefield account of a sufferer clinging to Christ in the midst of her suffering. She covers much of the same ground as Alcorn, but her analysis is embedded in her current struggle to understand how abstract theology meshes onto the reality of her daily struggle against pain. Her chapter titles capture this dynamic: How do I regain my perspective? How can I bring Him glory? What benefit is there to my pain? Although the subtitle deals with healing, the book goes way beyond that topic; see p. 65. Email: solasky@worldmag.com; see all our reviews at worldmag.com/books
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Reviews > Q&A
Don’t forget Obamacare Possible presidential candidate Rick Santorum says America’s future depends on stopping the disastrous healthcare overhaul By Marvin Olasky
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deal. It happens. But the thing that made some flips unusual or egregious was the high-minded talk about protecting the lives of the unborn. This was money in exchange for conceding on abortion: “Give me $100 million and I’ll give up on the right to life.” That’s different from a highway-funding formula. Q: What about the executive order that purportedly keeps the new medical regime from pushing abortion? It can be changed tomorrow. When you have a president who is by all accounts the most pro- abortion president in the history of this country . . . Q: How pro-life are pro-life Democrats? Not one Democrat in the United States Senate, pro-life or otherwise, voted against the Senate bill. There was an attempt to put stronger provisions into the bill. Several pro-life Democrats voted for it, but not enough to win, and they easily set aside their concerns: They drafted some language that sounds like it prohibits abortion funding,
but in practice does not. Lots of people have been fooled by this language and these procedures. That’s the game that a lot of pro-life Democrats play. In the end, they are more committed to the growth and expansion of the U.S. gov ernment than they are to protecting human life. Q: So on the new law as a whole, why should we be concerned? Some things are good ideas—for example, the provision that college students can be covered by their parents’ insurance until they’re 26. It will cost money, and insurance rates will go up because of that, but not much. The sob stories about the preexisting condition clause—so and so had breast cancer and couldn’t get health care—well, they are basically not true. Are there cases? Yes, but a federal law already says that if you have insurance through your employer, have a preexisting condition, then move to another job, your insurance company can’t bar you because of your preexisting condition.
Q: What about the talk that some people could not get insurance? The only people who cannot get insurance are people who are already sick. The assumption is that we should not insure people who come to the insurance company after they’ve been sick— because if you allow anybody who’s sick to come into the insurance system, then no one will buy insurance until they’re sick. We’ve now changed that. Q: Under the bill every person in America is supposed to have insurance . . . And if you don’t have insurance you pay a fine. The problem is that the fine is substantially less than the cost of insurance. First off, there’s a question as to whether you can require anybody as a condition of living in this country to make a private purchase, to purchase insurance. A lot of people believe that is unconstitutional. Second, the preexisting condition clause will increase the number of uninsured, because healthy people will make rational decisions not to Email: molasky@worldmag.com
Jeff Malet/jmp/newscom
Some veteran politicos think American voters are memory-challenged: Will they truly surge to the polls to express their disdain for a piece of legislation passed at the beginning of this year? Former Sen. Rick Santorum, now a senior fellow with the Ethics and Public Policy Center and a potential candidate for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, doesn’t want Americans to forget about Obamacare. Here’s his analysis of the healthcare legislation that became law earlier this year. Q: What’s your take on it? It’s the most ambitious power grab I’ve ever witnessed. Passing the bill took the typical means-to-end process in Washington, D.C., and amped it up another notch to whatever it takes. It’s like saying, “Let’s play Monopoly, but the rules don’t really matter.” Q: Were there more deals than usual in exchange for votes? A senator getting money to help his state in exchange for a vote is not a big
‘‘In the end, [pro-life Democrats] are more committed to the growth and expansion of the U.S. government than they are to protecting human life.’’
buy insurance if they are sure that once they’re sick they can be covered for anything that’s wrong with them: Save the money and pay the fine. This law will drive up rates, because there will be fewer healthy people in the pool. Q: Why should young, healthy people be against the bill? Because in the end the cost of insurance for everybody will go up. Eventually they will want to get into the system and it will cost a fortune. It’s only one element of the bill, too. The cost of insurance will go up because the federal government will mandate a very expensive basic policy, because special interest groups have lobbied to get certain things into it. Q: What are some of those things? Viagra. Sex change operations. Reconstructive surgery that may or not may be necessary. Chiropractic care. Conservatives believe that you should be able to go out and construct the insurance policy that you want to pay for, with the benefits that suit you.
Q: What’s the cost of the law? This bill will cost, in the next 10 years, roughly $1.1 trillion. If you make over $200,000 a year, you’re going to pay a higher Medicare tax. You will see Social Security taxes applied to unearned income, which will make the cost of capital in this country increasingly steep at a time when we want just the opposite. Medicare cuts won’t happen, because if the government comes in and says that they’re going to cut Medicare even more, doctors and hospitals will simply quit taking Medicare patients. Q: Will the law hurt the economy generally? The market believes that Warren Buffett is a better credit risk than the U.S. government, which means that our triple-A rating is probably going to go down, which means we’re going to have to pay more interest on the national debt. We aren’t going to be able to do this without massive new taxes, and we’ll have a much slower economy.
Q: Will this spending have an effect on our military? No European socialist country has any military to speak of, because they can’t afford it. We spend $650 billion a year on the military. You’re going to hear in the next year or so that we must dramatically cut the military because we can’t pay for it: “We can’t afford to be the policeman of the world. America’s role has to change.” The Chinese and the Russians are sitting there licking their chops. This is exactly what the left would like to see, since they see America as an oppressive imperialist country. Q: The long-term consequences of the healthcare law . . . It will destroy the country. Q: What about the solution of printing more money? Eventually inflation does become a factor. With inflation you’re always behind. When inflation was running double digits in the late 1970s, from the time you got your pay increase at the end of the year to the next pay increase,
everything went up 10 percent, but your wages didn’t go up 10 percent. So you’d end up 10 percent behind by the end of the year. You’re losing purchasing power. Q: Will we begin to ration healthcare? It happens in every other system of socialized care. If you have advanced stages of cancer in a socialized system, you simply won’t get care. We will be limiting care to people at the end of life. In Oregon they will offer you voluntary euthanasia, but they won’t pay for stage 4 cancer care. We will also change the way we care and treat those who are not as useful to society: the disabled. Many countries around the world don’t consider children to be live births if they’re born in less than 25 weeks. By and large, the American healthcare system tries to save these children. In Europe, if you’re born in less than 25 weeks you’re not given treatment, and you’re not counted as a live birth for purposes of statistical life expectancy. A O C T O B E R 2 3 , 2 0 1 0 W O R L D
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Reviews > Music
Sweet surprise
Acoustic recordings show sensitive introspection from a profane comedian By arsenio orteza
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One of the most interesting new CDs of the year is neither new nor a CD. In fact, it wasn’t even made by a professional musician. Lo-Fi Troubadour is 36 minutes of acoustic songs written and recorded by the comedian Bill Hicks several years before his death from pancreatic cancer in 1994, and it’s available only as an mp3 download with the purchase of Rykodisc’s new two-CD, two-DVD Hicks boxed set, The Essential Collection. In contrast to the confrontational, profanity-laced stand-up routines for which Hicks became notorious, these private recordings, recorded in stolen moments while Hicks was on the road in the early ’90s, are tender—even sweet—and will surely surprise the comedian’s followers. They will not, however, surprise Hicks’ biggest supporters: his mother Mary and his brother Steve, who discovered the songs on cassettes among Bill’s effects after his death. “Bill was sweet,” Mary told me. “The songs are very introspective and wistful,” added Steve. “They’re a different but equally creative and passionate and soulful part of his being.” They also reveal that Hicks was as gifted a composer of “clean” songs as he was of scathing comedy—and that he was a talented guitarist and singer. He developed the latter talent, according to Mary, while singing as a teenager in, of all places, the youth choir of the Houston-area Southern Baptist church in which he was reared. “He was imbedded in it,” she recalls, “just like all of my children were. He even went to Vacation Bible School.” As the hard-copy portions of The Essential Collection
abundantly demonstrate, Baptists—Southern or otherwise— will find much of Hicks’ R-rated comedy rough going. And Mary herself admits that some of it remains even too much for a mother to love. But she also believes that those who focus only on her son’s frequently raunchy demeanor might be missing the fruits of his Christian upbringing (he traveled with Bibles and donated generously to the needy to the end). “Some of my Baptist friends have sensitive ears,” she said. “So I’ve told them what Bill told me: ‘Don’t listen to the words if they bother you. Listen to what he is saying.’ He wasn’t a fan of organized religion, but he also said that there was nothing wrong with Christianity if people who professed to be Christians would only act that way.”
Repeat performances
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At least not in these versions. Discs One and Two testify to the perfectionism that led the band to record (and re-record) its songs with multiple producers (Steve Lillywhite, Jeremy Allom, Bob Andrews, John Leckie, John Porter, Steve Ripley) in search of the right sonic setting for its infectiously retro, British Invasion–rooted pop rock. Discs Three and Four, meanwhile, comprise
Email: aorteza@worldmag.com
Tim Logan/newscom
Almost as unusual as an album of sensitive music from a scabrous comic is a four-disc boxed set from a band that only recorded one album. But that’s exactly what Callin’ All (Universal) by the Liverpool quartet the La’s, whose eponymous album on the Go! Disc label came and went in 1990, is. And, weirder still, each of Callin’ All’s 92 tracks has never been officially unreleased until now.
two entire London live shows and a Dutch radio session circa 1989-1991. So there’s a lot of repetition. One could, in fact, assemble three different versions of the band’s sole long-player from the renditions included herein. What keeps the tedium to a more-than-tolerable minimum is that the La’s approached each take as if it might be “the one.” That there’s no success like “failure” makes it more fun than ever to be their fan.
NOTABLE CDs
Five new or recent pop-rock releases > reviewed by arsenio orteza
Belle and Sebastian Write about Love Belle and Sebastian
So catchy in its evocation of third-generation Britpop glories was Belle and Sebastian’s first decade that this initial second-decade offering feels less than spectacular at first. Why, the very presence of the down-tempo “Calculating Bimbo” suggests an aging to which they’d previously seemed immune. Then you realize how well the words suit the melody and that the melody itself speaks poignant volumes. As for the up-tempo songs, which still predominate, they’ll have you humming along as willingly, if not as quickly, as the up-tempo tunes of yore.
The Shelter Jars of Clay The subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) leftward drift of certain veteran CCM acts makes one fear that the whole-hearted commitment to being led by the Holy Spirit expressed in these songs might really be code for the potential open-endedness of the “emerging church.” Nevertheless, something in the anthemic sweep of the melodies, the meticulous enthusiasm of the playing and the singing, and the deference to authority implicit in the occasional scriptural allusions—and their not renaming themselves Feet of Clay—casts out most such fears. Anthems Kerry Ellis
John Shearer/getty images
It’s not just that Queen’s Brian May produced this album or that Ellis sang in the Queen stage musical We Will Rock You that makes Anthems seem like more of a Queen album than the recordings May and Roger Taylor made with Paul Rodgers: The material itself, from its tendency toward grandiose exotica to its susceptibility to camp sentimentalism, sounds like just the thing Freddie Mercury would be sinking his overbite into were he still among us. And, believe it or not, Ellis has a better voice.
SPOTLIGHT More so than any of the five albums from which it was culled, The Beautiful Damage Collection (Courgette) proves not only that the semi-confessional onewoman, one-piano tradition traceable to Carole King’s Tapestry is alive and well but also that Judith Owen, the wife of the satiristactor Harry Shearer, is its heiress most apparent. Like King, Owen is not above covering a classic or two (“Cry Me a River,” “Smoke on the Water”). Like King only more so, Owen is no respecter of genres, freely drifting from lounge jazz (“Cool Life”) and European euphoria (“Conway Bay”) to unabashed tribute (“Nicholas Drake”) and baroque (“When I Am Laid [Dido’s Lament by Henry Purcell]”) as if freedom were just another word for nothing left to lose. In another word, when Owen sings “I’m an ordinary girl with ordinary needs” at the outset of “That Scares Me,” she both tells the truth and redefines “ordinary” upward as only someone with an “ordinary” voice can.
Carryin’ On Dale Watson Watson rushes in where honky-tonk angels fear to tread, writing and singing one anachronistic jukebox classic after another as if neither Garth Brooks nor urban cowboys had shaken the traditionalist dust off their spurs. And he keeps getting better. The only problem with Carryin’ On is one of quantity: No self-respecting keeper of the traditionalist flame would insist on 13 tracks and 40-plus minutes when 10 and under-30 would do. But with quality as high as “How to Break Your Own Heart,” the overload is easy to forgive. See all our reviews at worldmag.com/music
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Mindy Belz
Crisis avoidance The president’s failure to lead on relief and development could open the door to future conflicts
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Email: mbelz@worldmag.com
KRIEG BARRIE
ith midterm elections barreling down on his party like an F5 tornado, President Barack Obama could hope for an attention-grabbing disaster to rivet the nation’s attention and revive his dismal approval ratings. Consider the case of fellow Harvard graduate Sebastián Piñera. The president of Chile has had by most accounts a bad year. An 8.8 magnitude earthquake in February killed over 500 in his country and actually moved the capital of Santiago 10 inches west. With a massive cleanup still underway and a long string of aftershocks came the Aug. 5 mine cave-in that trapped 33 miners nearly a half mile underground. Throughout, Piñera has remained one mobilized man. He has traveled to the Atacama Desert for extended visits to the San Jose copper and gold mine site, consoling family members, holding their babies, and speaking directly to the miners via cable strung 2,000 feet down to where they are trapped. He inspected the drilling rigs everyone hopes will bring them to safety, perhaps as soon as this month, in part due to Piñera’s forceful attention. And since the cave-in, he has watched his approval rating climb from a dismal, Obama-esque 46 percent to 56 percent. Call it the human touch. Call it leadership in time of distress. Obama, by contrast, has proven adept at crisis avoidance. He did deliver a eulogy for the 29 miners who died in a West Virginia coal shaft in April. But his reflex response in a year of surreal manmade and natural
disasters has been to assign blame and keep his distance. Ten months after Haiti’s earthquake, with U.S. assistance in disarray and recovery stalled, Obama has yet to personally eyeball the devastation: “It’s two hours from our shores,” complained one aid agency executive to me recently. With 230,000 dead, over 300,000 injured, and more than 1 million still homeless, Haiti’s earthquake is a catastrophe made worse by Obama’s neglect and mismanagement. Far from benign, the lack of attention to the disaster next door increasingly looks willful, and could lead to misallocation of funds. Consider: I Nine months after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged $1.5 billion in aid to rebuild, none of it has arrived in Port-au-Prince. I The U.S. government has spent over $1.1 billion in post-quake relief, without any of it going to reconstruction or rubble removal. I An authorization bill pending in Congress for reconstruction is being held by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. His reason: The Obama administration wants to spend $5 million staffing a Haiti aid coordinator’s office in Washington that disaster experts say is redundant. Even the Associated Press, in an October investigative report, concluded that the level of inaction stemmed from Obama-led “bureaucracy, disorganization and a lack of urgency.” Consider also the president’s lack of attention to staffing. He took nearly a year in office to name a director of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)—meaning that his pick, Rajiv Shah, took office only days before Haiti’s Jan. 12 quake. Shah is strong on global health and agriculture, and weak on managing disaster relief and development in areas of chronic unrest. That would be OK if Obama had filled the director’s position responsible for that—the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), which comes under USAID, has a budget of over $1 billion, and usually sends the first U.S. teams to coordinate relief, as in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and 2008’s Cyclone Nargis. To date—21 months after Obama took office—no one has been named to head OFDA. An assistant administrator, Don Steinberg of the International Crisis Group, was named and approved to start only this month. While Republicans and Democrats have disagreed over how to implement them, both parties have always regarded relief and development as crucial tools to promote U.S. interests and security. The lack of focus on them is disastrous for a president committed to ending and avoiding armed conflict. A
At this conference we will cast a biblical vision for church life - her importance, her calling and destiny. We will show how you and your family fit in to the church and how He has called you to love and serve her. We believe that if God’s people know her better they would love her more. We want to send you home from this conference with more love for the church than ever. Do you Love the Church? Does your affection for her create a lifestyle of devotion?
Featuring over thirty messages, delivered by elders from churches all over America.
Scott Brown
Joel Beeke
Don Hart
Andy Davis
Dan Horn
Doug Phillips
Paul Washer
Steve Breagy
Jason Dohm
Boyd Dellinger
December 9-11 Asheville, NC www.ncfic.org/lovethechurch The National
Center for Family-Integrated Churches
2010 election
States’ fights While House and Senate races are getting a lot of attention, this year’s gubernatorial races may do more to shape American politics over the next decade; right now, many of those races look good for the GOP
C
by Jamie Dean Illustration by Krieg Barrie
arl Paladino isn’t afraid to insult voters who likely oppose him. The Republican candidate for New York governor told the New York Daily News that his least favorite part of the state is Manhattan—“home to smug, self-important, pampered liberal elitists.” It’s no surprise that Paladino probably won’t win the borough of Manhattan. The real surprise: He could win the state of New York. Paladino isn’t the only potential upset for Democrats. With 37 states holding elections for governor this fall, Republicans look poised to recapture the majority of governorships. RealClearPolitics—with its average of handfuls of polls—projects the GOP will control at least 27 governor’s mansions after the November elections. The New York Times predicts Republicans will control 30. If they do regain the majority, the GOP governors would capture something else: the opportunity to shape national politics for the next decade. While Senate and House races may be the prizefights
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2010 election
in the November elections, the stateby-state battles for governor remain a crucial part of the main event. For the GOP, some gubernatorial wins may come in unlikely places: Republicans are running strong in the so-called Rust Belt—manufacturing states like Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania that all have Democratic governors. If Paladino wins his formidable battle for New York, he would defeat Democrat Andrew Cuomo—the state’s attorney general and one of the most recognizable names in the state. In some places, game-changing candidates are prevailing: Nikki Haley, the Republican candidate for South Carolina governor, is an Indian-American and a woman with a doubledigit lead in a state that has never had a governor who wasn’t a white man. Haley, 38, toppled four Republican rivals—all white men—to win the GOP nomination.
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Email: jdean@worldmag.com
PALADINO: TIM ROSKE/AP • HALEY: BRETT FLASHNICK/AP • WALKER: Friends of Scott Walker Campaign/ap • PERRY: David J. Phillip/ap • WHITMAN: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images • KASICH AND STRICKLAND: Chris Russell/AP
GAME-CHANGERS: Paladino (above) campaigns in Altamont, N.Y.; Haley celebrates state primary win with her family.
Over a dinner of pulled pork and boiled peanuts at a campaign stop in Lexington, S.C., the former state assemblywoman and daughter of Indian immigrants told supporters: “South Carolina showed that it’s going in a different direction.” If the rest of the country goes in a different direction, it would mean more than bragging rights for Republican governors: In a census year like 2010, it would also mean the opportunity to wield substantial influence over the re-districting process for congressional seats that begins next year. “If you can only win one year in the governorship races, you want to make it a census year,” says University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato. “Because once you control redistricting, you influence politics for 10 full years.” The once-in-a-decade process of re-dividing the country into 435 congressional districts begins after government o fficials release census results in 2011. The bureau assigns the number of seats each state will claim in the House of Representatives for the next 10 years, based on population. Though laws vary by state, local legislatures or commissions usually oversee the complex process for re-drawing boundary lines for districts, and plans are often subject to a governor’s approval. The party in power usually holds an advantage, and the new divisions impact the makeup of Congress until the next census. That’s not lost on either party. Nathan Daschle—executive director of the Democratic Governors Association—told liberal convention-goers at the Netroots Nation conference that the contests are the most important gubernatorial races in a generation. The Republican Governors Association showed its zeal with a massive fundraising effort: The group bagged its largest-
ever fundraising quarter, pulling in $18.9 million between April and June. But re-districting isn’t the only advantage for the gubernatorial majority. Michael Barone—co-author of The Almanac of American Politics—says governors have another important opportunity: to show that they can govern. Barone notes that states—for good or ill—often take the lead in public policy before it hits the national stage. For example, Franklin Roosevelt forged New Deal–style policies as governor of New York before ever landing in the White House and dramatically broadening the scope of the federal government. Republican governors like Tommy Thompson in Wisconsin and Democrats like Evan Bayh in Indiana started welfare reform in their home states before a Republican Congress passed similar legislation in 1996. Four of the past six presidents served as governors first before taking the Oval Office. “Do you have public policies that work? Can you do experiments in public policy that are of national significance in application?” asks Barone. “I think the more governorships you have, the better chance your party has to show that kind of thing.” For voters in the 37 states choosing governors in November, a more visceral force may drive their decisions. Ohio Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland—who won his office in a landslide in 2006—told The Washington Post that his
Republican opponent wasn’t his biggest problem in a race he might lose: “I have been running against the economy.” Widespread angst with how a Democratic president and Congress have handled the wounded economy may drive voters to Republicans in congressional and gubernatorial elections. A dramatic example is in the Rust Belt states—where Democratic governors and persistent unemployment have a stronghold. The once reliably Democratic states may turn to the GOP. Strickland’s opponent—Republican John Kasich—has equated his fight against Strickland to a fight against President Obama. “Stop Ted Strickland, Stop Barack Obama,” says his campaign website. Wisconsin Republican front-runner Scott Walker features Obama on his website, criticizing the stimulus plan for creating “unnecessary boondoggles.” In a close race in Texas, Republican Gov. Rick Perry says Democratic opponent Bill White will follow an Obama slogan when it comes to raising taxes in the Lone Star State: “Yes We Can.” The Democratic counterpunch: Equate Republicans with Wall Street. Strickland has pounded Kasich for once working for Lehman Brothers. In California, Democrat Jerry Brown underscores that his Republican opponent, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, once worked for Goldman Sachs. Another national thread runs through this year’s gubernatorial contests: presidential elections in 2012. Sabato downplays the presidential significance of potential Republican wins in swing states like Ohio, saying there’s little relationship between the party that controls the governorship and the party that wins the White House in each state. But party operatives say gubernatorial wins in swing states strengthen their hand in presidential contests. GOP consultant Curt Anderson told the Post: “the industrial Midwest is the measure of success or failure for the Republican Party.” In Ohio, Strickland is directly tying his contest to the 2012 presidential election. “We are coming after you, Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin and Tim Pawlenty and all of the right-wing extremists,” he shouted at a campaign stop in Akron. “We are coming after you in 2012, and we will reelect Barack Obama to be a second-term president of the United States of America.” That may be a risky strategy for Strickland and other Democrats looking for wins: With the president fighting his own VISCERAL FORCE: growing disapproval ratings, Strickland (left) and a battle cry for a second Kasich shake hands term in office may pack the before a Sept. 14 wrong kind of punch. A debate in Columbus. Oct o b e r 2 3 , 2 0 1 0 W O R L D
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Realignment
Key races to watch on the way to a Republican majority among the 50 governors Safe or no race
Leaning Democrat
Toss-up
Seats presumed safe or where there is no gubernatorial race
Arkansas: Beebe (D) Colorado: Open (D) Hawaii: Open (R) Maryland: O’Malley (D) New Hampshire: Lynch (D) New York: Open (D) Rhode Island: Open (R)
California: Open (R) Connecticut: Open (R) Florida: Open (R) Illinois: Quinn (D) Massachusetts: Patrick (D) Minnesota: Open (R) Ohio: Strickland (D) Oregon: Open (D) Vermont: Open (R)
WA MT
ND MN
OR ID
WI
SD
MI
WY IA
NE
NV
IL
UT CO
CA
AZ
KS
OK
NM
MO
KY TN
AR MS
TX AK
HI
IN
LA
AL
Democrats currently hold the majority of governorships, 26 , and Republicans control 23. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist—who left the Republican Party for his Senate run—is the only independent governor. Thirty-seven states will hold elections for governor in November. Of those races, 24 are open seats—no incumbent is running. With so many open seats, a majority of governors next year are likely to be newly installed executives. RealClearPolitics projects that Republicans will control at least 27 governor’s mansions after the elections and that Democrats will control at least 14. Another nine races are toss-ups. Here are some to watch:
Leaning Republican Alaska: Parnell (R) Arizona: Brewer (R) Georgia: Open (R) Iowa: Culver (D) Maine: Open (D) Michigan: Open (D) New Mexico: Open (D) Nevada: Open (R) Oklahoma: Open (D) Pennsylvania: Open (D) South Carolina: Open (R) Texas: Perry (R) Wisconsin: Open (D)
The Rust Belt
ME
VT NH MA CT RI
NY PA OH
MD WV
NJ DE
VA NC
States in this manufacturing strip of the Midwest and Northeast may turn to the GOP out of economic frustration. In Michigan, Republican Rick Snyder has enjoyed a 22-point lead over Democrat Virg Bernero in a state hit hard by the auto industry’s decline. Republican Tom Corbett is leading Dan Onorato in Pennsylvania, where current Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell has vociferously supported the president. In President Obama’s home state of Illinois, Republican Bill Brady has led Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn—a candidate plagued Snyder by the taint of impeached former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. In Ohio, Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland has remained in a tight race against Republican candidate John Kasich.
The tight spots As many as seven states are still toss-ups, including three of the biggest states in the country: In California, Democrat Jerry Brown is in a tight race with Republican Meg Whitman—a candidate battling both her opponent and the unpopularity of current Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. In Florida, Republican Rick Scott stunned the GOP by defeating state Attorney General Bill McCollum in the primary. He’s been in a dead heat with Democrat Alex Sink, the state’s chief financial officer. Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry is in a tight race with Democrat Bill White, the former mayor of Houston, in a state that hasn’t had a Democratic governor in nearly 15 years. Though Perry began closing the gap in late September, the race remains too close to call.
Corbett
Brady
The Intriguing
SC GA
FL
MAP SOURCE: realclearpolitics.com • SNYDER: Carlos Osorio/AP • CORBETT: Carolyn Kaster/AP BRADY: M. Spencer Green/AP • SCOTT: Joe Raedle/Getty Images • BAKER: handout
Scott Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts is finding a tighter race than he expected against Republican Charlie Baker. A handful of polls heading into October put Baker slightly ahead. A Republican win would add insult to injury for Democrats in Massachusetts still smarting from Republican Scott Brown’s unexpected Senate win to replace former Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy. Baker Republican Carl Paladino may have an uphill battle to defeat Democrat Andrew Cuomo in New York, but many pundits say Paladino may be closing the gap. The no-holds-barred Republican is a Tea Party favorite for his stance on smaller government, but Paladino’s brash style and harsh language may hurt his prospects with moderates. The real estate mogul—who defeated former Republican Rep. Rick Lazio in the primary—called former Gov. George Pataki “a degenerative idiot” in an interview. And despite the remark, Pataki looked ready to endorse Paladino.
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Job security It’s job No. 1 for the nation’s teachers unions, and they are willing to oppose education-reform-minded politicians to preserve it by Alisa
Harris
fter Democratic Mayor Adrian Fenty lost his reelection bid in Washington, D.C.’s p rimary last month, a reporter asked Michelle Rhee, the chancellor of D.C. public schools, if her controversial reforms had an impact on the loss. Rhee, who infuriated teachers unions when she closed 21 D.C. schools and fired 241 D.C. educators (including her own children’s principal), said: “Without a doubt.” The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) spent $360,800 in radio ads for Fenty’s Democratic opponent, councilman Vincent Gray, and more in unregulated expenditures. Even Minnesota’s conservative governor, Republican Tim Pawlenty, issued a scathing statement blaming the unions for Fenty’s loss, saying, “What the teachers’ unions really care about is getting more money for jobs they can’t lose at schools that produce students who are not prepared to compete.” As a few politicians like Fenty attempt to buck Democratic special interests and the party faces possibly losing its majority in Washington come November, teachers unions are realizing that their own grip on political power is tenuous. But a frenzy of contributions ahead idterm elections shows that of this year’s m unions and their millions remain determined to exert vast influence over the outcome. David Levinthal, communications director for the Center for Responsive Politics, olitical said teachers unions have two choices in a p climate where even a Democratic president is calling for charter schools and performance-based teacher pay. They can withdraw their money to teach Democratic reformers a lesson, or pour more money into Democratic campaigns to keep the party beholden to them. Nationally, unions are taking the latter approach. In 2006 midterm elections, the AFT spent just over $2 million on federal races. This year, it has spent $1.9 million (donating only $8,000 to Republicans) and is on track to well exceed its 2006 amount. In New York, though, the state teachers union is punishing state legislators who cross it. After some union-endorsed legislators voted to cap property taxes and lift the cap on charter schools, New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) announced it would withhold endorsements from those offending politicians. The NOT A JOKE: Public-school teachers, along with other state workers, protest budget cuts to scores of state programs at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., last spring. Photo by Seth Perlman/AP
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The union label
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protest: Tyson Trish/The Record of Bergen County/AP • dahlkemper: Scott J. Ferrell/Congressional Quarterly/Newscom
to 401(k) plans for new hires. As one result, the teachers union usually examines 20 bills when grading legislators, but unions are withholding endorsements and funds. this year it increased that number to 30—telling legislators it In Illinois, where the state’s estimated $73 billion unfunded was not acceptable to vote for otherwise favorable bills that pension liability is the worst crisis in the nation, unions included provisions, like the tax cap, that the unions disliked. punished Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn NYSUT even withheld an endorsement of Democrat teaching them a lesson: for supporting pension reform: They Andrew Cuomo, a longtime favorite it has previously Over 500 teachers protest endorsed Quinn’s primary challenger endorsed who is this year running for governor, because budget cuts outside of and showered him with $332,500. he expressed support for the property tax cap and, Democratic state Sen. Quinn won the primary but has yet to according to NYSUT spokesman Carl Korn, made Loretta Weinberg’s office in Teaneck, N.J., on April 22. win an endorsement from the Illinois “troubling” statements about public employees. Federation of Teachers (IFT). Like NYSUT, IFT has also withdrawn endorsements from “old friends” who “betrayed us” by voting for pension reform and not passing an income tax increase. “It’s here now,” Fred Siegel, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, said of the pension c risis. “You feel the pressure, but two years from now it’s going to be even more intense.” And yet, although teachers unions altogether have poured at least $2.9 million into Democratic races this season, a more diverse population pays the union dues. In a fall 2009 survey, Education Next and Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance found that 37 percent of public-school teachers support charter schools and 30 percent support vouchers. And what do public-school teachers think of the unions? Almost one-fourth of them (24 percent) say they have a negative effect on schools. Tony Guzzaldo, a public-school teacher in Illinois, supports the pension reform and education reform that the unions fight. He Cuomo, currently the state’s attorney read an article in the satirical general, is investigating public employees newspaper The Onion that mocked for padding their pension deals, and those i House and Senate races where teachers for marching on the pension deals have set legislators and unions Democratic candidates are among Illinois capitol, chanting “Raise at odds. States can no longer afford the the top 20 recipients of union funds our taxes!” and was shocked to generous pension plans they gave teachers find that it was actually true: In in the 1990s, when teacher salaries were Teachers Union Candidate April 15,000 teachers marched in lower and the economy was booming. A donations Illinois, demanding a tax increase Manhattan Institute report calculates that Scott Murphy (NY-20)............. $27,500 to pay for pensions and school states owe a collective $933 Mark Critz (PA-12)................. $25,000 funding. Guzzaldo notes that 43 billion in total unfunded Dina Titus (NV-03)................. $20,500 percent of Chicago schoolteachers liabilities to teachers. Steve Driehaus (OH-01)........... $20,000 draw three-figure salaries. Maybe In the states with the D Kathy Dahlkemper (PA-03)......$20,000 it’s time for a pay cut, he says: “I biggest pension Bill Owens (NY-23)................. $17,500 don’t need a life of l uxury in gaps, politicians are Alan Grayson (FL-08)..............$17,000 retirement, especially on the struggling to enact Harry Reid (Senator-NV)..........$17,000 taxpayer’s dime. Sometimes you reforms like raissource: Center for Responsive Politics and Federal Election Commission have to put community ahead of ing the retirement your own interests.” A age or switching
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2010 election
Citizen watchdogs As concern mounts about lapsed Justice Department enforcement of voting rights laws, local groups step up to monitor voting themselves by Emily Belz in Washington
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Nathan Lindstrom/Genesis Photos
arris County, the third-largest county in the country and the largest in Texas, appears to have fraud-filled voter rolls, but the federal government didn’t uncover it: A local group funded by “passing the cowboy hat” did. Catherine Engelbrecht, now the president of the watchdog group True the Vote, used to run Engelbrecht Manufacturing, a company that cranks out manufacturing parts. But she has set that life aside, perhaps permanently. With no legal background, she and a team she dubbed “Excel spreadsheet pros” spent the last year investigating voter fraud and released a report in August detailing thousands of fraudulent registrations—information that the county voter registrar has now submitted to the district attorney. The report drubbed Houston Votes, a group headed by Service Employees International Union employee Sean Caddle, finding that out of 25,000 voter registrations the group submitted, only 7,193 were legitimate new voters. County voter registrar Leo Vasquez said the county appeared to be “under an organized and systematic attack” from Houston Votes. Caddle reportedly fired about 30 employees as a result of the revelations. The sprouting of grassroots groups monitoring fraud follows more than a year of controversy over federal enforcement against fraud and voter intimidation, which began when the Justice Department essentially dropped a clearcut case of voter intimidation in Philadelphia on Election Day 2008 involving the New Black Panther Party and continued as it allegedly failed to pursue cases to purge state voter rolls (“Justice undone,” July 31, 2010). “All of us being completely green—we were really going at this with the most common sense that we could,” Engelbrecht told me by phone as she was picking up her children at school. “We had a lot of failed efforts. We revised our processes along the way. We didn’t have to turn over every stone. We just had to show patterns.” Since the group released its findings, Engelbrecht said she has had calls from other groups in 40 states, asking for training on how to do the same thing. Already the group has trained volunteers to oversee polling places on Election Day.
“If the government isn’t going to do the job, and we know the federal government is not, then I think it a good thing when citizens take their own initiative,” J. Christian Adams told me. “Most states have laws that both allow and encourage this sort of private citizen initiative.” Adams resigned as a lawyer in the Justice Department’s voting section in May, exasperated with what he testified has been unequal enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. He told the U.S. Civil Rights Commission that lawyers were instructed not to bring cases against minorities, and he alleged that the agency refused to require states to purge voter rolls. In the fallout of the New Black Panther Party case, Justice Department officials transferred Christopher Coates, originally a Clinton appointee and former voting section chief, to the U.S. attorney’s office in South Carolina. Defying the department’s orders not to testify, Coates on Sept. 24 answered the U.S. Civil Rights Commission’s subpoena and confirmed Adams’ testimony that DOJ officials instated a policy not to pursue cases against minorities. He also echoed Adams in alleging that the department has refused to pursue cases against states that aren’t updating their voter rolls. “They’d rather leave 100 people on that are ineligible than run the risk of taking one person off who was eligible,” Coates testified. The agency has refused to admit any mistakes or wrong doing. Spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler called the investigation into the section “thin on facts and evidence and thick on rhetoric.” In her statement, she said the DOJ is correcting the “politicization” of the Bush administration’s Civil Rights Division. “We have reinvigorated the Civil Rights Division and ensured that it is actively enforcing the American people’s civil rights, and it is clear that not everyone supports that.” Contrary to Coates’ testimony, she said all enforcement decisions are based on “the merits, not the race, gender, or ethnicity of any party involved.” Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., the only Virginia lawmaker to vote for the Voting Rights Act in 1981, has been one of the few lawmakers to dog the agency about the allegations, but he has received no communication from the agency since early summer. “It’s a cover-up. They won’t respond to the Congress, they won’t respond to the Civil Rights Commission,” he said. Wolf asked Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., chair of the House Judiciary Committee, to look into the alleged cover-up but he refused, according to Wolf’s staff working on the issue. Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., however, did send a letter to the agency in uncovering fraud: July, saying it should not have dropped Engelbrecht at True the the New Black Panther Party case and Vote’s headquarters in urging it to re-file charges. The Justice Houston, Texas.
2010 election
focus on a low-income minority Department’s inspector general has launched a broad investiMysterious blaze: Houston firefighters put area in Houston. Engelbrecht gation into the voting rights section. out a fire at the warehouse explains that this was based on Voting fraud experts say that anywhere with a close midthat housed the Harris numbers: In each of the county’s term race is vulnerable to fraud, particularly areas that rely on County voting machines. seven congressional districts, the paper ballots. The threat of fraud on Election Day 2010 has group looked at the number of grown in Harris County, Texas. On the morning of Aug. 27, the addresses that had six or more registered voters. In the three warehouse that holds the county’s election equipment burned, majority Republican districts, there were about 1,800 of those destroying 10,000 machines. Local officials have had to scramaddresses on average. In the majority Democratic district they ble to put in place a new election system with borrowed and focused on (which also houses their office), there were about newly purchased machines as well as paper ballots. The cause 20,000 addresses with more than six voters registered. of the fire, which cost about $40 million in damage, remains a Engelbrecht finds it reasonable that low-income areas would mystery, and local investigators haven’t ruled out arson. In have higher numbers of people at an address, but by that much? addition to Houston, ballot watchdogs are eyeing areas in “That was way outside any margin that was reasonable,” she Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles as said. The group ran background checks, comwell as nearby Orange County. pared driver’s licenses with voter registrations, Most of the watchdog groups have conservavisited flagged addresses, and snapped photos. tive ties: True the Vote sprang out of a Tea Party The group has investigated other districts’ group, the King Street Patriots. Another conseri Less than one of voter rolls, but found it would have to file any vative group that has dug up fraud is Minnesota every three voters challenge to the voter rolls 75 days before the Majority, which reported bloated voter rolls in registered by Houston election, so it turned in completed information the 2008 elections. After the elections, the Votes turned out to be from the one district only. Engelbrecht says the group reported that eight counties recorded legitimate. In addition group will report any instance of fraud in more ballots than they had registered voters. to Houston, ballot Republican districts too. Engelbrecht started True the Vote with likewatchdogs are eyeing Citizen watchdog groups could be dismissed minded Tea Party members, who volunteered at suspect registration for their political leanings, acknowledged John polls during the city council elections in 2009. practices in: Fund, an expert on voter fraud at The Wall Street “We saw fraud. Not fraud at every single polling Journal, who wrote the book Stealing Elections: place, but at enough of them to make you quese Los Angeles, Calif. How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy. “The tion how secure any of them ultimately are,” she e Orange County, Calif. Houston group that uncovered fraud has many said. “Once you see that and choose to do nothe Illinois partisans, but their facts spoke for themselves,” ing about it, you’re an accessory to the crime.” e Missouri he wrote in an email. “Just knowing people are Because of the group’s conservative ties, e Philadelphia, Pa. watching does reduce fraud because then it is e Wisconsin they’ve been accused of trying to push out no longer a completely risk-free activity.” A Democratic voters. And the group’s report does
Fraud watch
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Politics of health The known costs plus the unknowns put clinics in jeopardy in the communities Obamacare was supposed to help by Edward
C
harles Shafer is used to distractions. As the medical director for the Falls Community Health Center, Shafer’s day consists of juggling constant demands and questions from patients, nurses, and medical interns at this government-funded clinic in downtown Sioux Falls, S.D. With flecks of gray in his dark beard, Shafer acts as the clinic sage—patiently enduring interruptions in his own work to parcel out advice to the clinic’s 18 medical residents. In one afternoon he helps a young doctor select the
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in Sioux Falls, S.D.
right prescription. Then he guides another resident trying to decide if a patient needs a mental evaluation. It’s been that way for most of Shafer’s two-decade career helping the medically underserved. With the daily demands of being a frontline doctor, Shafer admits he has had little time to reflect on the looming transformation of his profession under the new healthcare law. “The big picture is going to be—who knows?” he said. It was the only time during my afternoon visit that he didn’t have an answer. “I mean, it’s a little frightening. . . . I’m fearful that the whole system could come crashing down potentially.”
photos by vergil cabasco
A GATHERING STORM: Shafer (far left) and Kidman voice concerns about the future of healthcare.
Six months after President Barack Obama signed the healthcare bill into law, Americans—including the professionals most affected—are still trying to understand what impact it will have on families and businesses. Doctors like Shafer are only certain of one thing: Expect a lot of unintended consequences. Obamacare for many is a far-off reality, and I found on my cross-country trip that the healthcare debate has taken a back seat to voter angst over the economy. But a recent Rasmussen poll shows that 57 percent of voters now favor repealing the law while 59 percent expect the law will lead to higher healthcare costs. Some Republicans have made healthcare repeal the centerpiece of their campaign rhetoric. Some Democrats have been touting the reforms that have already kicked in: Dependents can now stay on their parents’ policies until the age of 26 while insurers can no longer set lifetime coverage limits. But South Dakota’s Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin just wants the healthcare issue to go away. Sandlin, the state’s sole House member, has received more than 70 percent of the vote in past elections, and she went against her party to vote against the healthcare overhaul. That hasn’t helped her avoid a serious threat this November from Republican challenger Kristi Noem. Sandlin, 39, comes from political stock: Her grandfather served as South Dakota’s governor. Noem, 38, grew up on farms, likes to hunt, and is often compared to Sarah Palin. Sandlin does not favor repealing the law. But at a debate in Mitchell, Noem said that if repeal fails, she would fight to defund an overhaul she called “too extreme, too expensive.”
At Destiny Family Medical Clinic in Sioux Falls, physician Brian Kidman says sorting out the law is “kind of like asking me what I like and don’t like about the dictionary.” Before the healthcare law, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services projected an average annual increase of 6.1 percent in national healthcare spending over the next decade; now the Centers predict an annual spending increase of 6.3 percent. The group also found that annual healthcare spending per person will increase by $265 when all the law’s provisions are in effect. Another government report, this one by the Congressional Research Service, found that states would face higher costs in light of the law. Millions of Americans are expected to get their insurance through government-run programs under the new overhaul. Individuals whose income falls between 133 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level (currently $10,830 for an individual) will be eligible for subsidized health insurance beginning in 2014. Those making less than 133 percent of the poverty line will receive Medicaid. In lightly populated states like South Dakota—with a population just over 812,000 and median household income of about $46,000, or slightly more than 400 percent of the poverty level—that means many South Dakotans will likely wind up as patients at places like Shafer’s community healthcare center in Sioux Falls. But already there can be up to a two-month wait to see a doctor here. Since more new doctors are rejecting careers in primary care in favor of lucrative specialties whose higher salaries help pay for medical school debt, Shafer may wind up calling his current workload light compared with what’s coming. “I question if we have the manpower to double the amount of patients we might see,” Shafer said. “We already can’t get new patients in here. We don’t have the slots to do it.” In anticipation of overload, the new law pumps $1.1 billion into community health centers. But that leads to another concern: To receive federal funds the clinic already has to jump through regulatory hoops, and it’s a constant temptation to put meeting those requirements ahead of meeting the needs of patients. “As a physician that doesn’t feel right,” Shafer said, and he is apprehensive about more strings attached to new federal healthcare coverage. Robert Moffit, a healthcare expert with the Heritage Foundation, expects a blizzard of regulations: “It is almost as if Congress said, ‘This is very complicated stuff, we will turn it over to [Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen] Sebelius and the very smart people she has hired. They will figure it out and tell us what to do.’ Unelected bureaucrats are going to determine how our lives are going to be affected.” More rules will put added stress on doctors in rural communities, such as Mitchell, S.D.—a town of about 15,000 located on Interstate 90 between Sioux Falls and Rapid City. There a group of medical professionals told me that small clinics lack the resources to navigate this federal maze. The very kinds of Oct o b e r 2 3 , 2 0 1 0 W O R L D
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But it is not only small businesses that feel pinched. communities Democrats said they wanted to help with the McDonald’s Corp. told federal regulators in late September that reform may end up being suffocated by it. new mandates might make it “economically prohibitive” to conIt is not just doctors who should be skeptical about tinue offering health insurance for nearly 30,000 hourly workers. Obamacare: Studies are revealing that the law’s provisions Jay Tolsma is a 48-year-old accountant from Mitchell, S.D., make it attractive for employers to drop their insurance plans who says the new law provides economic incentives for busiand dump their workers onto new government-run insurance nesses to avoid hiring more workers and to keep wages low. exchanges. An American Action Forum report predicts that the For his accounting firm of about 20 employees, the average number of employees who enlist in the exchanges could be wage is about $50,000. Healthcare costs run about $4,000 per three times as high as original estimates. employee for an annual total of $100,000. But under the new Why? Private insurance premiums will rise because more law the government will provide a tax credit of 35 percent of healthy Americans likely will forgo insurance. Penalties for not total premiums, or $35,000 in Tolsma’s buying insurance case, if the average wages are below under the mandate are $50,000. cheaper than the cost “This is not a bill to contain healthof an annual premium. care costs, it is a bill to control healthPlus, the young and care,” he says. healthy can wait until Obamacare will not be fully implethey get sick to sign up mented until 2014, but the professionals thanks to the law’s ban I met in South Dakota already see a on preexisting condigathering storm. Federal regulation tion exclusions. With could further reduce the autonomy fewer customers and given to doctors and drive students demands under the away from pursuing medical careers. new law to provide The new healthcare landscape, herding greater coverage, people onto government plans, threatens insurance companies in to overrun already burdened community September filed health centers. And businesses will requests with state look at their bottom line in the face of legislators asking for rising healthcare costs and decide to between 1 percent to 9 keep their staff small and their wages percent rate increases low in order to qualify for federal on insurance plans. assistance. Already cashDEALING WITH HEALTHCARE: Sandlin (right) speaks at a debate With these risks a part of increased strapped small with Noem (left) at the Sioux Empire Fair in Sioux Falls. federal regulations, nonprofit clinics, businesses will have like Kidman’s family center in Sioux difficulty affording the Falls, may end up being the best option to fill the medical void new costlier private insurance plans for their employees. One of in some communities. the first regulations released under the law even makes this Bible verses decorate Destiny’s waiting room as Christian scenario more likely. music fills the air. Two churches support the clinic, which proObama said during the healthcare debate, “If you like what vides for the area’s poor on a sliding scale based on how much you have, you can keep it.” But the very regulation designed to each patient can afford. In five years, the clinic has treated 5,000 grandfather in already existing plans and to help businesses patients. Kidman says donations keep the place afloat. They don’t avoid the law’s often-onerous requirements is riddled with red accept federal funds: Too many strings are attached, he says. tape. Its own authors estimate that between 39 percent and 69 Kidman, who has made numerous trips to other countries for percent of businesses will not qualify. By 2013, based on the medical missions, says countries with state-sponsored healthDepartment of Health and Human Services predictions, as care systems often lack the resources and personnel to provide many as 80 percent of small businesses will lose their grandfaneeded care. But the people there eventually become used to thered status. long waits and substandard care where not much is expected but “The reality for many, under this new regulation, is that if the very basics. When those behind Destiny prepared to open its you like what you have, you can’t keep it,” said Sen. Mike doors, locals initially gave the team a lukewarm reception. “The Enzi, R-Wyo. The Senate on Sept. 29 defeated along party lines community said they didn’t think we were necessary,” Kidman Enzi’s amendment to overturn this regulation, highlighting the recalled. “Certainly we must already be taking care of the poor triumph of administrative law over elected law. “The final somehow,” they assumed. Destiny’s success demonstrates that result of this new regulation will be that all Americans will those needs were not being met, and the question now is eventually be forced to buy the kind of health insurance the whether they will continue to be under the new law. A federal government thinks you should have.”
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2010 election
Frontier reformer With an East Coast resumé and Tea Party credentials, the GOP nominee for Senate from Alaska is not your average Joe by edward lee pitts
Sam Harrel/Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
J
oe Miller, Alaska’s surprising Republican nominee for Senate, may be a political novice. But he went to Washington early in life. In America’s bicentennial year of 1976, Miller’s Christian-bookstore-owner-and-itinerantminister dad packed his family into their yellow Plymouth station wagon. They drove from rural Kansas to the nation’s capital, staying at campgrounds along the way. In Washington, they visited the museums and gawked at the inside of the U.S. Capitol dome. Miller, who was 9 years old at the time, said the visit taught him that “the nation we live in is extraordinary.” His mom even dressed him up as Gen. Lafayette for a bicentennial parade. Today Miller, 43, hopes to make a return trip to Washington— this time for a six-year stay in the Senate. There the stature Miller earned with his 2,000-vote primary upset over moderate Republican incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski could position Miller as the general of the Tea Party movement. But to get there Miller is taking an interesting campaign track for a state long addicted to feeding from the federal trough. Alaska is the state that long-time Sen. Ted Stevens made sure ranked near the nation’s top when it came to getting federal money (including $400 million for the infamous “bridge to nowhere”). Miller preaches against the dependency mindset created by federal dollars. He frequently sends the mainstream media into frenzy over remarks about the dangers of bottomless unemployment benefits, how the nation needs to rethink Social Security, and why the federal minimum wage should be left to the states. Miller says he does not want to eliminate federal dollars completely. He just wants to bring more power back to the states where better decisions can be made closer to the people they will affect. “Alaskans understand that the country is nearing bankruptcy,” he said. “They understand that if we don’t start preparing for the future we are going to be completely upside down.” Some of Miller’s biggest challenges may come from inside the Republican Party. The Senate GOP leaders initially backed their colleague Murkowski in the primary, but they are saying all the right things about Miller now.
Still, Miller says he is “not ready to say they’ve embraced the Tea Party message. I think that will take some persuasion.” He calls the Tea Party a legitimate third-party movement to restrain the growth of government. He expects this “new way of thinking” to be bolstered by new members coming to Capitol Hill with a voter mandate. “It will be very difficult to continue business as usual in both the House and Senate,” Miller predicts. “The American people are saying we want the federal government changed. They won’t tolerate anything less.” Miller’s resumé suggests that his passion for the American adventure has long driven his decisions: He graduated from West Point and earned a Bronze Star while seeing combat in the first Gulf War. A law degree from Yale set him up for a career at a highpowered East Coast law firm. But Miller, who sports the beard of an outdoorsman, grew up a hunter. He saw in Alaska the challenge of settling in the nation’s last frontier. Since moving to Alaska in 1994, Miller has earned a master’s degree in economics, served as a state and federal magistrate judge, and in 2004 made an unsuccessful run for state representative. The decision to run for the U.S. Senate this year was not one he made alone. He sought support from his wife, Kathleen, and their eight children. “Our children are not going to have the America as we know it,” Kathleen, a teacher, said when I asked her why she approved her husband’s decision. But to earn a trip to Washington 34 years after his first visit, Miller has to defeat a familiar face: Murkowski, who decided to launch a write-in campaign. Polls show they are in a tight race. But both hold double-digit leads over Democrat Scott McAdams. Still Miller, who Slate magazine predicted would “probably get trounced” in the primary, said polls are tricky in Alaska’s wide-open spaces. He trailed by more than 30 points to Murkowski in summer primary polls. But a Sarah Palin endorsement, a $500,000 ad push by the Tea Party Express, and a pro-life measure on the primary ballot boosted the pro-life Miller over pro-abortion Murkowski. Now, when he talks about the campaign and his background, he veers into the larger narrative of American history. He recalls growing up during the Vietnam War and the Carter presidency when “we lost a lot of pride in America.” Then Miller remembers Ronald Reagan coming along and reigniting everyone’s faith in the nation. When asked if this is what fueled the patriotic drive that brought him to the run for the Senate, Miller grew silent. Then the tears began to flow: “I love this country, and I know we don’t have much time to save it,” he told me with red eyes. “We are being destroyed from the inside.” A Oct o b e r 2 3 , 2 0 1 0 W O R L D
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2010 election
C
Pulpit partisans
hurchgoers in hundreds of congre gations across the United States may soon find fliers in their Sunday morning bulletins emblazoned with this verse from Isaiah: “O Zion, messenger of good news, shout from the mountaintops! Shout it louder, O Jerusalem. Shout, and do not be afraid.” Read further and discover the good news: the advent of healthcare reform. The bulletin inserts produced by the nonprofit PICO—People Improving Communities through Organizing—are the kind of advocacy President Obama is asking churches to undertake. But the presidential push is meeting resistance from former White House officials: They say the administration is politicizing the federal office for faith-based initiatives by using churches to promote controversial policies. On a September conference call organized by the Health and Human Services Center for Faith-Based and Community Partnerships, the president exhorted thousands of religious leaders and organizations to extol his healthcare overhaul in their communities: “Get out there and spread the word.” The president continued: “The debate in Washington is over, the Affordable Care Act is now law. . . . I think all of you can be really important validators and trusted resources for friends and neighbors to help explain what’s now available to them.” For Jim Towey, that’s disturbing. Towey, the former director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under President George W. Bush, asked in a column for The Wall Street Journal: “Do we really want
Get the facts on what health care changes will mean for
YOUR FAMILY
Prodded by President Obama and his office of faith-based initiatives, some churches are being drafted into White House policy promotion by jamie dean
taxpayer-funded bureaucrats mobilizing ministers to go out to all the neighborhoods and spread the good news of universal coverage?” Towey wondered what would have happened if he had used the faith-based office to promote a controversial Bush policy like the war in Iraq: “First, President Bush would have fired me—and rightly so—for trying to politicize his faith-based office. Second, the American media would have chased me into the foxhole Saddam Hussein had vacated.” Though PICO—a private advocacy network founded in the 1970s that includes some 1,000 churches—had begun programs for promoting the healthcare overhaul long before the conference call, their plans model the ideas that White House officials are promoting. Joshua DuBois, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based Sharing the News of Health Refo rm and Community Partnerships, told O Zion, messenger of good news, shout from the mountaintops! Shout it louder, the leaders on the call: “Get the word O Jerusalem. Shout, and do not be afraid … (Isaiah 40:9a NLT) out there, get information out there. Whether you have health coverage at work or are uninsured or rely on Medicare Make use of the resources we’ve or Medicaid, we all have a lot at-sta ke in health care changes that will take place over the next four years. This month described on this call: the website, important new rules go into effect that stop insurance companies from discriminatin g against children with pre-existing door hangers, one pagers, and so conditions; and require insurers to extend health coverage to children up to age forth. We’ve got work to do.” 26 as part of their parent’s health plan. Also starting now, insurance compa nies are prohibited from dropping your health PICO is doing that work by offering coverage when you get sick, and if you have a chronic health condition or catast rophic illness, insurance companies a website full of resources on the are now prohibited from placing a lifetim e cap on your coverage. If you are a healthcare overhaul, including fact senior , Medicare will now issue a $250 rebate for prescription drugs to help with doughnut hole costs. sheets and door hangers. Gordon Whitman of PICO said that their camNow we need to help people get the facts about what health refor paign has already reached 100,000 m means for their children and famil ies Americans. The weekend after the We are part of x congregations in x White House conference call, churches communities across the
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W O R L D Oct o b e r 2 3 , 2 0 1 0 Join us this week at _______________ _______ to help spread the news.
GETTING THE WORD OUT THERE: PICO doorhanger and sample bulletin.
PICO WEBSITE
United States this week that will be sharing news about health care changes in our congregation s, knocking on doors in our communitie s, holding educational forums, hangin g posters in our businesses, and workin g with local hospitals to make sure that all families are able to fully benefit from health reform.
SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
in the network planned activities to reach thousands more. Whitman notes that PICO’s work on healthcare isn’t new, and that though the group communicates with the Obama administration, the organization also communicated with the White House during the Bush administration. What does seem new is Obama’s approach. Though Obama used networks of churches—including “church captains”—to disseminate information during his presidential campaign, he’s now using a federal office to do so. Those efforts come at a time when the first portions of the healthcare overhaul take effect, and many Americans remain opposed to the controversial law. Stanley Carlson-Thies served in the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under Bush and says that Obama’s approach represents a striking reversal: The Bush administration emphasized how government could help faithbased groups accomplish the work they already were doing. The Obama administration is focused on how faith-based groups can help government accomplish its own goals. “The outreach thing is very troubling to me,” he says. “I don’t think it’s appropriate.” Whether it’s appropriate, it’s not the first time Obama has used the strategy. Last August, the president participated in a
conference call sponsored by 40 Days For Health Reform, a project led by groups like PICO, Sojourners, and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. Some 140,000 callers from dozens of churches listened as the president asked them to help pass healthcare legislation: “I need you to knock on doors, talk to neighbors, spread the facts, and speak the truth.” The president told the group that some opponents of healthcare legislation were “bearing false witness” by saying the plan represents a government takeover of healthcare—a case that many opponents continue to make by noting the hardship that government mandates pose for private care. For now, many pastors support the president’s efforts. Charles Warner, pastor of Christ Temple Apostolic Church in Sacramento, Calif., wrote an entry on PICO’s blog comparing efforts to pass the healthcare overhaul to Jesus’ disciples catching a great load of fish in a net that did not break: “We are bringing our big fish to land, and the first big fish on land is healthcare reform.” In a possible preview of an expanded political push for both churches and the White House, the pastor mentioned other “big fish” to catch, including “comprehensive immigration reform, mortgage, and finance.” A Oct o b e r 2 3 , 2 0 1 0 W O R L D
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Director Randall Wallace tells stories from the
big screen he says he couldn’t tell from the pulpit
A different
calling by Megan Basham Photo s b y Jo hn B ramle y
W
riter, director, and producer Randall Wallace’s name may not be immediately recognizable, but his movies are. He not only wrote the Oscar-nominated screenplay for Braveheart, he also wrote screenplays for Pearl Harbor, We Were Soldiers, and The Man in the Iron Mask, along with directing the latter two. 3 But filmmaking wasn’t Wallace’s original plan in life. As a seminary student at Duke Divinity School, he thought he might enter the ministry. But God had another call in mind for him, he explains, with his third directorial effort, Secretariat, hitting theaters this month.
Q: You wrote the theme song for Secretariat, “It’s Who You Are,” and you wrote it to “address the question: what is the heart of victory?” Can you explain that? When I’m working on a script or planning a movie I’ll ask myself, What is this story is really about? And I do that not only at the beginning of the process but also in the middle of the process and at the very end. What does this movie really mean? What is the essential message I want to convey if I were to boil it down to just a few words? And this song arose from that process. In so many other stories it’s your enemies that oppose you, but in this case it was the people Penny Chenery [Secretariat’s owner] was closest to who were telling her she couldn’t do it, that she was only a housewife, as if that were an indictment of her potential. And sometimes that’s the central battle of life. And just like other forms of heroism, it is also a measure of heroism when someone can stand up and say, “It would be really wonderful if you all liked me, but I’m not running a
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STORYTELLER: opularity contest, I’m running a life, and p Wallace (center) I’m going to be who I think God called me on set with Lane to be.” That’s certainly been true of my life. and Malkovich. My father passed away during the very end of the making of We Were Soldiers, and I called my mother right before we tested that movie. And she could tell I was very nervous, and she asked me why. I explained, “Well, you know, because you put your heart and soul and blood and sweat and tears into something and there are people who aren’t going to like it, who are hoping to be able to criticize it, in fact.” And my mother said, “Son, if people crucified Jesus Christ, there are going to be some of them that don’t like you.” And it was funny and we laughed, but it’s also very true.
Q: Some people might argue that Hollywood is too dark a place for Christians and that you would have better served God by entering
the ministry than becoming a filmmaker. Are there things you can accomplish as filmmaker that a minister can’t? I think a minister can probably accomplish pretty much anything I could, but this is my calling. I can tell you that Braveheart and some of the other films I’ve done have been purer messages of what I believe than what I could have preached from a pulpit. It’s the reason I’m a storyteller instead of a minister. One of the themes of Secretariat is that there’s joy in becoming what you were made to be, and Christ is at the heart of it. Christ says that He came so we could have life more fully. We were each made for something and only by doing that thing do we experience fullness. The line that people most often quote to me from Braveheart after “They may take our lives but they’ll never take our freedom” is “Every man dies, not every man really lives.” To really live, you have to do the thing you were made to do. As an example, the church I’m a member of once approached me about becoming ordained because I was teaching a Sunday school class and I had enough seminary training to qualify within the denomination. And I told them, “You know, I don’t think my work as a Christian is diminished because I’m not ordained, nor do I think it would be increased if I did become ordained. I’m glad we have ministers, but I don’t believe every one of us is supposed to be one. Some of us are supposed to make movies.” Q: You’ve been one of the people behind some very successful movies. What is the secret to making a movie that resonates with the audience? I once heard this great story from a minister. He said, “You know, I would like to give my son $10 million but I can’t because I don’t have $10 million.” Then he said, “You’re here this morning because you want your children to have faith. How are you going to do that if you don’t have it yourself?” And that’s what I think has to happen in a movie. I cannot inspire others unless I am inspired. I don’t know if it’s my calling to inspire others or not, but it seems like the thing I most need to work. So I look for opportunities to be inspired. Then when I am, I try to share it. Movies are such a powerful art form—in fact, they may be the most powerful art form humanity’s ever come up with. It’s a version of storytelling, but you are also able to use music and narrative and moving images, and you combine all of that to make people experience something collectively. One of Hollywood’s greatest flaws is underestimating their audience— forgetting that the audience is full of heart and full of a desire for hope. Q: What other mistakes do you see filmmakers, including upand-coming Christian filmmakers, making in their approach to the art form? If anything feels like it’s a Sunday school lesson, that would drive me away from a theater, let alone someone who isn’t disposed to the same viewpoint. When I go to the movies, I’m not looking to be exposed to somebody else’s dogma. And when I make a movie I’m not looking to explain my intellectual arguments of faith to somebody else. Now I love doing that, I love having discussions with my friends about how faith impacts the way you see life, that’s a discussion that always fascinates me. But in storytelling it’s about the experience. My father once told me that people will remember almost nothing of what you tell them and only slightly more of what you do. But they will remember for the rest of their lives how you made them feel. A Email: mbasham@worldmag.com
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When Disney was Disney In Secretariat the family movie kingpin has finally made a movie for all ages again Disney’s Secretariat (rated PG for mild language) hearkens back to the kind of movies that made the studio beloved by families all across America. It’s hopeful, it’s cheerful, it’s funny, and there’s nothing in it to keep you from seeing it with either your 88-year-old grandmother or your 8-year-old daughter. Even better, both are likely to enjoy it. By approaching the true story through the life of housewife-turned-racehorse-owner Penny Chenery (Diane Lane), director Randall Wallace keeps the tension high despite the fact that almost everyone already knows the outcome. The movie is less about the horse than it is about Chenery and her struggle to balance being a good wife and mother with fulfilling her personal dream (some viewers may debate whether she achieves that balance, but mothers everywhere will feel for her). Even in its treatment of 1960s politics, Secretariat’s big heart manages to be kind to all sides. The daughters are anti-war and pro-peace-signs, but they show respect for their parents’ views. The parents are conservative red-staters, but they smile and wink at one another, believing the girls will feel differently when they’re older. A couple of cornier moments (a Scarlett O’Hara– worthy “I’ll never go hungry again” speech from Lane elicited titters, not tears, in my screening) are brief and easily forgotten when John Malkovich walks on screen as hilarious horse trainer Lucien Laurin. And though the story isn’t overtly spiritual, the soundtrack, along with some wonderfully apt quotations from Job will make Christian viewers feel like they’re in the inner circle for once. —M.B.
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Notebook LIFESTYLE TECHNOLOGY SCIENCE HOUSES OF GOD SPORTS MONEY law
‘In the thick of it’ LIFESTYLE: Fighting terrible pain and now breast cancer, Joni Eareckson Tada fights to persevere: “I don’t want to tarnish His name.” by susan olasky
Used with permission of Joni and Friends
>>
Many people know what happened after the teenaged Joni Eareckson dove into a shallow lake in 1967 and suffered a spinal cord fracture that left her p aralyzed from the neck down. Lying in her hospital bed, she at first begged friends to help her commit suicide—but God changed her heart, as she relates in her best-selling first book, Joni. Many people do not know that after decades of life without use of arms or legs, and many other published books, Joni Eareckson Tada—she married Ken Tada in 1982—is confronting new challenges. She begins her new book, A Place of Healing: Wrestling with the Mysteries of Suffering, Pain and God’s Sovereignty, with a description of the chronic, “jaw splitting” pain that has plagued her over the last several years—pain so severe that she prays, “Lord, I can’t live like this for the rest of my life! At least I don’t think I can.” She describes writing her book while “in the fight of my life. I’m in the thick Oct o b e r 2 3 , 2 0 1 0 W O R L D
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Notebook > Lifestyle
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“HOW CAN I GLORIFY faithfulness in GOD?” Ken and Joni. little things. One night she might awake at 2 a.m. in pain, unable to get comfortable. The next day she is sitting under a shady tree with the breeze blowing, overcome with the day’s beauty: “This is what it means that hope never fails. Last night I was ready to throw in the towel and give it up. Today, it’s a b eautiful day.” The battle requires her active participation. She takes as a theme Hebrews 10:38: “But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” Her voice is emphatic: “I do not want to be one of those who shrink back. I don’t want to tarnish His name.” Part of her weaponry is a ready supply of Scripture. Since memorizing is hard for me, I ask how she does it. She and Ken are reading through the Bible in a year, as they have for the past six years. She uses the King James Version because it has all the “hooks and barbs” that make its memorization easier. Ken writes the verses on 3 x 5 cards and she sets the verses to music because “I’m a musical kind of person.” She also counts on the prayers and practical assistance of other people, starting with Ken, who regulates her schedule and gets up in the middle of the night to turn her. One friend almost daily sends a card containing a stanza or two from a hymn. Our conversation took place on a Monday afternoon. Joni had a chemo
session scheduled for Thursday. She says the week after the threehour procedure is hard, but the procedure itself is also difficult. She tries to ward off painful mouth ulcers by chewing on ice before the procedure; during it she maintains energy by nibbling on celery sticks and peanut butter. When the chemo kicks in and she feels awful, she reminds herself that it will pass: “Don’t get stuck in this moment.” She reads on her iPad—her current book is John Piper’s Roots of Endurance—and plays games like Boggle if she needs a break. She also talks with other patients, weeping with those who weep. She shares “times of terror” while trusting that cancer “can grab us by our spiritual shoulders and give us a good shake.” She keeps thinking, “God’s up to something big. How can I showcase Him to others?” She knows her life is on display and that others are watching and learning by her response: “I am on this battlefield. How can I glorify God?” Since people often approach Joni and want to pray for her healing, that’s one of the subjects of her new book. She would love to be healed, but recently she told one of those earnest people: “I want to be set free from my laziness and slothful attitudes.” The person was focused on her physical healing, but Joni says Christ’s focus is our soul. She knows God is not punishing her—Christ took the punishment—but she accepts that she’s being disciplined: “What needs to be confessed, uprooted for my sanctification? What is there in me that needs to be exposed and dealt with?” She concludes, “I’m convinced that the core of Christ’s plan is to rescue. We are saved. We are being saved.” She fears that we’ve become so “infected by our culture of comfort” that we’ve grown comfortable with our sin: “We domesticate it, tame it, and make it our own. . . . It’s not pretty. Don’t turn your face away.” A Email: solasky@worldmag.com
Used with permission of Joni and Friends
of it, as they say, and honestly have no idea how long this struggle will continue or how and when it will be resolved.” But in the book’s epilogue, written months after the rest of the manuscript, Joni was able to report, “I’m now enjoying many more good days than bad.” And then, in June, a new diagnosis came: breast cancer. I talked with Joni last month about what she’s currently going through. I started with a question about her daily routine, and she said, “Let’s pray, because that’s how I always start.” Her energy took me by surprise. I figured that a quadriplegic with chronic pain—and going through chemo—might have a weak voice and be slow of speech. No: She is a fast talker (East Coast roots) and peppers her conversation with informal baby boom expressions like “oh man!” She tells me that she’s recovering from pneumonia and has limited lung capacity, something that’s particularly dangerous for a quadriplegic. She does breathing exercises, and when I ask what that means she breaks into a hymn: “Breathe on me, Breath of God, fill me with life anew, that I may love what thou dost love, and do what thou wouldst do.” Hymn singing, she says, “Reminds me to fix my mind on Jesus” so as not to “grow weary and lose heart.” Joni says she had been so consumed with her quadriplegia and chronic pain that she never thought about getting cancer and hadn’t had a mammogram in nine years. The tumor was big—three inches— and she had a mastectomy. Even though the surgery was successful, the doctors called her cancer Stage 3 and put her on a rigorous schedule of chemotherapy. She’s lost weight and her hair. She describes wig shopping and adds that wearing one is better than looking like Demi Moore in GI Jane. The chemo eats lean muscle and as a quadriplegic she doesn’t have lean muscle to spare. So friends she has dubbed “the protein police” or the “protein Nazis” force on her yogurt and other high-protein snacks. She sees herself in a battle against “powers and principalities that want us to despair” and emotions that “take me down dark, grim paths.” She sees God’s
Notebook > Technology
Cookie trails Investigation reveals that children’s websites are tracking kids’ internet use By alissa wilkinson
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Do you know who may be watching your child’s online activities? Many websites install tiny tracking technologies (such as “cookies” and “beacons”) on a user’s computer, then use browsing history to sell to advertisers and others a profile of interests, hobbies, shopping habits, and other data. A recent Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that U.S. websites aimed at children—who i nfluence billions of dollars in annual family purchases—install 30 percent more tracking technologies on computers than websites aimed at adults. Tracking web activity is legal, but the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act requires sites for children under age 13 to obtain permission from parents before disclosing personal data such as name, Social Security number, address, and email. Although many of the sites the Journal examined claimed to be selling data anonymously, privacy practices— especially those of small website businesses—vary widely and can be difficult to determine. Because cookies also have
uses other than tracking (such as saving passwords for frequently visited websites), most web browsers make it possible for users to choose their own privacy settings.
TOUR BY PHONE
Illustration: Krieg Barrie • Iphone: handout • louvre: KIKE CALVO/ap • stop watch: istock
Can’t quite make it to the Louvre this year? Is a visit to New York’s Museum of Modern Art out of reach? It’s not as good as the real thing, but museums around the world are releasing free apps for smartphones (like iPhone and Android) that provide a tiny virtual window into their collections. The MoMA app showcases many works that are on view in the museum, as well as some in storage. The Louvre’s app offers extensive background information and high-quality images. Because these apps often include maps, ticketing information, and audio tours, museum visitors may find them useful, too. —A.W.
SAVING SECONDS Google’s simple interfaces and constant innovation have helped it become the market leader: The site accounts for about 65 percent of searches in the United States, outpacing its nearest competitors, Yahoo and Microsoft’s Bing (both about 13 percent). The company recently released a new enhancement to its search, called Google Instant. The new addition to Google’s search page reduces the time required to construct a search (which can range from 9 to 90 seconds)
and helps unearth results even before the user has finished typing. Instead of searching the old way, Google Instant harnesses predictive technology to display results before the term is fully entered. As the user types, results appear below the box, showing whether the term is likely to return the right sort of results. Google claims that Instant could save the average user between two and five seconds per search. That may seem miniscule, but the company estimates that if Google Instant were used globally, searchers could collectively save more than 3.5 billion seconds each day. —A.W. O C T O B E R 9 , 2 0 1 0 W O R L D
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Notebook > Science
Where did they go? Debate rages over the fate of the Neanderthals
By daniel james devine
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that anthropologists have uncovered, there’s one thing they haven’t found yet: agreement. Theories abound, attempting to explain who the Neanderthals were and how they disappeared.
Hoofing it A curious experiment could force a reinterpretation of some Stone Age sites: Scientists laid replicated stone tools on waterlogged ground and allowed water buffaloes and goats to trample them, squashing them up to eight inches in the mud. Such naturally occurring displacement could skew archaeologists’ understanding of a site, interpreted by artifacts’ depths in the sediment. Eight inches, say researchers, could stand for “thousands of years.” And possibly for one ancient buffalo’s mischievous mark on history. —D.J.D.
Email: ddevine@worldmag.com
Neanderthal man reconstruction at the Neanderthal museum in Mettmann, Germany: Martin Meissner/ap
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Among anthropologists, a little ash has reignited a hot debate: What happened to Neanderthals? Excavators studying a Russian cave filled with Neanderthal bones—the skulls sometimes identified by a large braincase and thick brow ridges—found layers of volcanic ash in the sediment and concluded that a series of major eruptions in Europe 40,000 years ago were responsible for wiping out the ill-fated hominins. It happened not by lava flow or asphyxiation, they say, but by a giant ash cloud that blocked sunlight for years, reducing vegetation and consequently thinning the animals that served Neanderthals’ presumably stone tables. But skeptics of this volcano hypothesis insist it was modern man who drove Neanderthals into oblivion, either by overcrowding or bloodier methods as Homo sapiens populated swaths of Europe. Among the stone tools, ornaments, and several hundred Neanderthal fossils
Two prominent ones: In 2004, 30 scientists wrote that Neanderthals died out gradually because they failed to adapt to climate change (global cooling, which would have reduced hunting options). In 2007, a study in Nature determined that global cooling would have been too slow or too mild to cause total extinction. The two views are typical of the lack of consensus surrounding Neanderthals. Many anthropologists say something else happened to the furrow-browed race: They simply interbred with and were absorbed into modern humans. Compare these peer-reviewed conclusions, listed by publication date: August 2007: A skull from Romania displays both Neanderthal and modern human characteristics, showing the two groups interbred. August 2008: A study of mitochondrial DNA concludes the two groups did not interbreed—their last common ancestor lived between 520,000 and 800,000 years ago. May 2010: A new DNA study finds all modern ethnic groups except for Africans have 1 percent to 4 percent Neanderthal DNA. So the two groups must have interbred about 60,000 years ago, before modern humans spread out to populate the earth. Notice the disparate results? They’re just a handful of many unresolved Neanderthal claims. Since there’s no consensus anyway, maybe alternate perspectives are in order: Neanderthal scholar Jack Cuozzo, who made advanced X-ray measurements of principal Neanderthal skulls beginning in 1979, thinks Neanderthals were fully human, and he wrote about his firsthand study of their fossils in his 1998 book Buried Alive. Cuozzo, who was criticized by some of his colleagues for taking the Bible literally, believes Neanderthals were the men described in Genesis (post-Babel) who lived to be exceptionally old. They were bony because their heads and features continued to grow throughout their lives. They matured more slowly as well. As you might expect by now, not everyone agrees, even among creationists. But the approach is refreshingly unconventional in a discipline crowded with convention. A
James Bunch/Genesis Photos
Notebook > Houses of God
The town of Surgut was founded in the 1960s in Siberia, a land then of only barren ground, natives from the Khanty tribe, and a gulag. or Soviet work camp. When the Soviet Union began tapping large oil fields in the region, the gulag was abandoned and the p risoners were released. Surgut grew and quickly became a hub for travelers passing through Siberia. In the early 1980s Sergey Kubata, a pastor, and his friend Victor Komosarinko moved from Ukraine to Siberia and started the Baptist Church of Surgut. Soviet authorities had imprisoned Komosarinko’s grandfather in northwest Siberia, and he had prayed for a church to grow and proclaim the gospel there. Today the Baptist Church of Surgut draws almost 200 congregants, and church members have started about 30 house churches in the region among more than 20,000 Khanty.
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Notebook > Sports
A touchdown for Sam One football team’s most meaningful points were not those scored but those surrendered By mark bergin
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Wisconsin high-schooler Sam Kolden has autism. Nevertheless, the senior has practiced and participated with the Menomonie Indians football team since the eighth grade. And on homecoming night last month, his years of dedication culminated in a 66-yard touchdown play that will echo forever in the memories of every spectator in attendance. Late in the fourth quarter, with the Indians leading the game 46-14, Menomonie coach Joe LaBuda hollered over to the opposing side. He had a favor to ask. Would the Superior Spartans, already soundly beaten, be willing to help fulfill the dreams of a developmentally challenged kid? LaBuda wanted Kolden to be able to catch a pass without subsequently being injured. He hoped the Spartans would consider allowing the catch and tackling Kolden gently after the play. But Spartans coach Bob DeMeyer had a better idea: “I said, ‘Let’s let him score a touchdown, coach. That’s what it’s all about.’” And so on the ensuing play, Kolden ran into the left flat, hauled in a short pass, and raced 66 yards past the futile tackling attempts of the Spartans players. The touchdown ignited a cheering frenzy throughout the stadium as fans from both sides appreciated a moment far grander than any mere football contest. Watching from the sidelines, Kolden’s father Steve was moved, later calling the gesture one of “character and sportsmanship.” The Menomonie players, many of whom have known and played on the same team with Kolden for years, celebrated their friend’s achievement. And the Superior players, once downtrodden from suffering their fifth straight loss to start the season, suddenly saw the evening in a whole new light. One Spartan senior called the moment “the highlight of anybody’s life.” Returning the gesture of sportsmanship, the Indians took a knee on the point-after-touchdown attempt. And as both teams would have wanted, Menomonie awarded Kolden the game ball.
Winning big
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kolden: Brett Hart/Dunn County News • McDowell: David Davies/AP
Graeme McDowell is having a good year at the expense of American pride. In June, the Irishman became the first European in 40 years to win the U.S. Open, besting a power-packed field at the iconic Pebble Beach golf course. And early this month, his play over 18 holes in the final match of the Ryder Cup secured victory for Europe over the United States. But which accomplishment matters more? For McDowell, it’s no contest: “I was out there trying to win it for me, for my 11 teammates, for [team captain] Colin [Montgomerie], for Europe, for all those fans out there. It was a different level completely to what Pebble Beach was. That’s why this golf tournament is extremely special and will continue to be probably the greatest golf event on the planet.” That feeling is mutual among many of the Ryder Cup participants. Montgomerie, a man who has won 31 times on the European Tour, called Europe’s victory this year “the greatest moment of my golfing career.” This despite serving only as team captain and never taking a single swing. Conversely, American team captain Corey Pavin was crushed by the defeat, emerging with a tear-stained face to speak with reporters afterward. And Hunter Mahan, who lost the final match to McDowell, choked up repeatedly as he described the day’s play. Such passion is akin to what many athletes in individual sports feel when they don their national colors for competition in the Olympic Games. For decades, the Ryder Cup has provided golf’s only such opportunity. No longer come 2016, when the game’s best from Europe, the United States, and all the world will experience the weight of representing country at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. —M.B.
Email: mbergin@worldmag.com
Notebook > Money Recess from recession Lingering economic issues notwithstanding, the Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research declared an official end to the Great Recession. The nonprofit group of economists, looked to by government to determine when recessions begin and end, said the downturn that started in December 2007 bottomed out in June 2009, making it the longest slump since World War II. The committee said “any future downturn of the economy would be a new recession and not a continuation of the recession that began in December 2007.” —J.S.
federal reserve: Hisham Ibrahim/getty images • southwest & airtran: FRANK POLICH/Reuters/Landov
Flying together Texas-based Southwest Airlines, the nation’s largest low-cost carrier, announced a friendly takeover of Floridabased AirTran Airways—a $1.4 billion cash-and-stock deal. The merger, the latest in a series of air-carrier consolidations, will put Southwest into more direct competition with larger companies, especially Atlanta-based Delta Airlines. Like Delta, AirTran has its main hub at Atlanta’s HartsfieldJackson, the world’s busiest airport. “Southwest is following the trend in the industry: merge or acquire in order to stay alive and competitive,” Brett R. Gordon, a marketing professor at Columbia Business School, told The New York Times. The Southwest/AirTran deal follows a 2008 merger of Delta and Northwest and a just-completed deal between United and Continental. —J.S.
Joseph Slife is the assistant editor of SoundMindInvesting.com
Less shock and awe The Fed considers a new, smaller-scale tactic to try to help the economy By joseph slife
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Noting that “the pace of recovery in output and employment has slowed in recent months,” the Federal Reserve’s policy-making Open Market Committee opted to leave interest rates at rock-bottom levels. And the committee said it was “prepared to provide additional accommodation if needed to support the economic recovery.” Although the exact nature of that “additional accommodation” was left undefined, The Wall Street Journal reported Fed officials are considering an approach that differs from the central bank’s earlier “shock and awe” purchase of mortgage bonds and Treasury securities. “Fed officials are weighing a more open-ended, smaller-scale program that they could adjust as the recovery unfolds,” the paper reported. “Under the alternative approach gaining favor inside the Fed, it would announce purchases of a much smaller amount for some brief period and leave open the question of whether it would do more, a decision that would turn on how the economy is doing.” From late 2008 until March 2010, the Fed bought an unprecedented $1.7 trillion in mortgage and Treasury debt. Two months ago, rather than reduce its debt holdings as planned, the central bank opted to use proceeds from maturing mortgage bonds to buy even more Treasury obligations. While central bankers debated a course of action, consumer confidence sagged in September, the result of “less favorable business and labor market conditions, coupled with a more pessimistic short-term outlook,” according to Lynn Franco of the Conference Board’s Consumer Research Center. “Overall, consumers’ confidence in the state of the economy remains quite grim,” she noted.
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Notebook > Law
Making the grade
Lambasted by professor over religious speech, Los Angeles student loses case on appeal By Lauren Sneed
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Jonathan Lopez, a student at Los Angeles City College (LACC), delivered in the fall of 2008 an informative speech to his Speech 101 class on a topic of his choosing. Lopez chose to speak about Christianity, God, and how he has witnessed God’s actions in his life and others. He referenced verses from the Bible and read the definition of marriage from a dictionary—defining it to be the union between man and woman. Lopez’s professor stopped him mid-speech,
called him a “fascist bastard,” and refused to let him finish. The professor told the class that anyone offended by the speech could leave. No one left. Lopez never received a grade on his speech. Instead, the professor wrote, “Ask God what your grade is.” Lopez sued LACC for violating his First Amendment and equal protection rights. He also challenged LACC’s sexual harassment policy as a violation of the First Amendment, asserting it is overbroad, vague, and could apply to the
speech Lopez seeks to engage in. The district court agreed. On Sept. 17, though, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found Lopez lacked standing even to challenge the policy because he suffered no injury: Even though he insists his speech was never graded, he ultimately received an A in the class. The Court did determine that Lopez’s speech on Christianity, God, and marriage did not violate the sexual harassment policy, regardless of whether it offended other students or professors.
CORPORATE SUPPORT
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Lauren Sneed is a lawyer living in Austin, Texas
Illustration: Paul Anderson/getty images • Ogoni: Bebeto Matthews/ap
Beginning in 1993, Shell Oil’s Nigerianbased subsidiary aided the Nigerian government in stopping Ogoni protests against regional oil production. Shell allegedly provided ammunition, transportation, and other logistical support to the Nigerian military, with protestors allegedly murdered, tortured, arrested, and exiled. The Ogoni people sued Shell and other corporations and their subsidiaries under the Alien Tort Statute. Enacted in 1789, this statute gives U.S. courts jurisdiction to hear claims by non–U.S. citizens harmed by violations of international law, including war crimes and crimes against humanity. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals on Sept. 17 found the law only applies to claims against individuals, not corporations. In a 2-1 decision, the majority reasoned that because no corporation has ever been held liable for any matter under customary international human-rights law, the Alien Tort Statute does not apply to c orporations. Although agreeing with the case’s dismissal based on a pleading error, Judge Pierre Leval vehemently disagreed that the statute is limited to individuals, finding the outcome to be a “substantial blow to international law and its undertaking to protect fundamental human rights.” In Judge Leval’s opinion, the majority’s rule will allow corporations to profit from the exploitation of SHELL GAME: Members of Nigeria’s Ogoni community in New York rally to raise human-rights violations. —L.S. awareness of the trial of the Royal Dutch Shell oil company.
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Progressive Socialism is the new identification for Communism Are you a mature and Total State Control. This is what “politicians” mean Christian who has enjoyed when they talk about “Restructuring America.” Progressive a s uccessful business Socialism is the leadership career as Owner, s the American dream really dead? What “Change” really makes thethat CEO, President or Executive Iautho between a “have” and a “have different not”? In Progressivism: Our Road to Serfdom, rs Zester and Marilyn Hatfield exam some politicians ine these Coach/Consultant other& questions and s inare light of the historic realit ies of who we are, where come from, and where we we have are going in relation to wages now called to useemplo these want Americans , job security, full yment, personal wealth accumulation, and perso nal freedoms. gifts to help otherTheleaders to live with. Hatfields discuss the cause s and histor y behind the economy and present a current failing fulfill their God-given step-by-step understand ingis of how our God-g iven capitalist to rebuild totally foundations withThis greater success. It takes candid look at how new wealt h is create a calling & potential? Do d by current and advan technologies. Moreover, cing it reveals the secret against God’s s and the inner of progr workings you believe Christ is Lord, essive socialism—the politic al and ideolo gical barrier that stands between those who love Amer ica plans forlic’s limited and the repub the Bible is true,form God has of gover nment. America and an eternal plan for each Progressivism: Our Road to Serfdom presents a fascin ating story of how wealth is created and its effect on all Amer believer’s life, & small thisbusin plan icans— wage earners, the Kingdom ess owners, and equity owners both large and demonstrates how the Const small. It itution gives all Americans includes their business? the unalienable right to prosper from their ofl posse Christ. own labor and capita ssions. Would you be excited to “Progressivism: build a h igh-impact profesZester Hatfield is a practi cing financial consultant andOur Road To, holds license s in real estate sional practice to equip, insurance, and securi ties. Marilyn J. Hatfield is a practic Serfdom” is al ing tax and financia encourage & inspire likeadvisor, author, and busine ss manager. She holds licenses in accounting, tax preparation, minded Christian leaders must read for securities, and insurance. They have six children and twent y-four grandchildren. based on this truth? If so, all Christians you may be called by the who seek the Lord to be an Area Chair for will of God The C12 Group, America’s for Christ’s leader in helping ChrisKingdom here tian CEOs & Owners Build GREAT Businesses for a on earth. GREATER Purpose. If you’re in a position to investigate a great franchise opportuBooks may be purchased online in hardback, nity, visit www.C12Group. com to learn more! paperback or e-book at: www.progressivesocialism.com
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WORLD. As they are fond of saying, it’s not just about origins, it’s about biblical authority. Charles A. Burge
Kaneohe, Hawaii
“Riding the rapids” (Sept. 11) Marvin Olasky deserves our thanks for encouraging a respectful dialogue in the Christian community between old-earth advocates and young-earth proponents. Each side undermines its own credibility when it brands its opponents “unscientific” or “unbiblical.” Productive dialogue requires a shared acknowledgment that the biblical text is authoritative, but our interpretations of it are not. Respectful listening and bomb-throwing are mutually exclusive. Howard Killion, Oceanside, Calif.
It was gratifying to see fair coverage of the young-earth creationist position in something other than a critical light. The claims of its proponents deserve open-minded scrutiny. This kind of reporting is what Christian journalism is all about.
We, who are created, have no right to add or take away from what the Creator tells us in Genesis. We should be reading what the Bible says and interpreting the world from that, not the other way around.
Scott Julian
Livermore, Calif.
Elizabeth Wellendorf
Livonia, Mich.
I am an old-earth creationist, and I thank you for “Riding the rapids.” It was a reminder that I should not be too quick to dismiss youngearthers, with whom I disagree. The subject of age is very complex and I should not hold onto my opinions too tightly.
It was very gratifying to see young-earth creationists highlighted in
The age of the Grand Canyon may be open for debate, but that is not the strongest argument that science has for the age of the universe. While we should never reject the liberty to express such views as young-earth creationism, at what point should science no longer tolerate viewpoints that do not pass multiple tests? David Speer
Lubbock, Texas
As a geophysicist with Shell Oil for over 30 years, I have been blessed to help find, develop, and produce billions of barrels of oil and gas and have never yet seen evidence that could not be more reasonably understood with a young-earth model than the currently dominant models of “billions and billions” of years. Toby Perry
Sugar Land, Texas
Kudos to WORLD for addressing a subject that divides, confuses, discredits, and embarrasses so many Christians. Too many
Los Botados, Dominican Republic / submitted by carol boe around the world
Mark Swanson
Minneapolis, Minn.
I agree that when there’s a conflict between “what the Bible clearly states and what a contemporary scientific theory stipulates, we go with the Bible.” The real difficulty for Christians arises when our understanding of the Bible is not clear and the science is. Since our understandings of the Bible and of creation are both fallible, it is unwise to assert that our understanding of the Bible must always win. That leads to such absurdities as geocentrism and gives people an excuse not to trust the Bible. Ken Cochran
St. Andrews, Scotland
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Oct o b e r 2 3 , 2 0 1 0 W O R L D
75
Where can you find a seminary that has existed for
200 years ...
Christians view the use of scientific means to date the universe, such as the Hubble telescope, as the sign of an apostate rather than an appropriate use of created intelligence. I hope WORLD’s coverage helps Christians distinguish bad theological interpretation from biblical truth. Gene Poole
Prior Lake, Minn.
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I have been researching discrimination against Darwinism doubters for over 30 years and find the problem is just as bad at Christian colleges as secular ones. Jerry Bergman Archbold, Ohio
You selectively quoted from Calvin College’s recent statement, which begins, “We believe in God, we affirm God’s promises.” The entire statement is at: www.calvin.edu/academic/biology/why/ evolution-statement10May2010.pdf. Claudia Beversluis Provost, Calvin College Grand Rapids, Mich.
Your story concludes that the “Statement on Origins” endorsed by Messiah College is “clear as mud.” In fact, our statement (www.messiah.edu/ departments/bioscience/origins-full. htm) unambiguously affirms “that the world had its origin in a purposeful act of God, who continues now faithfully to uphold the creation,” and explicitly states that we “offer our students multiple models for relating science and faith.” Prof. Edward B. Davis Messiah College Grantham, Pa.
“The case for youth” (Sept. 11) Thanks to Marvin Olasky for his fair profiling of some of the quality books by young-earth creation scientists. My husband and I are weary of the way some Christian intellectuals tend to treat any young-earth interpretation of Genesis 1 and 2 as though it is an embarrassment. Lisa Meek
Bothell, Wash.
“The other side” (Sept. 11) Deistic evolution advocate Daniel Harrell presumes that, given the choice, God
would rather design a universe so as to minimize the labor required to run it. But if labor-saving is the goal, why do we humans have to labor at all? Perhaps, like a father who buys his child a puzzle rather than a pre-assembled picture, God values interactivity and working together. Erick Poorbaugh Virginia Beach, Va.
“Rattlesnakes and Kool Aid” (Sept. 11) Joel Belz failed to convince me that the controversy over the proposed Muslim facility near Ground Zero is like the two examples he cited. Should the rights of Christians in the United States be affected by the actions of Christians in other countries? Freedom of religion for us is contingent on freedom of religion for everybody else. Marina Lehman Lafayette, Ind.
Thank you for making me think again about this issue, but I am not sure whether Americans are concerned mainly because mosques can be fronts for terrorists or because locating a mosque near Ground Zero is a blow to our national pride. Leon Cook
Midland, Mich.
Excellent column. I fully agree with Joel Belz. Sometimes I feel Americans have lost their sense of what America is all about. Jane Barron
Sand Springs, Okla.
Belz commented that it’s hard to name a predominantly Muslim country that allows the construction of Christian churches. In sub-Saharan Africa there are several. Mali, where we are missionaries, is 90 percent Muslim, but the g overnment is proud of its secular constitution and upholds freedom of religion. At times of political or national crisis, the president and prime minister will consult with Muslim, Catholic, and evangelical leaders. Jennifer A. Bowers
Kayes, Mali
“Critical masses” (Sept. 11) Janie B. Cheaney’s column on education is right on! I taught college courses for 25 years but soon discovered that the Department of Religion was teaching
students how to dismantle one’s faith rather than how to analyze religion. Indeed, many university faculty taught that skepticism was an end in itself. However, I disagree that foundational principles “must simply be believed.” I think they can be proved, if not to a certainty, then beyond a reasonable doubt. Donald T. Fairburn
Wilmington, N.C.
Critical thinking is not altogether a bad idea. Critical thinking skills keep me from assimilating cultural norms, buying everything advertised on TV, believing every politician, and blindly absorbing every statistic. Kim Moore
Bay Village, Ohio
As a schoolteacher who loves to impart the value of critical thinking, your article reemphasized for me the even greater importance of instilling biblical presuppositions. Thanks. Josh Davis
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“Arenas of service” (Aug. 28) Thank you to Gene Edward Veith for the helpful reminder that, as a stay-at-home mom, all my little services to my 1-yearold son are not insignificant. Luther’s comment that “changing a baby’s diaper is holy work” makes me laugh—and almost cry with relief. Esther J. Ender Verona, Wis.
Corrections Glen Beck headlined a Right Nation 2010 event in Chicago on Sept. 18 (Looking Ahead, Sept. 11, p. 10). In the 2008 election, four of Nebraska’s electoral votes went to John McCain and one went to Barack Obama, making Nebraska a red state (“Indebted index,” Sept. 11, p. 12).
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Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation Date of filing: October 1, 2010. Title of publication: WORLD. Publication no.: 763010. Frequency of publication: biweekly. No. of issues published annually: 26. Annual subscription price: $49.95. Location of known office of publication: WORLD Magazine, PO Box 2330, Asheville, Buncombe Co., NC 28802-2330. Mailing address of the headquarters or general business office of the publisher: WORLD Magazine, 85 Tunnel Rd Ste 12, Asheville, NC 28805. Mailing address of publisher, editor, managing editor: Publisher: Nickolas S. Eicher, P.O. Box 20002, Asheville, NC 28802-2330; Editor: Mindy Belz, P.O. Box 20002, Asheville, NC 28802-2330; Managing Editor: Timothy Lamer, P.O. Box 20002, Asheville, NC 28802-2330. Owner: God’s World Publications, 85 Tunnel Rd. Ste 12, Asheville, NC 28805-1286. Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities: W.H. Newton III, 30505 Bainbridge Road, Solon, OH 44139; Jeannie Pascale, 680 Meandering Way Fairview, McKinney, TX 75069; Russel B. Pulliam Living Trust, 1025 W. 52nd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46228; Strassner Investment Limited Partnership LTD, 2802 Cedar Woods Pl., Houston, TX 77068; Raymon & Ladeine Thompson, 286 Buffalo Hills Dr., Kalispell, MT 59901; Peter H. Miller, F/B/O Mathew Peter Miller, 518 Devon Road, Moorestown, NJ 08057; Rosemary H. Miller, F/B/O Mary Patricia Miller, 518 Devon Rd, Moorestown, NJ 08057: Kristin M. Ryan, F/B/O Luke Howard Ryan, 2529 Pine Street, Cinnaminson, NJ 08077; Kristin M. Ryan, F/B/O Dalton Peter Ryan, 2529 Pine Street, Cinnaminson, NJ 08077. Total number of copies printed (net press run): average for last year: 121,053; last issue: 132,074. Paid circulation: Mail subscription: average for last year: 114,974; last issue: 108,345. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors and counter sales: average for last year: 498; last issue: 2,850. Free distribution by mail and other means: average for last year: 5,231; last issue: 20,319. Total distribution: average for last year: 120,703; for last issue: 131,514. Copies not distributed: average for last year: 350; last issue: 560. I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete. —Nick Eicher, Publisher
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Andrée Seu
krieg barrie
78 degrees
L
The wonderful improbability of a perfect autumn day
et me sing the miracle of 78 degrees Fahrenheit! Is there a greater proof of Intelligent Design? Here in Glenside, Pa., we had a string of such days in late summer, and I thought to myself as I reveled in this sweet spot—this perfect confluence of earth’s ambience and my skin’s felicity—“Breathes there a man so brutish that he cannot see the finger of God?” There is something about 78 degrees. It is not 68, which is fine but holds a hint of a chill. It is not 88, which is bearable but rumors discomfort in the opposite direction. The red dye hovering two thin lines below 80 on my kitchen wall thermometer is the zone of delight. It must surely be the climate of the Garden of Eden, and will surely be again when Christ returns. What people don’t realize who emerge from their houses, briefcase-laden, on bracing mornings into a 78-degreebound day is that the odds against a 78-degree ecstasy are almost insuperable. And I am not speaking primarily about physics, though that in
Email: aseu@worldmag.com
itself was no shabby feat on God’s part. I will here dispense with that easy subject first, since it is already well-known: They say there are 100 billion galaxies, each with 100 billion stars, give or take a few billion. The point is that for one of them to support life— let alone delicious 78-degree days—there are 100 things that must be precisely right. A little “oops” and we are either popsicles or burnt toast. Our Milky Way galaxy spins its spiral arms at half a million miles an hour (and I am not a bit dizzy). There is a lot of spinning going on within its internal spare parts as well, but much of it to no avail for lovers of autumn strolls. For instance, Venus spins too slowly (eight months per rotation). And, perversely, it spins in the opposite direction of the other planets in our system (like that one kid at the rollerskating rink who skates counter-clockwise against the tide). This gives our nearest planetary neighbor an atmospheric pressure 90 times ours. Its clouds also drip sulfuric acid, and its surface temperature (close to 900 degrees Fahrenheit) is not even in my personal tolerable range of 35 to 90 degrees. Glenside’s 78-degree fest was the result of a medium star at just the right distance from Glenside. It was also the result of a balanced diffusion of solar energy thanks to several ingenious built-in features—like Earth’s stable 23-degree axis of rotation, which modulates the temperature difference between the poles and the equator. Then there is the shape of Earth, which obliges us with the strategically placed Himalayas in Asia, the Taurus Mountains in Turkey, and the European Alps, a series of speed bumps to thwart renegade air currents. But all that is child’s play, something God can do with one hand tied behind His back. Now to the real challenge: Beyond the staggering mathematical improbability of 78 is the infinitely compounded miracle that this external environment should be experienced by a sentient being as pleasing—that it should trace a smile across my face as I sip my morning tea. For we are not, finally, dealing here only with the realm of the physical and chemical, but with the realm of that immaterial phenomenon that philosophers call consciousness. Sun and radiation and lunar gravitation have as much to do with consciousness as a thought has to do with a screwdriver. There is a chasm fixed between them. It’s what Darwinists don’t get— while they scribble their theses against God in fine 78-degree weather. A O C T O B E R 2 3 , 2 0 1 0 W O R L D
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Marvin Olasky
Gentle professionals A depressing and impressive trip to an emergency room in New York
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W O R L D O C T O B E R 2 3 , 2 0 1 0
Email: molasky@worldmag.com
Kasia E. Mowny for world
hat’s healthcare like for the poor? I’ve visited low-cost Christian health clinics in New Jersey, Illinois, Florida, Mississippi, and other states, but my experience with big city emergency rooms was mediated through ER, Grey’s Anatomy, and similar fantasies—or that’s how I saw them. Recently, though, I was able to spend 6 p.m. to midnight in the emergency wing of New York City’s government-funded Bellevue Hospital—and what I saw was both depressing and impressive. First, some Bellevue background. It’s the oldest public hospital in the United States (founded in 1736). It’s open to patients of all backgrounds, irrespective of ability to pay or citizenship status. It handles a half-million patients per year, about 80 percent of them from “medically underserved populations,” i.e., poor. One hundred thousand of them flow into the ER. What struck me, observing for six hours, is how much a real emergency room is like ER the television show. Constant action and sound. One patient on a cot looks like someone has taken a bat to the top of his head. The doctor is telling the man that he has staples in his head and should come back in 10 days to have them removed: “Do you understand? Do your hear me? Come back in 10 days.” A homeless man keeps yelling: “Yo, nurse. Yo, nurse. Nurse! Can’t I get some [expletive] food?” I hung out with lots of alcoholics, addicts, and prisoners. The door opens: It’s a police officer with a man in handcuffs. Door opens again: Another policeman comes through with a dude in leg restraints. Most patients are patient—some of them come in drunk and quickly fall asleep—but some demand to be seen before others whose need is more urgent. A nurse calls for security as a patient lunges at a doctor. Not a pretty picture of humanity, but this is apparently nothing new at Bellevue. Impoverished composer Stephen Foster—Oh! Susanna, Camptown Races, Swanee River, Beautiful Dreamer—died there alone at age 37 in 1864, carrying a worn leather wallet that included three pennies and a scrap of paper saying, “Dear friends and gentle hearts.” Twenty years ago
doctors estimated that as many as 80 percent of the patients operated on at Bellevue had AIDS. What astounded me, though, were the doctors, nurses, and other staffers. No one there knew I’m a journalist—the known presence of a reporter sometimes turns angry people into sweet actors—but in six hours I saw nothing from the staff but gentle professionalism. Staff members did not raise their voices when shouted at. They quietly explained that amid two life-threatening traumas the wait for a CAT scan would be a little longer. My experience with emergency rooms is so limited that I can’t rightly assess the level of service, but New York magazine gave it a No. 1 rating for Emergency Medicine in 2006—this, in comparison with uptown hospitals that have a high percentage of affluent patients. The place was also clean, given its usage. A designated mopper quickly swabbed up blood from the floor and tidied up a bathroom after some vomiting. Some conclusions from these six hours of observation and some supplementary research: 1. It’s harder to be a doctor or a nurse in an emergency room or an inner-city clinic than in suburban offices with generally genteel customers. People in jobs who must take on all comers, including some who are obnoxious and may be dangerous, are worthy of double honor. 2. Reports suggest that medical schools are not graduating enough primary care and emergency physicians to fill needs. Rather than moving toward the organizational and financial constraints of socialized medicine, we should find ways to make the practice of front-line medicine more attractive. 3. Instead of uprooting our entire medical system, we should expand local clinics: Patients would save time and taxpayers would save money. Last year, according to the National Association of Community Health Centers, clinics—including Christian ones— cared for more than 18 million patients (70 percent of them with low incomes by federal standards) in more than 6,300 communities. 4. Democratic talking points aside, a lack of health insurance is not the same as a lack of quality healthcare. (See p. 28 for former Sen. Rick Santorum’s thoughts on healthcare.) A
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