Senate and House races // Carolina showdown
OCTOBER 29, 2016
TIME TO STEP ASIDE What applied to Bill Clinton in 1998 applies to Donald Trump in 2016 NEW
MEET MARTIN LUTHER
He was the most infl uential man of his day. The movement that began with his posting of the Ninety-
Five Theses reshaped Europe, redirected Christian history, and recovered the truth of God’s Word. Five hundred years later, what is Luther’s legacy? In this volume, R.C. Sproul, Stephen J. Nichols, and thirteen other scholars and pastors examine his life, teaching and enduring infl uence. Meet Martin Luther, the audacious Reformer who, out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light, set the world ablaze.
Now available in digital and print editions wherever books are sold.
LegacyofLuther.com CONTENTS | October 29, 2016 • Volume 31 • Number 22
4 17 30
46 50
FEATURES DISPATCHES 4 News / Human Race / 30 Swing low Quotables / Quick Takes With all eyes on swing states, a moderate North Carolina governor endures an extreme outside effort to discredit an entire state— and perhaps tip a presidential election CULTURE 17 Movies & TV / Books / 36 Up in the air Children’s Books / Q&A / Music Control of the U.S. Senate remains in doubt as Democrats stand with Clinton and Republicans cope with Trump NOTEBOOK RACES TO WATCH: Consequential congressional races and 55 Technology / Sports / ballot initiatives across the country Science / Money 42 Keeping Hong Kong free Pressing for self-rule while China tries to wield more control VOICES 3 Joel Belz 46 Life in the bush 14 Janie B. Cheaney Finding tightknit, resourceful, hurting communities amid the stunning Alaska landscape 28 Mindy Belz 61 Mailbag 50 Serious laughter 63 Andrée Seu Peterson New and popular satire site The Babylon Bee tries to cut through superficiality to hard truths 64 Marvin Olasky
ON THE COVER: Photo by Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images
35TH Celebrating 35 years of faithful reporting. Donate now: wng.org/worldmovers ANNIVERSARY NOTES FROM THE CEO
“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world and those who dwell therein.” When I was a kid, the only news I read was sports news. So, of course, I loved —Psalm 24:1
Sports Illustrated. What I liked best were the football and basketball double issues, Chief Content Officer Nick Eicher and I wasn’t alone. Setting aside its swimsuit issue, which my parents wisely set Editor in Chief Marvin Olasky Senior Editor Mindy Belz aside from me, these seasonal special issues were overwhelming reader favorites. Likewise, in our most recent member survey, we discovered—among other Editor Timothy Lamer things—that our two most popular issues of WORLD Magazine were our News of National Editor Jamie Dean the Year and our summer Books issue. We also Managing Editor Daniel James Devine Art Director David K. Freeland found that you readers particularly value WORLD’s Associate Art Director Robert L. Patete Washington Bureau Chief J.C. Derrick in-depth feature stories. So we’ve decided to expand Reporters Emily Belz • June Cheng the size of those two winter and summer favorites— Sophia Lee • Angela Lu Senior Writers Janie B. Cheaney • Susan Olasky increase the overall page count and also include the Andrée Seu Peterson • John Piper Edward E. Plowman • Cal Thomas • Lynn Vincent other features of the magazine that you enjoy most. Correspondents Sandy Barwick • Megan Basham Julie Borg • Anthony Bradley • Bob Brown To pay for that expansion, we’ll combine two James Bruce • Tim Challies • Michael Cochrane John Dawson • Mary Jackson • Jill Nelson regular-size issues to create a double News of the Arsenio Orteza • Jae Wasson • Emily Whitten Year issue, and we’ll do the same to create a double Mailbag Editor Les Sillars Executive Assistant June McGraw summer Books issue. Truth be told, doubling up Editorial Assistants Kristin Chapman Amy Derrick • Mary Ruth Murdoch those issues more than pays for itself. But in a world Graphic Designer Rachel Beatty of tradeoffs, we’d much prefer plowing those savings Illustrator Krieg Barrie Digital Production Assistant Arla J. Eicher into more and better content—in print, digital, and radio—than paying the postman. Website wng.org With WORLD Magazine, then, the next few Executive Editor Mickey McLean weeks are going to be packed: after this issue, we have one more pre-election issue, Managing Editor Leigh Jones Assistant Editors Kiley Crossland then we have the post-election issue. By then, we may have had our fill of political Lynde Langdon • Dan Perkins Reporters Onize Ohikere • Evan Wilt news, so the next issue will be our annual (and also popular) Daniel of the Year Correspondents La Shawn Barber • Gaye Clark Laura Finch • Samantha Gobba • Anna K. Poole issue, followed by the double-issue News of the Year. Bonnie Pritchett • Julia A. Seymour And not to get too far ahead of ourselves, but we plan to follow our News of the Editorial Assistant Whitney Williams Year issue with our annual (and also popular) pro-life Roe v. Wade issue. That’s a good run of meaty magazines. It would be a good time to start a gift membership Website wng.org/radio Executive Producer/Cohost Nick Eicher for a friend. Just sayin.’ Senior Producer/Cohost Joseph Slife Correspondents Paul Butler • Kent Covington Jim Henry • Mary Reichard • Sarah Wedel Producers Johnny Franklin • Carl Peetz (technical) Christina Darnell • Kristen Eicher (field) Kevin Martin Listening In Warren Cole Smith • Rich Roszel [email protected]
Chief Executive Officer Kevin Martin Founder Joel Belz Development Pierson Gerritsen • Debra Meissner Marketing Jonathan Woods Technology Greg Groppe CONTACT US: 800.951.6397 WNG.ORG Advertising Partnerships Michael Schuerman / Ryan Banko • Matt Blahnik Follow us on Twitter: @WORLD_mag Member Services Alison Foley • Summer Langford Matthew Miller • Nicole Miller • Brandi Sagar Follow us on Facebook KIDS’ AND TEENS’ PUBLICATIONS TO BECOME A WORLD MEMBER, GIVE A GIFT MEMBERSHIP, CHANGE Website wng.org/children ADDRESS, OR ACCESS OTHER MEMBER ACCOUNT INFORMATION: Publisher Howard Brinkman Editor Rich Bishop Email [email protected] Online wng.org/account (current members) or members.wng.org (to become a member) world journalism institute Website worldji.com Phone 800.951.6397 (within the United States) or 828.232.5260 (outside the U.S.) Dean Marvin Olasky Monday-Friday (except holidays), 9 a.m.-7 p.m. ET Associate Dean Edward Lee Pitts Write WORLD, PO Box 20002, Asheville, NC 28802-9998 BOARD of directors John Weiss (chairman) FOR BACK ISSUES, REPRINTS, OR PERMISSIONS: William Newton (vice chairman) Mariam Bell • Kevin Cusack • Peter Lillback Back issues 800.951.6397 Howard Miller • Russell B. Pulliam • David Skeel Reprints and permissions 828.232.5415 or [email protected] David Strassner • Ladeine Thompson Raymon Thompson WORLD occasionally rents subscriber names to carefully screened, like-minded organizations. If you would prefer not to receive these promotions, please call customer service and ask to be placed on our DO NOT RENT list. MISSION STATEMENT To report, interpret, and illustrate the news in a timely, accurate, enjoyable, and arresting fashion from a perspective committed to WORLD (ISSN 0888-157X) (USPS 763-010) is published biweekly (26 issues) for $59.95 per year by God’s World Publications, the Bible as the inerrant Word of God. (no mail) 12 All Souls Crescent, Asheville, NC 28803; 828.232.5260. Periodical postage paid at Asheville, NC, and additional mailing offices.Printed in the USA. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. © 2016 WORLD News Group. All rights reserved. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to WORLD, PO Box 20002, Asheville, NC 28802-9998. VOICES Joel Belz
But is it really appropriate to apply a label like “bad people” to a couple of folks like Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump? Are they really any more to be feared and deplored and dismissed than the traditional candidates the two big polit- ical parties have typically rolled out every four years? I suggest, with the increasing evidence of October semi-surprises, that the answer is yes. A ballot of The simple statistical fact is that roughly two-thirds of the U.S. citizenry thinks in severely negative terms about one or the other deplorables of the two; and over half of all likely voters have REFLECTIONS ON A TERRIBLE CAMPAIGN, a distinctly downbeat view of both Clinton and Trump. These are not just casual prejudices WHICH CRUDITY HAS MADE EVEN WORSE against both Clinton and Trump; they are sharp expressions of angry disapproval. With just a few days left before the most Again and again, the public has R disconcerting, perplexing, and gut- used the word “corrupt” to wrenching presidential election in the last describe two candidates they can several generations, take comfort in this: A barely tolerate. sovereign God is not at a loss to do now what These aren’t just casual dis- He has done so often in other confusing times. agreements. It’s not just that He uses bad people. Clinton has fanciful but unwork- It would be nice to think otherwise. Or, at able ideas about Obamacare, or least, it would be nice to think it’s only when that Trump still talks about build- despots use force to ensure their rule that ing a wall across northern Mexico. ordinary people have to put up with evil lead- Differences like those are out there ers. But now we know that even when millions year after year, debate after debate, of seemingly “good” citizens are handed the election after election. They are high privilege of selecting their own leaders, the stuff of traditional American they still choose bad people. politics. You hear everyone expressing the same Nobody likes I suggest, on the other hand, that even in our bewilderment. The media are full of dismay. highly secularized and increasingly irreligious How could so great a nation be reduced to two to be lied to— age, a whole lot of folks are grasping desperately such miserable candidates? In casual conversa- but both for a little bit of discretion, sanity, and order. tions, at the watercooler at the office, or at Clinton and Nobody likes to be lied to—but both Clinton and church, people are asking the same question Trump lie with impunity. The general public with disbelief: Are we really investing a billion Trump lie may not consider themselves to be pro-lifers, dollars in a process that even now has failed to with but they’re not ready either for Clinton’s full- tell us who is the lesser of two evils? Or, as impunity. throttle embrace of the abortion lobby. We live analyst Charles Krauthammer described it so in an age that is hardly genteel, but folks may vividly, to watch a wild race to the bottom of not be ready either for the embarrassing sexual the barrel in which the second to arrive is the crudities that Trump can’t seem to shake. winner? Those crudities appear to have sunk the If you have any doubts about whether God’s Trump candidacy. Maybe his 2005 videotape purposes include such people, think about reminds all of us to stop, take stock, and listen Joseph’s brothers. “You meant it for evil,” to the admonition of the Apostle James: Look Joseph told them, “but God meant it for good.” often in the mirror, he says, and take time for an Or how could Pharaoh ever have dreamed (he inventory. We can apply that to individuals, did have dreams, you know!) that his strong- political parties, nations, and WORLD itself. arm tactics would end up freeing half a million The inventory of this presidential campaign is Jewish slaves, wrecking the Egyptian economy not pretty. Turn the page to see one way it could for centuries? With those two examples, we’ve become better, but we know that’s unlikely. We touched on only two books of the Bible. God’s are all likely to face severe handicaps next pattern of using bad people rolls all the way month in the voting booth, as God tends to see
SAUL LOEB/AP through. to it that we get the leaders we deserve. A
[email protected] October 29, 2016 • WORLD Magazine 3 DISPATCHES News / Human Race / Quotables / Quick Takes
News late, and a Congress that lets them get away with it. For many, Hillary Clinton’s platform is reason enough to support Trump. Unfit for power They and we see big media dumping on him and minimizing her offenses. Some IT’S TIME FOR DONALD TRUMP TO STEP ASIDE conservative anti-Trumpism looks AND MAKE ROOM FOR ANOTHER CANDIDATE suspiciously like intellectual snobbery. by Marvin Olasky & The Editors Nor is Trump unique: John F. Kennedy was also a frequent adulterer. (Kennedy—sadly—made sin look like Eighteen years ago, a WORLD have high regard. We know they are not sophistication.) R cover pictured President Bill the “deplorables” Hillary Clinton The prime reason evangelicals tend Clinton next to the headline, “Time to despises. They are courageous to support Trump is pragmatic. A resign.” Clinton had denied having a Americans who realize the desperate White House Clinton-to-Gore transi- sexual relationship with Monica situation we’re in because of judges and tion 18 years ago would have made little Lewinsky, but her stained blue dress executive branch appointees who legis- difference in worldview—but if Hillary bearing Clinton’s DNA was proof that Clinton wins next month, her judicial he had used his power for adulterous appointments will turn federal courts Stills from the scandalous 2005 video purposes, and then lied about it. featuring a lewd conversation between much more aggressively to the left. This month a videotape showed Trump and TV reporter Billy Bush Our regular surveys of evangelical Donald Trump making lewd remarks leaders during the primary about groping women’s genitals. While season showed almost no many opponents over the past year have support for Donald Trump. criticized Trump’s character, the video Only when Clinton became gave us new information about how the alternative did Trump Trump views power as a means to grat- gain majority evangelical TRUMP: SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES • VIDEO STILLS FROM THE WASHINGTON POST WASHINGTON THE FROM STILLS • VIDEO IMAGES PLATT/GETTY SPENCER TRUMP: ify himself. It raised further questions support in public opinion about how Trump would act if elected polls. Joel Belz early on had to the most powerful office in the world. called Trump “an arrogant Although WORLD over its 30 years blowhard” (Sept. 19, 2015), has been more critical of Democrats and we did not hop on the than Republicans, particularly because pro-Trump bandwagon but of the abortion issue, we are not parti- continued to report the good san. The standards we applied to Bill and the bad. Clinton in 1998 are relevant to Donald Besides, WORLD is a Trump in 2016. A Clinton resignation product of God’s World would have been good for America’s Publications, which as a moral standards in 1998. A Trump step- nonprofit organization aside would be good for America’s cannot endorse candidates. moral standards in 2016. It’s still not too That’s not our job, anyway. late to turn the current race between Journalistically, our goal is two unfit major party candidates into a to inform our readers, whom contest fit for a great country. we trust to make wise decisions. Theologically, a ` We know our suggestion that Trump deacon told me when I step aside will dismay many of his professed faith in Christ 40 evangelical supporters, for whom we years ago, “People often will
4 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016
DISPATCHES News
disappoint you, but Jesus never will.” That’s been true over the decades, and our edito- rial staff members have learned to put no trust in princes even when they show good character, let alone when they do not. As individuals, though, our editorial staff members have taken positions. We’ve tended to be #NeverHillary. A few of us were #NeverTrump. Several of us wanted to give Trump every oppor- tunity to represent well an uprising much needed in American politics. We know that few Democrats and only some Republicans abide by the Constitution. They make up rules as they go along, put into practice cranky ideas marinated at Two nominees unfit for office spar during commander, I aggressively prosecuted leading universities, and demonize the Oct. 9 presidential debate. Airmen who sexually assaulted women. opponents. As the father of two college-aged We’ve seen how the problems go under extreme pressure. We should women, I know too well the challenges beyond politics. Many corporations consider third party candidates as well. they’re facing daily in regards to profit not by producing better products This is not a year for early voting.” groping, lewd conduct, etc. Trump’s but by influencing regulators. Equality We’ve been reluctant to applaud comments reveal an arrogant lack of of law and opportunity disappears as those who call for a definitive no on character.” protected groups have their way. Two- Trump because, as our republic has Didn’t Trump’s earlier comments thirds of Americans have come to turned imperial, it needs the vigorous also reveal that? Sure. We value believe that our leaders are corrupt. shaking that Trump supporters would WORLD readers who concluded earlier Democrats may have chosen Bernie provide, even as their candidate has that the honor of Christ made it neces- Sanders if their party leaders had faltered. Scholar Angelo Codevilla put sary for Christians not to vote for played fair. A plurality of Republicans it graphically concerning both Trump Trump. We also value those who still voted for Trump’s combination of anti- and Sanders voters: “Because this plan to vote for Trump so as to vote for establishment noise with claims that majority sees no one in the political the Supreme Court. (We’re not sure we bringing back good old days would be mainstream who shares their concerns, should trust Trump to come through easy. because it lacks confidence that the sys- on nominations: If a person is unfaith- After the July Republican and tem can be fixed, it is eager to empower ful to his spouse, he’s also likely to be Democratic conventions, I noted that whoever might flush the system and unfaithful to his country.) “Trump is generally reckless and its denizens with something like an The new video pushed theologian Clinton generally ruthless. … Trump is a ungentle enema.” Wayne Grudem to withdraw his proud adulterer. Clinton is a proud endorsement of Trump and urge him to pro-abortionist. Since character counts, ` What’s changed now? Ken Rizer, a drop out of the presidential race. The both will almost certainly be presiden- military man serving in the Iowa House videotape, in the words of Albert LOCHER/AP JOHN tial failures. … Let’s not rush the process. of Representatives, summarized the Mohler, president of The Southern We have three more months (and three videotape’s impact: “Given this recent Baptist Theological Seminary, presidential debates) in which to see release, I have decided I can’t in good “revealed a sexual predator, not merely how these two candidates operate conscience vote for [Trump]. As a base a playboy.”
6 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016 BY THE NUMBERS
In suggesting that Trump drop out and let someone else carry the cam- paign for the remaining weeks, we at WORLD are not endorsing any other Republican and certainly not Hillary Clinton. We also realize Trump is unlikely to heed our call. We’re aware of the practical difficulties in making a The number of mourners killed when Saudi Arabian coalition warplanes bombed a funeral in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa, an apparent change at this point. 140 attempt to target Shiite Houthi rebels. Yet, even with ballots printed and early voting already underway in many states, the Electoral College chooses the president. Despite some confusion, a Republican other than Trump still could triumph, given Clinton’s unpopu- $909 million larity. We have repeatedly provided The amount the federal government spent last year on advertising and public information about her malfeasance: relations contracts, according to the Government Accountability Office. See, for example, our June 11 and Sept. 17 cover stories. Improbable that a new Republican candidate could win this election: yes. Impossible, no. In any event, to quote Mohler, we should not “allow a national disgrace to become the Great Evangelical Embarrassment.” We should not abandon our witness to the world that God is real: Glorifying God by honoring His standards is worth more than political gain.
` We know that many Christians, including some of our readers, will say The number of threatening clown incidents—including many hoaxes— that given the judicial stakes it’s wrong reported to police in the United States since Aug. 29, according this year to draw a line in the sand. Our to the International Business Times. call for a different Republican candidate will lose us some readers and donors. 14 But, standing before God, we cannot say that what WORLD argued concern- ing a Democrat in 1998 should not apply to a Republican in 2016. $9 million As the Clinton precedent shows, we The amount paid at auction in Dubai by businessman Balwinder Sahani for set the stage for even worse behavior a rare vanity license plate for one of his Rolls-Royce automobiles. when we ignore blatant offenses. Our journalistic task is to call powerful peo- ple to account, regardless of their party, regardless of the politics of the moment. We don’t know if God will rescue our nation from the pit into which our politics have fallen. We don’t know if He will rescue WORLD from the ire some Trump supporters will feel. We hope and pray that He will—but if He doesn’t, He is still God, holding the The number of passes Dallas Cowboys rookie quarterback Dak Prescott future of individuals and nations in His had thrown135 without an interception, breaking the previous rookie record, hands. May His name be praised forever midway through his week five win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Oct. 9. and ever. A
[email protected] @MarvinOlasky October 29, 2016 • WORLD Magazine 7 DISPATCHES Human Race
they did not offer abortion referrals. But U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis on Oct. 4 ruled the require- ment violated the centers’ free speech rights. Alliance Defending Freedom said the case created a “persua- sive precedent to defend free speech” for other pregnancy centers. Died U.K. resident Karam Chand died in late September, one month short of his 111th birthday—ending what was believed to be the world’s longest living marriage. Chand and his wife, Kartari, 103, were married for 90 years, since their Devastated fighting charges in a senior at the Alabama wedding in 1925. Family Hurricane Matthew ripped Russian court that he broke school. Ogle, 17, suffered a members told the media through Haiti in early the country’s new anti- fractured skull and brain October, destroying homes evangelism law. Russian trauma after multiple and crops, killing at least authorities arrested the people attacked him in an 1,000 persons, and displac- 55-year-old missionary on empty parking lot after a ing thousands of others. Aug. 14, charging him with high-school football game The full extent of the conducting an illegal on Sept. 30. Police say the hurricane’s damage in the religious service in his crime may have been poorest country in the home and adver- racially motivated. Americas was still tising a worship Ogle is white, and unknown a week after the service in a the four suspects storm, with damaged roads public place. are African- limiting access to some of Ossewaarde American males the hardest-hit areas in the began mission- between the ages southwest. Aid workers ary work in of 18 and 20. Ogle’s also feared a rise in cholera Russia more than mother told reporters cases, as the flooding had two decades ago. Although the attack occurred after increased the risk of con- his fine for breaking the her son had posted pro- taminated drinking water. new law amounts to only a police comments online. UN soldiers accidentally little over $600, he is brought the disease into appealing the penalty in Decided Haiti in the aftermath of the name of religious A federal judge in Maryland the couple never argued OSSEWAARDE: HANDOUT • OGLE: FACEBOOK • OGLE: HANDOUT OSSEWAARDE: the 2010 earthquake. After freedom. ruled in favor of pro-life and had supported each leaving Haiti, the weak- workers in a free speech other through long years ened Hurricane Matthew case that pitted the city of together that included an Arrested CHAND: YORKSHIRE POST/SWNS hit the southeastern United Police on Oct. 11 Baltimore against immigration from India HAITI: DIEU NALIO CHERY/AP NALIO DIEU HAITI: States, causing severe charged four for- pregnancy resource and the raising of a large flooding and killing at least mer students of centers. The city family. In an interview last 38. Sylacauga High had passed an year, the couple explained School with ordinance requir- their methods for a long Appealed assault in the ing the pregnancy life and peaceful marriage: An American pastor, brutal beating resource centers healthy food, contentment, Donald Ossewaarde, is of Brian Ogle, a to post signs saying and moderation.
8 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016 Celebrating 35 years of faithful reporting. Donate now: wng.org/worldmovers 35TH ANNIVERSARY
Holiday DR World 10.16.indd 1 8/25/16 5:40 PM Holiday DR World 10.16.indd 1 8/25/16 5:40 PM DISPATCHES Quotables
‘The old name would cause some confusion ‘Don’t be because people would think that sad because the church was free from evangelicals, it’s over. Smile which is not the case at all.’ because it JERRY CARLIN, pastor of the 5 KING • MCBRIDE: HANDOUT CHURCH: SPRINGS • THE MEDICINE OF COLLEGE EINSTEIN ALBERT • VIJG: DWYER/AP MICHAEL • GINSBURG: IMAGES DUNN/GETTY SCULLY: STEPHEN former First Evangelical Free Church in Springfield, Mo., on happened.’ the church changing its name Sportscaster VIN SCULLY on Oct. 2, during his to The Springs Church. final inning of announcing, after 67 years as baseball announcer for the Brooklyn and then Los Angeles Dodgers.
‘I think it’s ‘Like putting a dumb and Volkswagen bug disrespectful.’ against a Mack U.S. Supreme Court Justice RUTH truck.’ BADER GINSBURG on San Francisco STACEY McBRIDE, mother of a Granite Falls (Wash.) High 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick School football player, on her and other athletes refusing to 14-year-old son potentially stand for the national playing against Archbishop anthem (see page 57).
‘It seems extremely difficult if not impossible to break Murphy High School players through that ceiling.’ who weigh over 300 pounds. JAN VIJG, a geneticist at the Albert Einstein College The Archbishop Murphy team of Medicine in New York, on the likelihood of extending has six players who weigh over 250 pounds and three who life spans beyond the modern record of 122 weigh over 300 pounds. Granite years. Vijg was one of the researchers Falls is one of three teams to for an article on the subject in forfeit games to Archbishop the journal Nature. Murphy this season due to safety concerns.
10 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016 Celebrating 35 years of faithful reporting. Donate now: wng.org/worldmovers 35TH ANNIVERSARY
DISPATCHES Quick Takes
Tactless sales tactic It may be the last thing patients of the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre’s cancer ward wanted to see: an advertisement for a funeral home. But managers at the Barrie, Ontario, hospital allowed a funeral home ad on a parking garage gate for cancer patients. “It was very upsetting for all of us,” Lori Waltenbury, who was taking her aunt to chemotherapy, told the Toronto Star. “She was really disheartened [by it].” Waltenbury complained, to no avail, and finally posted a picture of the advertisement on Facebook on Sept. 29. The post was shared 11,000 times and generated a response from the hospital. A spokeswoman said the hospital had apologized to Waltenbury and taken the sign down.
Pothole publicity Angered by the road conditions on her way to work, a Thai woman pro- tested potholes by taking a bath in one. The acclaimed Thai model Palm donned a shower cap and robe before wading into a few large potholes in a road in the nation’s Tak province. As pictures of her protest circulated on social media, the ensuing publicity inspired copycats to take their own pothole baths in the Southeast Asian nation’s degraded roads. Within days of Palm’s protest, the governor of Tak announced that repairs on the potholes would begin immediately. GATE: LORI WALTENBURY • PALM: HA GAREANG/FACEBOOK • SIMMS: ABC NEWS • ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE KRIEG • ILLUSTRATION: NEWS ABC • SIMMS: GAREANG/FACEBOOK HA • PALM: WALTENBURY LORI GATE:
Outlaw for a morning At the age of 102, Edie Simms can finally cross another item off her bucket list: getting arrested. Police in St. Louis took the elderly Simms into custody at a local senior center—at her request—on Sept. 30. Though Simms didn’t break the law, St. Louis police were willing to handcuff her and treat her to a ride in the back of a police cruiser all the same. She returned to the senior center before midday bingo, and the local television station KTVI asked her whether she enjoyed her arrest. “Oh yes,” she said. “Handcuffs and all.”
Trick shot Des Moines, Iowa, police pulled over a fleeing suspect with the help of an unwitting partner: the suspect himself. Police say 24-year-old Taylor Parker managed to shoot out his own tire during a high-speed chase on Sept. 29. Officials say Parker tossed a shotgun out the window, and when the gun hit the ground, it fired off, blowing a hole in Parker’s tire. An officer caught and arrested the suspect when he fled on foot. Police report that the man was apprehended with a “significant quantity” of methamphetamine drugs.
12 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016 C-SPAN: HANDOUT • ROOSTER: SHARON HUGHES • ANGELINI: MONTGOMERY COUNTY POLICE • MERCY CAPITAL: HANDOUT • DONNELLY: FRANK FRANKLIN II/AP very angryjudge. OnSept.26, Pittsburgh MunicipalCourt Judge Oscar If HenryGaston can’t catch hisrooster by Oct.26, he’ll facea afineand Rooster run the on pulled behindhisunmarked police cruiser inaFord ANNIVERSARY 51-year-old Baltimore manwas impersonating a In thefuture, 35 police officer whenhe attempted topull a over County Police detective reported that Angelini plainclothes detective failed to stop, Angelini thendrove away. After the real police officer onSept. 28. AMontgomery detective pulledhimover andarrested himfor impersonating anofficer. Crown Victoria andthenblared asiren. Whenthe TH targets more carefully. Authorities say the detective determined Angelini’s carwas not anofficial vehicle,the Celebrating 35 years of faithful reporting. Police impression John Angelini Angelini John Petite Jr. gave Gaston onemore monthto catch a rooster onhislandthat hasbeen drivingneighbors continuance. crazy for years. Before granting Gaston’s last a netbefore granting Gaston onelast chance, Petite grilledthePennsylvania prop may want to pickhis The judge suggested trapping theanimalwith erty owner for hisfailure to catch thebird. Gaston pleaded withthejudge, saying the attempts to poison therooster have failed. animal isnot hisandnoting hisprevious Donate now: wng.org/worldmovers on airplanemodeto sleep. Diaz—she hasunlimited texting—but shesaidhadto putthephone was broken orhacked,” Diaztold WJLA. Thefloodof texts didn’t cost more than13,000 text messages and600calls.“Ithought my phone Clinton’s performance. Inundated withresponses, Diaz’s phonefielded on-screen, askingviewers to comment onDonaldTrump andHillary political network inadvertently plastered Tripp Diaz’s cell phonenumber kids say) blow up. DuringtheSept.26presidential debate, thecable A typoonC-SPAN caused oneVirginia woman’s cell phoneto (as the Flood of opinion - had “nointent to manipulate any event.” were unaware ofOlympicrules against sportsbettingand tee didn’t give harsher penaltiesbecause, itsaid,themen and two other boxers for bettingonfights. But the commit The International OlympicCommittee reprimanded Donnelly old Donnellyendedupbeating Byamba onasplitdecision. bet against himself proved foolish, however, as the28-year- would lose hisboutwithTuvshinbat Byamba ofMongolia. The this summer, Donnellyplaced abetwithbookmaker that he ently lacking confidence—before anOlympicboxing match Donnelly In oneboutat the2016 RioOlympics,Irishboxer it on bet Don’t the printingshopisrefusing to fixtheerror by printing “Exterminate beavers!” printed onthem.Makarov said new leaflets, claimingthat noonewillnotice thetypo. How confusing cantheRussian language be? Officials with aRussian charityare upset after atypographical error at aprintshopleft1millionleaflets accidentally Russian-language Christmasleaflets were supposed was both awinnerandloser. Bored—and appar advocating for killingbeavers. According to Mercy Capital foundation spokesman Ivan Makarov, the The charityispreparing alawsuit to recoup the to read, “Dogood!” butinstead cameback with Holiday trappings? roughly $6,000 itpaidfor theprintjob. October 29, 2016 29, October • WORLD Magazine WORLD Steven Steven - - 13 VOICES Janie B. Cheaney
About 2,500 years ago similar voices rang from Babylon and Jerusalem: True worship of the Lord is over; our Temple is in ruins; our children are at risk, and our people know noth- ing about the God of heaven. Then something miraculous happened: Cyrus of Persia defeated the great-grandson of Nebuchadnezzar and took over his empire. The Lord moved the A tent peg in heart of Cyrus to allow the Jews to return to their homeland—even to finance the journey and send along the Temple treasures Nebuchadnezzar stubborn soil had confiscated over 70 years before. It seemed THOUGH BLOWN AND BATTERED, THE their troubles were over. CHURCH OF GOD WILL HOLD SECURE But after the first wave of exiles laid the foundations of a new Temple and celebrated with a curious mix of joy and grief, Rod Dreher, a writer and editor at The the project stalled. The Jews were R American Conservative, is looking into the mocked, sabotaged, and lied about. future and doesn’t like what he sees. “The Their enemies, like tattletales on a Coming Christian Collapse” names three playground, sent complaining and trends that will spell doom for the church in accusing letters back to the king. America unless—well, Dreher sees no “unless.” Being a misunderstood and maligned We’re doomed. group in their own country sapped His first reason is the growing number of their morale. The work on the “nones,” or those who claim no religious Temple stopped and hung in limbo affiliation. According to Pew Research Center, for at least 10 years, with stones two-thirds of millennials who were raised askew and weeds growing up unchurched remain so—if there were a “church between the cracks. You know what of nones,” it would have a higher retention rate despair looks like—an abandoned lot than any other. Second, even those who identify where great plans run to seed. themselves as Christian in this age group are Then Ezra, “a scribe skilled in the illiterate about the Bible and basic doctrine. Even in his law of Moses” and armed with another royal Their religion is therapeutic moralism with a commission, arrived in Jerusalem with a second Jesus polish, unlikely to withstand any serious own moments group of exiles. Ezra, and Nehemiah shortly after challenge. of despair, him, found a people dispirited and compromised. Third, church attendance among the lower Ezra saw the The way back began with the Word of God and economic class has dropped dramatically, and some stern disciplinary action, but soon, row by the middle and upper classes are drifting away, ‘gracious row, the Temple walls rose again. Even in his too. “If we lose [them],” Dreher writes, “we lose hand of the own moments of despair, Ezra saw the “gracious the church.” Since most college students come Lord’ on his hand of the LORD” on his people, “to leave us a from the higher income levels, their drift away remnant and to give us a secure hold within his from church in college is worrisome, given that people. holy place.” “Secure hold” is from the Hebrew for most of them won’t come back. tent peg, a firm anchor for a billowing structure. Dreher speaks from the right. There are also It was enough. By 450 B.C. the Temple was plenty of doom-casters from the left, such as complete. blogger John Pavlovitz who writes blog posts Ezra might see some similarities in today’s like “Church, Here’s Why People Are Leaving church with Jerusalem of his time—the people You.” Much of what Pavlovitz says is true, or mocked, dispirited, directionless, and often true too often: that church has become enter- ignorant of their own tradition. But “collapse”
tainment, that the words Christians use in is an overstatement. First of all, the church is AKG-IMAGES/NEWSCOM conversation sound foreign to outsiders, that not ours. Second, the tent peg that anchors it is church members prefer to retreat inside a the Word of God that endures forever. That’s building than engage their community. But where our attention needs to be, and not so left-leaning Christians also insist that the much on trends and surveys and losses. God’s church must give up her commitment to Ezra in Prayer by people have been here before, and He knows hot-button issues like biblical sexuality. Gustave Dore how to hold them secure. A
14 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016 [email protected] @jbcheaney
Australia
Chile
England
France
Greece
Italy
Zambia
Spanning the globe At Harding University we don’t just talk about global experiences, we provide them. At seven international campuses spanning five continents, Harding students spend a semester studying outside the realm of a traditional classroom encountering different cultures, historic sites, foreign languages and amazing architecture. Nearly 50 percent of students in each graduating class have attended one or more of the international programs, which provide a Christian worldview.
A COMMUNITY OF MISSION
Harding.edu | 800-477-4407 Searcy, Arkansas BARRY WETCHER/STORYTELLER DISTRIBUTION CO. R more hellforherselfthanit though herfurycreates have thewoman scorned, In Rachel( out theirpartswell enough. superficially defined,act Law &Order found onagoodepisodeof is thesamethatcouldbe scenes ofsex andviolence, thriller withhard R-rated on theTrain TODAY WOMEN SO AT MUCH ART AIMED YOUNG TRAIN THE ON GIRL THE joylessand Twisted MOVIE The players, brieflyand be hadfrom The chiefpleasure to [email protected] Emily Blunt , ahard R-rated . CULTURE The Girl Movies &TV ), we
by Meganby Basham @megbasham she doesactually serve a point sleepwithhim.But chance Megan willatsome screen, there’s agood Anytime you seeamanon Megan (Haley Bennett). more beautifulstill is Ferguson). Younger and Impossible husband isAnna( house withRachel’s ex- Rachel andnow lives inher woman whosupplanted younger, more beautiful does foranybody else. The / IS LIKE LIKE IS Books Books ’s Rebecca / Children’s Books Mission: we care littleaboutthe know whathappens, but a whodunit.We want to it’s theshallow curiosity of our curiosityengaged.But surprising enoughtokeep fashion, unfoldinways confusing flashback tions, toldinasometimes- ing events tocome. sets inmotionthedisturb beginning ofthefilmthat her disappearance atthe purpose inthisstory—it’s The twists andrevela / Q&A Q&A - - October 29, 2016 29, October / Music grapples withthelevels of most interesting asshe have children, sheisather marriage andinabilityto and griefover herlost the despairofalcoholism sympathetic. Drowning in baby livinginit,isthemost husband’s newwifeand every day andseesherex- ing hercommutetothecity her own formerhouse dur characters. impact ithasonthe Rachel, whoridesby • WORLD Magazine WORLD - 17 CULTURE Movies & TV
degradation she may or may years. Gone are the materi- not have sunk to during her alistic fantasies of Danielle DOCUMENTARY blackout drunks. Steel, replaced by the self- But despite Blunt’s injuring cynicism of Gillian almost uncomfortably real- Flynn. O.J.: Made in istic performance, the film For all its mediocrity, a spends relatively little time likely unintentional subtext America giving us more of Rachel running through The Girl Those who lived The photos convinced than her sadness. And by on the Train could help R through the O.J. one of Simpson’s close the end, as we come to explain the trend. This is a Simpson saga may think friends to testify against understand her more, even movie constantly preoccu- they’ve heard enough of him at the trial. those things that made her pied by anguish over it. You haven’t, if you Director Ezra Edelman relatable and sympathetic babies. Wanting babies, haven’t seen O.J.: Made in weaves national upheaval are undercut. What we worrying for babies, devas- America, the ESPN 30 for into Simpson’s story. He tation over the loss of 30 documentary that hit cuts together the acquit- babies. television in June but just tal of the police officers At one point a began streaming on Hulu. in the Rodney King beat- The five-part series ing with police officers character demands might be the best thing passively standing by that another get an I’ve seen this year. after Nicole Simpson abortion, and we O.J.: Made in America repeatedly calls 911 for understand that this elevates one man’s story is shorthand, show- to Greek myth, with ing us that the man is Simpson as a mirror for a monster. I doubt our national story. He is the filmmakers the story of our rags to intended the connec- riches, our idolatry of tion, but so much sports, our society of unspoken angst over casual sex, our history of what having and not race, our justice system, Ferguson having babies does to and our sinful, spiraling the heart of women selves. The documenta- come away with is a feeling certainly suggests some- ry’s conclusion brings these societal threads of cold indifference. Much thing about how art tar- back to our eviction from like 2014’s Gone Girl, this is geted at young women Eden. help about the beatings a story awash in bleakness could have grown so “I told him, ‘You’re she is receiving. with very little to hope for twisted and unhappy in the breaking the laws of God Though Edelman in the end. It’s a lot of ugli- last 43 years. A and you’re going to clearly assumes Simpson ness to wallow in for the have to pay for it,’” committed the murders, CO. DISTRIBUTION WETCHER/STORYTELLER BARRY TRAIN: THE ON GIRL THE simple satisfaction of find- says Simpson’s he successfully balances ing out who killed Megan BOX OFFICE TOP 10 childhood friend all sides of the story Hipwell. FOR THE WEEKEND OF OCT. 7-9 Joe Bell at one without agenda. He according to Box Office Mojo
Like Gone Girl, The Girl point, remembering leaves hanging in the air KILLEEN RONAN AND HIGGINS NICK AMERICA: IN MADE O.J.: on the Train is based on a CAUTIONS: Quantity of sexual (S), violent (V), Simpson’s adulter- both racist comments best-selling novel in a genre and foul-language (L) content on a 0-10 scale, ous relationships. from authorities and with 10 high, from kids-in-mind.com being termed “Grip Lit.” Caution: The preposterous defenses S V L That is, excessively sinister series contains curs- of Simpson from his civil `1 The Girl on the Train* R...... 8 6 9 thrillers whose sales are ing and descriptions rights lawyers. `2 Miss Peregrine’s Home for of spousal abuse Edelman’s universal, driven largely by women Peculiar Children* PG-13...... 1 5 3 and Simpson’s mythic telling helps us between the ages of 25 and 3 ..... ` Deepwater Horizon* PG-13 4 7 5 affairs. Later epi- comprehend our country 34. These books and the `4 The Magnificent sodes show the right now. We’ve been Seven* PG-13...... 3 6 4 blockbuster movies they gruesome photos of here before, where the `5 Storks* PG...... 2 3 2 become bring up the inter- the murder scene— societal fabric seems as `6 The Birth of a Nation R...... 5 8 3 esting question of why a perhaps necessary if it’s tearing and every- `7 women’s popular taste in Middle School: The Worst reminder of the evil one is doing right in his Years of My Life PG...... 2 3 3 stories seems to have committed there. own eyes. —by EMILY BELZ `8 Sully* PG-13...... 1 4 5 grown so joyless in recent `9 Masterminds PG-13...... 3 4 5 `10 Queen of Katwe* PG...... 2 3 1
18 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016 *Reviewed by WORLD VOICELESS: AMERICAN HERO MOVIE • BIRTH OF A NATION: FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES See allour movie reviews atwng.org/movies R that theabuse Turner and Parker seems to argue to seems to bendScripture slaveholders itindicts, when thestory, like the the more disturbing sible. But thismakes itall what isbiblicallyindefen lated verses to rationalize then andnow twistiso to lookat how cultures the story forces believers baptize him. on hishead, agrees to wrath itcould bringdown tion, Turner, knowing the the sinofchildmolesta repentant white manfor church shunsabroken, When every established as shepherd seriously. slaves andtakes hisrole preacher to hisfellow to read, Nat becomes a Bible so earnestly. Taught Christian rarely treat the specifically marketed as theology. Even movies elements ofChristian some ofthemostdifficult insightfully illustrates shots ofnudity, violence andseveral brief for extreme historical worth honoring. in 1831, andithasmuch the slave rebellion heled story ofNat Turner and of aNation Birth MOVIE its Writer/director Nate In thisandother ways Despite anRrating aims. Nation The Birthof a tells the Birth
- - - that faith isgrounded in as ahero ofthefaith, hold upa however, that when they questions. Onehopes, treatment ofspiritual would dowell to studyits Christian filmmakers and thought- triumph? held upto acrowd in holder’s hacked-off head film’sslave a image of Jesus’ teaching withthe how canwe reconcile tions exist for justwars, recognizing certain condi love ourenemies.While instead commanded usto and thechurch fathers our Savior did.Yet Jesus most degrading sort, as violence andabuse ofthe followers have endured protection ispalpable. geance rather thanself- but still,thesense ofven ering to asinglewoman, movie reduces thebutch woman, orchild.The white skin,whetherman, revolt spared noonewith wholesale slaughter. His Turner’s motive was from themovie) that (though slightly less clear the facts ofhistory in murder. Itisclear from entitles themto engage his fellow slaves suffer the gospel. Birth From thefirst, Christ’s is apowerful, —by MEGAN BASHAM rvkn film, provoking historical figure - - - - R Voiceless makings ofanother tepid MOVIE pushes himaway and answer her, thewoman muster thewords to in heaven. Whenhecan’t him ifshe’ll see herbaby a young woman whoasks tion center, with hetalks past. Outsidetheabor issues from hischeckered counseling, dueinpart to is Jesse’s klutzysidewalk ments. Also ringingtrue ing many churches’ senti explains to Jesse, mirror aren’t pro-activism,” Gil away parishioners. doesn’t want to drive altogether, saying he has avoided thesubject Pastor Gil(James Russo) from thechurch, but ter sitsacross the street church. Anabortioncen inner-city Philadelphia outreach director ofan job asthecommunity (Rusty Joiner)takes a tour in Afghanistan, Jesse hands alittledirty. the church to get its to abortionwillrequire that effective opposition Pat Necerato intimates ending. Writer/director hero, andnobow-tied gets real—with noangelic Christian drama, “We are pro-life; we Discharged after a that has all the that hasallthe After aslow start Voiceless - - - -
October 29, 2016 29, October Christians feel ill-equipped Like GilandJesse, many walks into thebuilding. mothers. homes to troubled young open theirarmsand to might befor Christians tive) pro-life strategy most extreme (and effec also discovers that the those closest to him.He work often comes from opposition to pro-life finds that thegreatest from hismistakes. He just beginning to learn some violence), Jesse is for thematic material and Voiceless telling risks. ness to take some story show Necerato’s willing an ambiguous finale intervention and tragic Another eyebrows. raise some viewers’ defense) willcertainly guard (arguably inself- abortion center’s security manhandling ofthe hope to convey. Jesse’s image pro-lifers typically biceps doesn’t fitthe Norris withbulging Still, ayoung Chuck offers boxing lessons. the community, in Jesse pregnancies. facing unwanted to minister to women By the end of By theendof To reach outto men (rated PG-13 —by BOB BROWN • WORLD Magazine WORLD (right) Joiner - - - 19 CULTURE Books
Rousseau continues: “The truth is, ISIS is indeed Islamic. And it has more in common with Muhammad and his earliest followers Fast-paced than some of the so-called experts care to admit.” He explains: “ISIS doesn’t cru- Silva cify only because it is cruel, [but because] crucifixion is THE TREADMILL RATING OF one of the prescribed pun- READABILITY by Marvin Olasky ishments for the enemies of Islam. It crucifies because it must.” Later, a Jordanian spymaster describes Obama Book reviewing is novels featuring Gabriel French counterintelligence administration thinking: R entirely subjective, Allon as the main character: agent Rousseau, sputtering “‘Not our problem,’ they yes? No way to quantify He is both a superb restorer about “this folly we called said. ‘We’re putting the how powerful a book is? of classic paintings and an the Arab Spring. Mubarak Middle East in our rearview Yes, there is: 31,000 steps agent/leader of Mossad, the must go! Gaddafi must go! It mirror. No more American in one day as measured by Israeli intelligence agency was madness, absolute wars in Muslim lands.’ And Fitbit, the most I’ve regis- known as the best in the madness. And now we are now look at the situation.” tered in the 15 months that world. left with this. ISIS controls That’s about it for politi- little device has been in my The novels have terrific a swath of territory the size cal commentary, and com- pocket. That’s a bit over 14 characterization, powerful of the United Kingdom. … mentary would not keep me miles, so I can objectively narrative, and pungent com- And what does the going (and sometimes turn- say that Daniel Silva’s The ments on how silly American presi- ing pages slowly, relishing Black Widow (Harper, U.S. politically driven dent tell us? ISIS the writing) for 31,000 steps. 2016), the prompter of such decisions often are. is not Islamic. Thoughtful action and char- frenzied walking, is for me Thankfully, Silva does ISIS is the jayvee acter development can do it, the year’s most gripping not stop the action team. … Does he and Silva is superb in both. novel. too often to have his truly believe this A small warning: Suicide It’s also the latest in a characters give com- drivel?” bombers bring violence, and series of elegantly written mentary—but he does After a little characters five times in 500 and ethically thoughtful spy have one good guy, back-and-forth, pages use expletives.
in intelligent design than matter or Mark Batterson’s Chase the Lion: BOOKMARKS energy. If Your Dream Doesn’t Scare You, It’s George Washington had to absorb Thomas Laqueur’s The Work of Too Small (Multnomah, 2016) is part defeats without becoming defeatist, the Dead (Princeton, 2015) offers of an overused Christian genre: and J.B. Simmons’ The Awakening of 700 scholarly but necessarily maca- story, exhortation, story, exhortation Washington’s Church (2016) clearly bre pages about churchyard and … Still, I have to acknowledge that tells how The Falls Church that cemetery burial over the centuries, Batterson’s stories are pretty good. Washington once attended had to cremation, monuments to the dead, Fred Rosen’s Murdering the walk away from its beautiful build- and more. Rankin Wilbourne’s Union President (Potomac, 2016) shows, ing when Episcopalian hierarchs With Christ (David C. Cook, 2016) is a with true-crime plotting, how sound traded in biblical belief for a new clear delving into the mystery of doctoring could have prevented trinity of Me, Myself, and I. William what it means to walk with God. President James Garfield’s death in Dembski’s Being as Communion: A Malachi Then and Now by Allen Ross 1881. Robert Wuthnow’s Rough Metaphysics of Information (Weaver, 2016) features not only Country: How Texas Became (Ashgate, 2014) sits high up on the sound exegesis but a clear, step-by- America’s Most Powerful Bible-Belt ladder of abstraction, but graduate step introductory explanation of how State (Princeton, 2014) combines GROB MARCO students will follow his argument to do expository preaching and scholarship and a good narrative that information is more important writing. style. —M.O.
20 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016 SCI-FI / FANTASY NOVELS reviewed by John Ottinger III
CROSSTALK Connie Willis AFTERWORD In this hilarious and charming sci-fi romantic comedy, Hugo and Over Labor Day weekend, Nebula awards–winning author Connie Willis warns of the insipid the Southeast’s largest superficiality of our hyperconnected, self-involved, and frantic science fiction convention, social-media-driven culture. Tech-giant employee Briddey is thrilled Dragon Con, gave out the when her fiancé suggests they undergo elective brain surgery to first Dragon Awards. John become empathically connected. A deeper mind-to-mind emotional C. Wright’s Somewhither: bond will only improve their relationship, right? But when Briddey A Tale of the Unwithering wakes up, instead of feeling her partner’s emotions she hears a Realm (Castalia House, voice inside her head—and it isn’t her fiancé. She soon discovers 2015) won for Best Science that instantaneous connection can be more curse than blessing. Fiction Novel. Larry Correia’s Son of the Black Sword (Baen, 2015) won for THE VAGRANT Peter Newman Best Fantasy Novel. The Unable to speak and carrying a crying baby in his arms and a winners are notable because sword at his side, the Vagrant searches for the Shining City. His both Wright and Correia are mission: to deliver the only weapon that can defeat the monstrous outspoken conservatives— body-stealing Usurper, under whose domination men become and conservatives have long physical and moral grotesques. Only the Vagrant’s endless trudge, complained that the presti- built on faith, hope, love, and friendship, lights the darkness. gious Hugo and Nebula Newman’s tale of a man’s struggles through a dark world is an awards are rigged against apocalyptic Pilgrim’s Progress that recognizes the need for a conservatives (see “Notable Savior to remake the sin-tainted morass wrought by Adam’s fall. Books,” July 11, 2015). (Cautions: grotesque imagery and significant violence.) The Dragon Awards also recognized subgenres within science fiction and A SHADOW ALL OF LIGHT Fred Chappell fantasy and gave awards for Written in a florid, almost Elizabethan prose style, World Fantasy best movies (The Martian), Award–winner Fred Chappell’s novel takes a little getting used to, TV shows (Game of but the payoff is worth the effort. Chappell sets this series of Thrones), video games interconnected stories in a world modeled on the Italian (Fallout 4), and board Renaissance. As Maestro Astolfo trains his apprentice Falco in the games (Pandemic Legacy)— rarified art of shadow-stealing, the two exchange witty banter and allowing enthusiasts to see encounter wonderfully mysterious adventures involving aging what the majority of sci-fi beauties seeking lost glories, devious competitors, rich eccentrics, fans enjoy. —J.O. voice-stealing cats, and dread pirates. The book offers sword and sorcery escapades with Shakespearean panache.
AGE OF MYTH Michael J. Sullivan For centuries, humans lived in fear of the immortal Fhrey. When young warrior Raithe accidentally slays one of the Fhrey, he earns the name God Killer. He, the wild seer Suri, and the villager Persephone must defend their home against a vastly superior race, a task complicated by the presence of rebellious Fhrey living within the walls. Fast-paced action, compelling characters, and surprising plot twists make this epic fantasy series irresistibly fun. Sullivan’s knack for exciting action and portrayal of hesitant hero- ism make commendable reading for adults and teens seeking
HANDOUT tales extolling the virtues of friendship and self-sacrifice.
To see more book news and reviews, go to wng.org/books October 29, 2016 • WORLD Magazine 21 CULTURE Children’s Books Contemporary classics REDISCOVERED PICTURE BOOKS by Kristin Chapman
THE SEVEN SILLY EATERS Mary Ann Hoberman In this delightful picture book, Mary Ann Hoberman takes a challenge many parents struggle with—picky eaters— and spins it into an exaggerated but silly story about a mother with seven such children. One drinks only milk, another lemonade, one eats only applesauce, and so AFTERWORD forth. Mrs. Peters runs herself ragged picking, peeling, The Boy Who Drew Birds by straining, scraping, poaching, frying, and kneading. But Jacqueline Davies then on her birthday the children hatch a secret plan and (Houghton Mifflin, 2004) find they must work together to create the best surprise first appeared on bookstore of all. The story is also a great conversation starter about shelves over a decade ago, the importance of everyone pitching in to help as a family. (1997) but this beautiful edition describing the early life and MAMA SEETON’S WHISTLE Jerry Spinelli work of John James This story hearkens back to yesteryear, when children spent Audubon will continue to afternoons playing kick the can or an impromptu round of base- delight young readers ball with other neighborhood kids, instead of crowding around discovering the self-taught a video game console. Mama Seeton discovers a simple whistle artist and naturalist. The is all she needs to gather her brood back each evening for hugs, book’s charm is rooted in kisses, and chocolate cake. The years pass, and Papa and Mama the work of illustrator Seeton are now empty nesters wondering what will bring their Melissa Sweet, who studied four children home again. The book sends a strong message Audubon’s style and tech- about the importance of family ties and reminds readers, “No nique to create warm matter where you go, you can hear the call of home.” (2015) watercolor scenes and collages that echo Audubon’s KISS THE COW! Phyllis Root own drawings. Mama May has “so many children she couldn’t count Sweet also illustrated the them all,” but thanks to her faithful milking cow, Luella, more recently she always has enough milk and cheese to feed her released A hungry children. The secret to the overflowing milk is Splash of Red: Mama May’s ritual of singing to the cow and then The Life and giving her a kiss on her velvety nose. Chaos ensues, Art of Horace however, when little Annalisa disobeys and refuses to Pippin by Jen milk the cow the right way. This story provides a Bryant (Alfred launching point for discussing the consequences of disobedience, selfishness, and stubbornness, although A. Knopf, Christians will wish the resolution showed Annalisa 2013). Sweet making amends for the right reasons. (2000) and Bryant drove to eastern Pennsylvania to study Pippin’s life and art, ZIN! ZIN! ZIN! A VIOLIN Lloyd Moss with Sweet recreating art Introduce young children to the wonder of orchestras with this tools similar to what the lyrical Caldecott Honor Book. Moss uses clever verse and rhyme— self-taught artist would “The strings all soar, the reeds implore, the brasses roar with notes have used. The resulting galore”—to describe 10 instruments found in an orchestra. With the introduction of each instrument and its sound, he highlights illustrations add greater the differences among solos, duets, trios, and more, all the way up depth to the story of a man to the “Encore!” Marjorie Priceman’s vibrant illustrations push the who started with just a HANDOUT story forward, adding energy and excitement to the chorus of piece of charcoal and words. The book creates the perfect segue to turn on some music overcame great personal and enjoy a few orchestra selections together. (1995) challenges. —K.C.
22 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016 To see more book news and reviews, go to wng.org/books
CULTURE Q&A
HERBERT SCHLOSSBERG Idol fighter HOW IDOLATRY IN MANY GUISES LEADS THE WAY TO CULTURAL RUIN by Marvin Olasky photo by Lee Love/Genesis
A third of a century ago Herbert problems that weren’t supposed to concordance to look at all the verses R Schlossberg, now 81, authored happen simultaneously. That was well about idolatry. One that struck me Idols for Destruction, one of the best before these Patrick Henry students came from the prophet Hosea, who overall looks at American culture were born—what else should we looked at the nation of Israel and saw then—and relevant to the present as remind them of? The sexual revolution: sacrifice of babies, just like the pagans. well. He’s also written about Victorian A sense of morality was gone, the Rampant injustice. Hosea said Israelites England. divorce rate was skyrocketing, and chil made idols for their own destruction. Many Christians are depressed now dren were passed around from house to He meant that when people turn to concerning this coming election, but house. The crime rate was skyrocketing. idolatry, their lives change and they are we worse off than at the beginning A tremendous amount of disillusion create conditions such that they will be of the 1980s, when you were research- ment with very low morale. destroyed. That is the theme of the ing this book? The number of abor- You probed the connections book. tions in the United States then rose to between these disparate trends. What are our idols like? In biblical 1.6 million. We had double-digit infla- What did you find out? Idolatry times people really did carve figures tion and double-digit unemployment, seemed part of the story. I used a Bible out of wood or cast them out of bronze
24 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016 [email protected] @MarvinOlasky or gold. They wor artistically it was a fine thing, probably can help keep you on the straight and shipped this physical beautiful. In itself it was just a piece of narrow? thing in front of them. art: What made it evil was that it was What did you learn from your That physical thing lifted up in place of God and worshipped. research into British history? English replaced God. We’re not Something good turned into an evil. society in the 1730s was in very bad talking about a physical A good pastor in New York City, shape. Authorities were saying thing at present, but Tim Keller, defines idolatry as turning Christianity was dead. Then something anything we erect to a good thing into an ultimate thing. happened: the conversion of John replace God. Government is a gift of God, but we Wesley in 1738. In 1739 he and his You wrote about brother Charles started the the idols of Mammon. Methodist movement. Mammon is the biblical Within a few years, lay expression for the ‘Government is a gift of Methodist preachers trav pursuit of money and God, but we turn this gift eled all through England by material possessions foot or by horseback above all things. We of God into something preaching the gospel in have legalized theft: fields and woods, any place Politicians want to buy evil when we misuse it.’ they could gather people our votes with other together. That snowballed people’s money. turn this gift of God into something evil throughout the century. At virtually the That connects with when we misuse it. Liberty is a gift of same time in various parishes in the idols of power. People God, but let’s not turn it into something Church of England, ministers realized learn to get what they evil by elevating it so that it takes the they had not been preaching the want through the exer place of God. Christian gospel, but preaching what cise of power. If they How do we as Christians fight our some called moralism. They themselves want money, they get it own tendency to idolatry? The more were converted, often through a through the taxation basic question is, how can we be obedi personal Bible study, and these studies system, or they get it by ent to God? If we are married, how can spread from church to church until by bribing politicians, so we be faithful to our wife? How can we the end of the century you had a full- everything becomes be good parents? How can we do the blown evangelical movement going. more and more central right thing and not the wrong thing? This was a religious revival that ized. The American It’s living the Christian life. changed social institutions. The Sunday constitutional republic Does government change culture school movement began in the 1780s: founded in the 18th or does the government reflect the Children who would have been unable to century is very different current cultural mindset? Politics is read and write were taught to read and from the federal gov downstream from culture. We elect write, and they were taught by reading ernment now, which foolish and dishonest politicians. We the Bible. Churches began to sing hymns. has powers specifically wouldn’t do that if our culture was Christians wrote books, including novels. denied to it in the healthier. You titled one of your books, The original Constitution. So what’s happening now? Most of Silent Revolution. Why “silent”? This You write about the idols are making us sick in about was a revolutionary age, sometimes “the messianic state.” Jesus Christ is the same way as they were then. There violent, but England had a cultural the Messiah, the Savior, but that term are some positive indications, but some revolution. In the 19th century more has become an adjective: “Messianic” things are getting worse. The homo people read the Bible. New editions can refer to anything that purports to sexual movement was astonishing to were published. Bible studies formed in save us. The messianic state accrues me. I mentioned homosexual marriage parishes. Present-day England, as pagan more power to itself, which we voters in Idols for Destruction in a very nega as it is, is a lot better than it would have willingly give it because we believe that tive way, and treated it as ridiculous. been had that revival not taken place. only the state can save us. Now it’s a constitutional right. Aren’t cultural revolutions the only Do Christians run the risk of idoliz- How can we fight idolatrous real revolutions—the ones that make ing liberty, patriotism, and other temptations? Ask yourself: How well long-lasting change as opposed to the positives? Many idols are good things. do you know the Bible? What is your momentary sensations of people Take the golden calf that Aaron made devotional life like? Who is available to shooting each other? Yes. The normal when the people insisted on it, as talk with if you’re wandering a bit? revolution is one group of tough guys Moses was up on Mount Sinai getting What kind of pastoral help will you get? giving way to another group of tough the law: I consider it a possibility that What friendships have you made that guys, but nothing changes down below. A
Watch a video of this interview in its entirety at wng.org and in the iPad edition of this issue October 29, 2016 • WORLD Magazine 25 CULTURE Music
Weight,” being a fan of American roots music may be enough. “The Band’s Last Waltz concert was an often-cited Folk muse in the studio,” Kimbrough told me. “I told Isaac Wardell [the album’s Psalms producer and arranger] that I WENDELL KIMBROUGH wanted to make a record that sounded like a 1970s gospel OFFERS CONGREGATIONAL record, like Walter Hawkins’ ‘SONGS OF DELIVERANCE’ Love Alive series. Through by Arsenio Orteza Isaac’s direction, The Band is where we landed.” One Last Waltz–like detail Kimbrough and Wardell incorporated was a brass section, adding a Salvation At a time when the buzz phrase The album’s official purpose is to Army brass-band feel to several cuts. R “safe spaces” has made many uni- provide churches with biblically But Psalms We Sing Together draws on versities seem like day care centers, it’s based music suitable for congrega- other traditions as well. The lovely folk important to remember that the term’s tional singing. (Lyrics, guitar chords, melodies of “We Long to See You (Psalm biblical equivalent has quite different and sheet music are available.) Or, as 24)” and “Eternal Weight of Glory,” in connotations. Kimbrough puts it in his liner notes, particular, evoke such public-domain “Thou art my hiding place,” sang “These songs were crafted … to help composer credits as “anon.” and “trad.” David in Psalm 32, “thou shalt preserve you sing the Psalms.” The album also Kimbrough calls such traditional me from trouble; thou shalt compass includes songs based on passages tunes “the ‘holy grail’ for a melody me about with songs of deliverance.” from Isaiah and the explicitly writer.” And in Psalm 107: “He led them forth Messianic original “Eternal Weight “For a tune to have that lifespan, it by the right way, that they might go to a of Glory.” has to be simple enough to be commu- city of habitation.” One needn’t, however, be a worship nicable via oral tradition among people Those psalms are two of the poetic leader or in church to enjoy what who are not musically educated. But it Old Testament texts on which singer- Kimbrough and his seven fellow also has to be inspiring enough that songwriter Wendell Kimbrough has musicians and singers have wrought. brilliant musicians will write huge, based his latest collection of deliver- Given that the opening chords of the glorious arrangements for it. ance songs, Psalms We Sing Together lead track, “Then at Last (Psalm 32),” “If any of my tunes evoke that (Wendell Kimbrough). echo those of The Band’s song “The tradition, I’m happy.”
MEDITATIVE PRAISE Another gifted melodist known for setting Scripture to music is the Secular Third Order Franciscan John Michael Talbot, whose The Lord’s Supper and Come to the Quiet were among the best-selling CCM albums of 1979 and 1980 respectively. His new album, The Inner Room (Troubadour/OCP), features the monastic melodies and the meditative acoustic and classical guitar picking (subtly augmented by Phil Keaggy on one song and by Ricky Skaggs on two) long associated with his strongest work. It also includes musical settings of Psalm 27 (“One Thing”) and Psalm 22 (“My God, My God”). The thematic centerpiece, though, is Christ’s Sermon on the Mount. Talbot has based compositions on this passage before (“Behold Now the Kingdom” in 1980; “The Lilies of the Field” in 1981), but not in the minor, Middle Eastern–sounding keys that he uses for this album’s “The Beatitudes,” “Our Father with Doxology,” and title cut. That this decision emphasizes textural literalness over singalong-ability may put some listeners off. HANDOUT It shouldn’t. Those three songs aside, a prayerful singalong-ability emerges and, ultimately, prevails. —A.O.
26 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016 [email protected] @ArsenioOrteza NOTEWORTHY RECENT ALBUMS reviewed by Arsenio Orteza
FOLKLORE Big Big Train This British octet is the Great Hope of 21st-century prog-rock. There’s a lot of Peter Gabriel in David Longdon’s singing, with detectable amounts of Genesis, Jethro Tull, and Pink Floyd in the music, pressed down, shaken together, and running over (average song ENCORE length: 7:40). The music isn’t derivative so much as With Keep Me Singing indicative of these guys’ (and one gal’s) having done (Caroline), Van Morrison their homework. Anyway, they’re more pastoral than has made the loveliest album their forebears. There’s even a beekeeping song. of his career. It’s almost as if Recommended to anyone with fond memories of 1970s he listened to the career- late-night FM radio. rejuvenating albums that he made between 1987 and BURDEN BEARER 1991, concluded that they Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver peaked not with their forays Having turned 72 hasn’t made the gospel-bluegrass into the mystic but with standard-bearer Doyle Lawson any less perfectionistic. their love songs, and decided But having Stephen Burwell along for the second to write a bunch more in consecutive album; Joe Dean, Eli Johnston, and their spirit. Or maybe he Dustin Pyrtle for the third; and Josh Swift for the simply decided that the eighth gives Lawson’s perfectionism more focus album’s only cover tune, the than it has had in some time. Of the nine songs with sweet Bobby Bland tribute instruments, only “Best Friends” and “He’s “Share Your Love with Me,” Everywhere” are too sentimental. Among the 18 needed company worthy of not-too-sentimental songs are 11 sung a cappella, a style that suits perfectionism to a T. its directness and simplicity.
PAGING MR. PROUST The Jayhawks Proust isn’t the only literary name dropped. Robert Frost and David Foster Wallace merit mentions too. But, other than establishing Gary Louris’ reading habits, they’re red herrings. Meanwhile Mark Olson has flown the coop again, freeing Louris to write the gorgeous but conflicted country-rock songs at which he’s seldom less than adept and even to experiment a little (“Ace”). Still no autocrat, Louris shares composition credits with his bandmates on three cuts. The three Louris-only compositions Not every song is a relegated to the bonus disc, however, would’ve done valentine. “Going Down to just fine. Bangor” and “The Pen Is Mightier Than the Sword” BEULAH John Paul White are straight-up blues; “Caledonia Swing,” an instru- The strengths of John Paul White’s first post–Civil mental featuring Morrison Wars effort take awhile to manifest themselves. on saxophone and piano, White’s mostly slow tempi and mostly acoustic timbre lives up to both halves of its don’t reach out and grab any more than his mostly soft singing, his possum-playing melodies, or his invo- title. And not every love song luted lyrics do. Met halfway, however, “Make You Cry,” has as its subject a mere “Black Leaf,” “Hate the Way You Love Me,” “The mortal. (See “Holy Guardian Martyr,” and “I’ve Been over This Before” (featuring Angel.”) But all 13 tracks The Secret Sisters) will have you concentrating on come from a place of deep the sore spots of strained relationships right along appreciation. One might
LARRY BUSACCA/GETTY IMAGES FOR SONGWRITERS HALL OF FAME with him. even say contentment. —A.O.
To see more music news and reviews, go to wng.org/music October 29, 2016 • WORLD Magazine 27 VOICES Mindy Belz Your Gift Can CHRISTMAS G I F T C ATA L O G President Barack Obama came into office in 2 0 1 6 2008 pledging to end the “dumb war” in Iraq, Go a Long Way and most Americans agreed. The problem, as they say, is someone forgot to turn the lights off ant to give Christmas gifts that will bless people when we left the Middle East. It’s a bipartisan 41 problem. When I wrote a few weeks ago about overseas as well as the ones closest to your heart? Gifts W from the what the United States could do to end the Consider giving a dairy goat, a freshwater well, a warm blanket, Heart catastrophe in Syria, reader responses followed a cherished Bible, or dozens of other possibilities through Hey world, how’s the isolationist bent Obama has practiced (erratically) for two terms. Americans remain Samaritan’s Purse. In our gift catalog, you’ll discover how you weary not only of wars but of knowing about can honor your loved ones while helping victims of disasters, conflicts and thinking hard thoughts about F R U I T nonintervention disease, poverty, famine, or war. Go to samaritanspurse.org and T R E E S what to do. PAGE 24 The trouble is, nonintervention isn’t going so click on the catalog to see what you can do to save lives, relieve working? well, for us or for the world. Islamic jihadism has suffering, and share the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. FOR SYRIANS AND MANY OTHERS, NOT SO WELL spread alarmingly on Obama’s watch, plus con- flicts sputter from the Pacific to the Black Sea. It’s possible our next president will face At the town hall gathering Oct. 9 posing direct threats to American territory in the R as a presidential debate, a moment of Pacific or to the NATO alliance itself, not Samaritan’s Purse®, Franklin Graham, President coherence on the topic of Syria surfaced. to mention threats to the U.S. mainland. P.O. Box 3000, Boone, NC 28607 | 1-800-353-5957 | samaritanspurse.org Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump quickly Clinton in the past has been facebook.com/samaritanspurse twitter.com/samaritanspurse passed over it because—clearly—neither leading described as a hawk, but national mood © 2016 Samaritan’s Purse. All rights reserved. candidate was there to talk substance. may mean neither she nor Republicans Clinton reiterated her support for a no-fly in Congress are inclined to hard choices zone but quickly undercut it by sending out on foreign policy. Plus, Clinton has this banner: “I would not use American ground shown her decisions are up for sale. forces in Syria.” A commander in chief who “A rudderless America, in a moment stipulates the rules for close combat is trying to of transition, is heedlessly reacting to win political favors, not wars. Clinton said she events rather than influencing them,” supports special forces on the ground, “which writes Matthew Continetti in National we’re using,” just not “holding territory” (memo, Review. Madam Secretary: that email you got about Clinton, having achieved the highest special forces on the ground was probably office in the land, should focus first on classified, big C). Americans halting policy incoherence and foreign policy Trump seemed to side with Assad and the partisanship, rather than domestic engineering Russians, saying they are “killing ISIS.” False. remain that’s likely to be fractious and damaging. Most Russian attacks target civilians and rebels. weary not The other challenge is convincing the rest of Trump accused Clinton of being in the admin- only of wars us to care, Christians included. The American istration when Obama let pass his “red line” on church is not a gift to the kingdom of God when chemical weapons. Also false. Obama declared but of know- it embraces isolationism. a red line in August 2012, Clinton left the State ing about Strategically it isn’t good for the global church Department in February 2013, and in August and global missions when the world overall is
conflicts and FAYSAL/ANADOLUMAHMUD AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES 2013 intelligence officers briefed Obama con- less safe. It doesn’t serve the world’s poor—and firming chemical weapons use in an attack that thinking hard nearly all of its poorest live outside the United killed 1,400 Syrians. It was perhaps the end of thoughts States—when Americans show indifference to administration credibility in the region when about what their political and physical condition. Obama refused to respond, but it did not And it is no testimony to anyone anywhere happen on Clinton’s watch. to do. not to know the name of a Syrian city under While this theater of the absurd was taking enduring siege. As Clinton and Trump traded place, Merriam-Webster noted in a tweet, quips on Syria, Muslims and Christians in “more people are looking up ‘lepo-’ (as in, western Aleppo quite literally huddled together ‘what’s a lepo?’) than ‘Aleppo.’” It’s no comfort Smoke rises after a (St. Elias Cathedral just took in 4,000 displaced to know we have bumbling commanders-in- war craft belonging families, half Muslim, half Christian). They are to the Russian Army chief-in-waiting who mirror the American bombs a residential helping one another against the ongoing public’s lack of interest in global affairs. area in Aleppo, Syria. slaughter, and a world of indifference.A
28 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016 [email protected] @mcbelz Your Gift Can CHRISTMAS G I F T C ATA L O G Go a Long Way 2 0 1 6 ant to give Christmas gifts that will bless people 41 overseas as well as the ones closest to your heart? Gifts W from the Consider giving a dairy goat, a freshwater well, a warm blanket, Heart a cherished Bible, or dozens of other possibilities through Samaritan’s Purse. In our gift catalog, you’ll discover how you can honor your loved ones while helping victims of disasters, F R U I T disease, poverty, famine, or war. Go to samaritanspurse.org and T R E E S PAGE 24 click on the catalog to see what you can do to save lives, relieve suffering, and share the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Samaritan’s Purse®, Franklin Graham, President P.O. Box 3000, Boone, NC 28607 | 1-800-353-5957 | samaritanspurse.org facebook.com/samaritanspurse twitter.com/samaritanspurse © 2016 Samaritan’s Purse. All rights reserved. FEATURES Swing low
A yard sign protests North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory in Charlotte.
TRAVIS DOVE/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX
30 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016 Swing lowBY JAMIE DEAN in Charlotte, N.C. With all eyes on swing states, a moderate North Carolina governor endures an extreme outside effort to discredit an entire state—and perhaps tip a presidential election
FOR GOV. PAT McCRORY, A LOW ELECTION point in his political career came 2016 when his hometown newspaper, The Charlotte Observer, declared the Republican had joined “a dark list of Southern governors” and the kind of men who “fed our worst impulses.” McCrory’s condemned deed: He signed a bill requiring people in government buildings to use the bathroom ELECTIONcorresponding with their birth sex. Private businesses may still set their own policies. 2016The GOP legislature passed the bill in March, after the Charlotte City Council approved an ordinance requiring all businesses in the city—including private ones—to allow people to use the bathroom corresponding to his or her perceived gender identity. McCrory called the state’s response a commonsense protection. The Observer called it “a sprint past the bathroom door and straight to the South’s dark, bigoted past.” It was a virulent condemnation of an often-moderate politician. “They compared me to George Wallace,” McCrory told a local radio host at the time. “Do you know how much that hurt?” The pain was only beginning.
October 29, 2016 • WORLD Magazine 31 PayPal reversed plans to open headquarters in “roadblock” state for Trump’s prospects in the Charlotte. Deutsche Bank halted plans to add electoral college: “If we win North Carolina, jobs in the state. More than 120 corporations along with Virginia, where we are in very good condemned the law. Bruce Springsteen and Pearl shape, we choke off so many paths to 270 that Jam canceled concerts. he’s threading a needle that has a smaller eye Since most corporations protesting the bill than any previous political candidate.” still make profits in North Carolina, and some That may depend on other close swing states, conduct business in countries with atrocious and the contours of a wildly unpredictable elec- human rights records, McCrory called the tion, but Kami Mueller, the state’s GOP spokes- backlash “selective outrage—which means it’s woman, says both parties know North Carolina is probably well-coordinated.” a “mecca” for winning the election. And she says It’s not only well-coordinated—it’s also opponents of HB2, as the bathroom law is well-timed. known, have leveraged that reality for national McCrory and U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., influence. are both up for reelection in November, and It’s an important dynamic to watch. McCrory’s race with his opponent, North Carolina If the HB2 controversy helps tip North Attorney General Roy Cooper, has remained tight. Carolina toward Clinton (or helps kill McCrory’s Meanwhile, the state runs politically purple reelection bid), it could form a template for during national elections: North Carolina voters campaign strategists in a post-Obergefell political chose President Barack Obama in 2008 and era: Exploit a sensitive social issue, enlist corpo- Republican Mitt Romney in 2012. It was the only rate heavyweights to threaten economic damage, swing state Romney won. and potentially influence the outcome of national This year, North Carolina is locked in a razor- elections. thin contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Voter turnout will be key for either S THIS CONSPIRACY THEORY OR candidate, and the state could be key for the win. calculated strategy? McCrory speaks during a candidate forum Clinton’s chief political strategist told The At least this much is clear: Outside in Charlotte. Washington Post that North Carolina is a Igroups helped local activists conceive the CHUCK BURTON/AP CHUCK
32 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016 controversy that birthed HB2. In February 2015, a group of Charlotte activists pressed the city to pass an anti-discrimination ordinance, but the measure failed. The nation’s largest gay advocacy group got involved. The Washington, D.C.–based Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and other groups poured money into a local organization working to recruit candidates for the next City Council election, according to The New York Times. Last fall, three newly elected council members tipped the balance. In February of this year, the measure passed, despite objections of small-business owners who said they wanted to set their own bathroom policies instead of the city mandating a change for everyone based on the preferences of a few. The North Carolina legislature responded with a bill that included a provision allowing private businesses to set their own bathroom rules and requiring people in government buildings to use the restroom corresponding with their birth sex. The backlash was swift: HRC produced a letter signed by leaders of 120 corporations, saying they opposed the bill. PayPal halted its jobs expansion into Charlotte, and the NCAA announced it would move seven sports champi- onships from the state. The Washington Post pronounced national shame: “Bigotry raises its hideous head in North Carolina.” The charge was ironic. Before Charlotte passed its ordinance in February, the city had been known as a progressive metropolis full of large corporations with gay-friendly policies. The city ordinance seemed aimed at making a statement rather than solving a problem. And McCrory had been known as a moderate. He served as mayor of Charlotte for 14 years and sometimes clashed with stauncher conservatives The North Carolina legislature overrode the Staffers and volunteers over tax hikes and funding for non-essential governor’s veto, but LGBT advocates praised work in a campaign office for Clinton in projects. McCrory for his stance. Charlotte (top); a As governor since 2012, he’s supported the A few months later, those details didn’t supporter holds a sign more conservative policies of a GOP state legisla- matter. When McCrory signed HB2, he became a as Trump speaks at a ture, but he’s sometimes pushed back. Last year, national target for charges of bigotry and hate, campaign event in Winston-Salem. McCrory vetoed a bill allowing civil magistrates and the fury became a notable playing card in a to decline participation in gay weddings based on high-stakes game for the White House. religious objections. Republican legislators said the law would N A NATIONAL LEVEL, HRC HAD protect magistrates from making “an impossible endorsed Clinton for the presidency choice between their core religious beliefs and in January. By this summer, a trove of their jobs.” McCrory—who noted he holds reli- leaked emails from the Democratic gious beliefs against gay marriage—said public ONational Committee showed the Democratic officials must follow the laws of their nation and Party sought to capitalize on the North Carolina
CLINTON OFFICE: NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • TRUMP SUPPORTERS: CARLO ALLEGRI/REUTERS/NEWSCOM state, even if they have objections. controversy.
October 29, 2016 • WORLD Magazine 33 In one email exchange, a DNC staffer called A DNC spokesman later said the party wanted McCrory a “moronic little bigot of a tarheel to show HB2’s economic damage, not celebrate governor” and said Republicans were using job losses. But Dallas Woodhouse, executive bathrooms to “distract from their epic failings as director of the North Carolina Republican Party, human beings and party officials.” Another DNC told a local news station: “They orchestrated it. official discussed producing “a decent hit piece They inflicted pain on the people of North on the pro-prejudice backwater of the NC state Carolina and they celebrated it.” Lee Churchill shows house.” The HB2-induced pain came at a time when her support for HB2 In another thread, a DNC staffer forwarded North Carolina was making economic gains in a during a rally at the an email about the band Pearl Jam canceling a sluggish national economy. The state has lowered North Carolina General Assembly North Carolina concert and the potential taxes, raised teacher pay, and achieved its lowest building in Raleigh $60,000 loss for Raleigh hotels. The email noted unemployment rate in nearly a decade. Last year, (top); a protester HB2 reportedly had cost the state 1,750 jobs and Forbes rated North Carolina the second-best state at the General $77 million in lost economic activity. in the nation for business. Assembly building voices opposition An official responded: “This is great—can we But the economic losses from HB2 over the to HB2. forward to our LGBT and National lists.” last six months have overshadowed the economic progress in the state over the last four years. Now, in a tight race for governor, McCrory’s opponent, Attorney General Roy Cooper, has refused to defend HB2 against federal threats. (In 2014, Cooper refused to defend North Carolina’s amendment banning gay marriage a year before the U.S. Supreme Court forced all 50 states to recognize same-sex marriage.) Meanwhile, the Human Rights Campaign
continues its advocacy work in North Carolina. CALL/NEWSCOM ROLL DRAGO/CQ AL • BOTTOM: IMAGES GETTY VIA & OBSERVER/TNS NEWS LIDDY/RALEIGH CHUCK TOP: HRC President Chad Griffin denies McCrory’s claims that he told the governor, “We’re going after you.” But Griffin toldThe Charlotte Observer, “We told the governor that if he didn’t fix the disaster he created, that he alone would be responsible for tarnishing the reputation of the state and killing jobs.” Thomas Stith, McCrory’s chief of staff, told the newspaper that Griffin said he would make North Carolina a battleground state: “What I heard from Chad Griffin that day was a sophisti- cated shakedown.” Stith, an African-American, said he finds comparisons of the bathroom controversy to the struggle for black civil rights “extremely offensive.” It’s a distinction McCrory has tried to draw in national interviews as well. When Chris Wallace of Fox News asked the governor about compari- sons to separate facilities for black and white citizens, McCrory noted: “We can definitely define the race of people. It’s very hard to define transgender or gender identity.”
HE EFFORT TO PLACE GENDER identity in the same category with race marches on, and complex cases will continue to surface in a culture Tloosening its grip on basic definitions of human sexuality.
34 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016 he thinks McCrory believes it’s “just the right thing to do. … That’s why I think he’s stuck to his guns.” McCrory has appeared baffled over the controversy and has expressed particular concern over the prospect of opening changing facilities and locker rooms to either sex. He’s mostly framed it as an issue of safety and common sense. Whatever the outcome of the race for governor—or president— transgender activists will likely continue to push their agenda aggressively in coming years. Chadwick says he encourages his congregation to face such pros- pects with faithfulness and joy: Worship well, love others, serve the needy, pursue purity, and be a Chadwick (above); Still, McCrory hasn’t denied the struggle vibrant witness. HRC’s Chad Griffin some people face over their sexuality, and he’s “We can’t stop evil from proliferating,” he speaks to the media at the North Carolina spoken of the genuine need to make special said. “But in a decaying society, the church is State Capitol in arrangements for those dealing with what he’s called to be salt and light.” A Raleigh (left). called “unique issues.” It’s a discussion he didn’t expect to find himself leading, and for a politician with a moder- ate past, it’s worth asking, Why is OUTSIDE THE BOX he willing to stake his political A recent Gallup poll showed nearly 60 percent of Americans desire a future on this particular issue? major third party in American politics, but far fewer voters express McCrory’s campaign spokes- enthusiasm for the actual third party candidates running in this year’s man didn’t return requests for an election. interview with the governor, but I Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson has polled high- did speak with David Chadwick, a est outside the Republican or Democratic parties, but his support Charlotte pastor and a friend to dipped below 8 percent by early October. Jill Stein, the candidate for McCrory for over two decades. the environmentally driven Green Party, slid to less than 2.5 percent. The pair connected after Even if a candidate gains traction, he also needs to gain access McCrory heard Chadwick’s local for his name to appear on ballots. Each state sets its own rules radio program, and he reached and deadlines for what it takes for a candidate’s name to appear. By early October, the out to the pastor for spiritual sup- tracking group Ballot Access News reported Johnson’s name would appear on ballots port. Chadwick invited McCrory in all 50 states and Stein would appear in 44 states. (then mayor of Charlotte) to a The Constitution Party’s Darrell Castle is set to appear on ballots in at least 24 weekly Bible study and prayer states. Castle, a Tennessee attorney, is a Christian with a pro-life, small government group with local men. McCrory platform. He is a frequent critic of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, and he has received the endorsement of radio host Glenn Beck. stayed with the group for 10 years Independent candidate Evan McMullin is set to appear on ballots in at least 11 states. and now has a similar circle in The former Capitol Hill staffer is a Mormon and a pro-life conservative who worked for Raleigh. the CIA for a decade. A Public Policy Polling survey in late September showed McMullin Chadwick said he hasn’t coun- polling at 2 percent—a small number, but a notable climb for a little-known candidate. seled McCrory on the particulars What about write-in votes? Again, each state sets its own rules, but nine states of the HB2 controversy, but he don’t allow write-in votes at all. In 34 other states, candidates must meet state has offered prayers and support. requirements to be considered an official write-in candidate. He says he thinks McCrory’s The best way to know what your ballot will look like: Research local rules and check Christian faith informs his deci- your local election board for a sample ballot ahead of Nov. 8. —J.D.
GRIFFIN: JASON E. MICZEK/AP IMAGES FOR HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN • CHADWICK & CASTLE: HANDOUT sions, and that in the case of HB2,
[email protected] @deanworldmag October 29, 2016 • WORLD Magazine 35 FEATURES UP IN THE AIR Control of the U.S. Senate remains in doubt as Democrats stand with Clinton and Republicans cope with Trump H by J.C. DERRICK in Altoona, Pa.
TWO CONSTANTS HAVE MARKED Toomey is far from alone in his ELECTION 74-year-old Oliver Smith’s life: He’s a struggle to strike the right tone 2016 lifelong Pennsylvania resident and a life- with Trump, especially after a long Democrat. One of those is about to 2005 videotape surfaced showing change—and he has no plans to leave the the GOP nominee bragging about Keystone State. sexually assaulting women “It seems like the Democratic Party (Trump later dismissed the com- has changed,” Smith said after an event ments as “locker room talk” and for seniors at Calvary Baptist Church in denied doing what he described Altoona, Pa., where he is a member. in the video). Sen. Kelly Ayotte, “They’re ELECTION going too far, as far as being liberal, letting people in R-N.H., has consistently battled Trump-related controversies, the country that hate us.” yet she’s one of several GOP senators who regularly outpoll 2016Smith, a retired schoolteacher and state employee, is a solid Trump—a group that includes Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio and Donald Trump supporter, even though he voted twice for Sen. John McCain of Arizona, two incumbents many had Barack Obama. But ask him about the state’s U.S. Senate race believed vulnerable after they drew quality challengers. between Republican Sen. Pat Toomey and Democrat Katie Arizona is usually a reliable red state, but it’s one of several McGinty, and Smith is less sure of himself. new battlegrounds in the age of Trump. Senate races in “I haven’t decided on that,” he says with hesitation. “All I Missouri and North Carolina—once assumed to be relatively have to go by is what I hear on the TV, and probably most of safe Republican seats—are now in a dead heat. that is lies.” One thing is virtually certain: The incoming president will have The 2016 election results may well rest with voters like nothing close to the 60-seat supermajority Obama enjoyed follow- Smith, who illustrates the growing frustration, shifting political ing his 2008 election. Republicans hold a 54-46 advantage in the alignment, and lingering uncertainty many people are experi- Senate (counting two independents who caucus with Democrats), encing. He also highlights the complicated path to victory for a lead that is likely to shrink by at least two, since GOP incum- endangered GOP senators such as Toomey. bents in Wisconsin and Illinois appear headed for defeat. While Pennsylvania could hold the keys to both the White Early October polling indicated seven races were still toss- House and control of the U.S. Senate, it’s possible they will fall ups (see map on pages 38-39), including one Democrat-held different ways. Some recent surveys have shown Trump polling seat and six GOP-held seats. If the candidates holding slim leads ahead of Toomey, who has distanced himself from his party’s emerge victorious, the Senate would see its first 50-50 split controversial presidential nominee and not even pledged to since 2001. The new vice president would cast potential vote for him. tie-breaking votes. AP VIA CALL ROLL WILLIAMS/CQ TOM TOOMEY: Toomey’s approach makes him simultaneously more attrac- That could be a short-lived arrangement, if Democratic Sen. tive to establishment Republicans and suburban independents Tim Kaine becomes vice president in a Hillary Clinton adminis- but less attractive to blue-collar voters who may be poised to tration. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, would appoint flip the state red for the first time since 1988. Last April, a replacement to fill Kaine’s seat until a special election in Trump’s unique appeal fueled a massive primary turnout that November 2017, when Senate control could again be up for grabs. nearly doubled Mitt Romney’s 2012 vote total. Republicans are already working behind the scenes to land a “There’s no question Trump is a phenomenon” in the central top-tier recruit to run next year in Virginia. Two GOP possibili- and northern parts of Pennsylvania, Republican state Rep. John ties: former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli and former McGinnis told me. “No one in history brought out as many voters presidential candidate Carly Fiorina. as he did in the primaries. If he does the same in November, he The window for Democratic control is small: A cycle featuring could well win the state.” 25 Democrats (including two independents) and only eight
36 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016 Republicans up for reelection looms in 2018. Two years later, Toomey talks with constituents candidates. The Clinton Republicans will defend 22 seats, but almost all of them are in about Trump at Bridgewater campaign infrastructure Church in Montrose, Pa. (left); red states. McGinty at a Clinton campaign dwarfs the Trump operation, In the event of a 50-50 split, a single senator could hold up event in Philadelphia. which is more focused on judicial and cabinet appointments and take Washington gridlock holding large rallies, but to a whole new level. Democrats still worry lower To avoid that scenario, both parties are working overtime to enthusiasm for Clinton among Obama supporters may lead to generate excitement in places like Pennsylvania, where high- lower turnout. profile surrogates are stumping for presidential and Senate Outside groups on both sides are pouring money into the Senate race at what could end up a record pace. Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a conservative organization sitting out the presidential election, is one providing support HOUSE CALL for Toomey. Using its sophisticated voter Sixty days before the 2016 election, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, database, AFP has made 1.2 million calls and D-Calif., declared control of the House could be in play—if Hillary Clinton knocked on 92,000 doors for Toomey without defeats Donald Trump by 6 to 8 points. As the calendar turned to October, talking about Trump, the Los Angeles Times Clinton’s polling lead remained under 4 points, leaving Republicans increas- reported. ingly bullish on their chances. That confidence evaporated afterThe Progressive groups are tying their Senate Washington Post reported on Trump’s lewd comments from 11 years ago, and presidential candidates together—seem- prompting House Speaker Paul Ryan to abandon his party’s nominee. ingly unconcerned that Clinton’s unpopularity Democrats were already poised to gain seats two years after is nearly equal to Trump’s. That may be a Republicans lost only one incumbent and built their largest majority since pivotal miscalculation. World War II. A half-dozen seats appear to be easy Democratic pickups, It’s easy to drive for hours through central compared with only one likely Republican pickup. Pennsylvania and see only Trump yard signs. According to the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, 14 I asked state Rep. McGinnis if he’s seen any out of 17 toss-ups are currently Republican seats. Even if Clinton signs: “One less than [Libertarian Democrats swept all 17, that would give them a net gain candidate] Gary Johnson—and I’ve seen one of only 22—resulting in a 224-211 Republican majority. Gary Johnson,” McGinnis said with a wry Many Democratic challengers are trying to tie their smile. He said Trump signs are “all over the GOP opponents to Trump, but few have made efforts place. I think Trump might be in the real GINTY: JESSICA KOURKOUNIS/GETTY IMAGES • PELOSI: BILL CLARK/CQ ROLL CALL VIA AP c
M to distance themselves from Clinton, who is upside- estate business in central Pennsylvania.” A down by a 2-to-1 margin in some congressional districts. Polling shows many voters believe Clinton will win the presidency and want congressional checks on her. —J.C.D. October 29, 2016 • WORLD Magazine 37 ELECTION 2016 RACES TO WATCH Consequential congressional races and ballot initiatives across the country H by J.C. DERRICK & EVA N WILT
ELECTION 2016CALIFORNIA UTAH-4 Proposition 64, Recreational Marijuana Rep. Mia Love (R) vs. Doug Owens (D) Would make marijuana legal for rec- Love made history two years ago when reational use and establish certain she became the first African-American sales and cultivation taxes. Several woman to serve as a House Republican. other states also have marijuana Polling is uneven, but she appears in initiatives on the ballot.* strong position to retain her seat.
NEVADA (OPEN) Joe Heck (R) vs. Catherine Cortez Masto (D) Heck, a physician and U.S. Army brigadier gen- eral, has maintained a small but consistent lead COLORADO against Cortez Masto, who is trying to become the first Hispanic woman in the U.S. Senate. Proposition 106, Prescription Assisted Suicide This month Heck joined the chorus of Would allow terminally ill people Republicans who said they would not with six months or less left to live vote for Trump. Polling edge: Heck to obtain prescriptions for self- administered drugs to end their lives.
COLORADO Amendment 69, Universal Healthcare TEXAS-23 Would replace most private health insurance Pete Gallego (D) vs. Rep. Will Hurd (R) with a state-run, single-payer system called Hurd, a former covert CIA officer, ousted Gallego two ColoradoCare, paid for through new income years ago to represent a sprawling border district running and payroll taxes. Would create the nation’s from El Paso to San Antonio. Veterans issues have played first single-payer healthcare system. a central role in the heated rematch—a true toss-up.
COLORADO-6 OKLAHOMA Rep. Mike Coffman (R) vs. Morgan Carroll (D) State Question 790, State Money for Religion Shifting demographics have made Coffman a Would allow the state to use public funds for a religious perennial target of Democrats. Carroll has purpose. Approval would allow the Ten Commandments sought to tie Coffman to Trump, but Coffman monument to return to the State Capitol. has vowed to stand up to the businessman and in early October called on him to withdraw over his lewd 2005 comments. * Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada are considering recreational marijuana; Arkansas, Florida, Montana, and North Dakota are considering medical marijuana.
38 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016 INDIANA (OPEN) NEW HAMPSHIRE Evan Bayh (D) vs. Todd Young (R) Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R) vs. Maggie Hassan (D) If Democrats gain control of the Senate, Hassan, the state’s relatively popular governor, Bayh’s late entrance will likely be a big is one of the best Democratic recruits of the reason why. Bayh jumped to a huge polling cycle. Ayotte, a pro-life mom, touts her indepen- lead, but it shrank amid controversies dence, but Trump-related controversies have over his residency and links to Wall dogged her campaign. In early October Ayotte Street. Polling edge: Bayh fully renounced Trump. Polling edge: Ayotte
MISSOURI PENNSYLVANIA-9 Amendment 6, Voter ID Art Halvorson (D) vs. Rep. Bill Shuster (R) Allows state government Shuster stoked controversy after he divorced his to require the wife and began dating a woman who lobbied a com- presentation of voter IDs mittee he chairs. He defeated Halvorson by only 1.2 at public elections in percent in the GOP primary, but Halvorson won the order to prove national Democratic primary with unsolicited write-in votes. and state citizenship.
PENNSYLVANIA Katie McGinty (D) vs. Sen. Pat Toomey (R) McGinty, a former Al Gore environmental adviser, is running a hard-left campaign that will hinge on Democratic turnout in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Toomey is going after suburban Clinton voters MISSOURI prone to split their tickets. Polling edge: even Sen. Roy Blunt (R) vs. Jason Kander (D) Many assumed Blunt would have a smooth path to a second term, but Kander, Missouri’s 35-year-old secretary of NORTH CAROLINA state, has run an effective Sen. Richard Burr (R) vs. Deborah Ross (D) campaign touting the Two-term Sen. Burr, chairman of the Senate need for fresh faces Intelligence Committee, is locked in a surprisingly in Washington, D.C. difficult reelection battle with Deborah Ross, a Polling edge: Blunt former ACLU attorney and state legislator who has proved a prolific fundraiser. Polling edge: even
KEY: FLORIDA-7 FLORIDA Rep. John Mica (R) vs. Patrick Murphy (D) vs. Sen. Marco Rubio (R) SENATE Stephanie Murphy (D) Rubio reversed course and decided RACE Murphy, 38, a college professor with a to run for reelection after his failed compelling personal story, is running on presidential bid. Murphy, 33, is a HOUSE a platform of change against 73-year- rising Democratic star, but accu- RACE old Mica. If Murphy knocks off the sations of resumé inflation have 12-term incumbent, look for Democrats highlighted his limited political BALLOT to make double-digit gains in the House. experience. Polling edge: Rubio
TEN COMMANDMENTS:TEN CLINTON BLACKBURN ALL OTHERS: HANDOUT INITIATIVE
[email protected] @jcderrick1 October 29, 2016 • WORLD Magazine 39 George’s story: Member for three years Knee injury Freedom to choose own provider Alternative medicine
Go to: mysamaritanstory.org
George “Getting the checks, seeing people’s Scripture verses on their checks, getting the cards—that means something!”
For more than twenty years, Samaritan Ministries’ members have • More than 63,000 families been sharing one another’s medical needs, without using health (over 207,000 individuals)* insurance, through a Biblical model of community among believers. • Sharing over $23 million* in Samaritan members share directly with each other and do not share medical needs each month in abortions and other unbiblical practices. • The monthly share has never Come see what our members are saying and start your own exceeded $495 for a family Samaritan story today at: mysamaritanstory.org of any size*
samaritanministries.org 888.268.4377 Biblical community facebook.com/samaritanministries applied to health care twitter.com/samaritanmin
* As of October 2016 George’s story: Member for three years Knee injury Freedom to choose own provider Alternative medicine
Go to: mysamaritanstory.org
George “Getting the checks, seeing people’s Scripture verses on their checks, getting the cards—that means something!”
For more than twenty years, Samaritan Ministries’ members have • More than 63,000 families been sharing one another’s medical needs, without using health (over 207,000 individuals)* insurance, through a Biblical model of community among believers. • Sharing over $23 million* in Samaritan members share directly with each other and do not share medical needs each month in abortions and other unbiblical practices. • The monthly share has never Come see what our members are saying and start your own exceeded $495 for a family Samaritan story today at: mysamaritanstory.org of any size*
samaritanministries.org 888.268.4377 Biblical community facebook.com/samaritanministries applied to health care twitter.com/samaritanmin
* As of October 2016 FEATURES
KEEPING HONG KONG
Hong KongersFREE press for self-rule while China tries to wield more control by JUNE CHENG photo by Lam Yik Fei/Getty Images their leaders democratically, to fix the increasing economic disparity, and to maintain the unique values of their city. Rather than violently quashing the protests, Chinese authorities let them play out while refusing the protesters’ demands. While the Umbrella Movement did not gain a Police scuffle with activists during a political victory, the protests awakened a generation. protest outside the Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, which for the time Central Government being retains administrative authority, vetoed an Headquarters in undemocratic election reform package that Beijing Hong Kong. desired. September’s legislative elections saw a record turnout, with six anti-China “localists” win- ning seats, including a former Umbrella Movement leader. On Sept. 28 activ- ists opened yellow umbrellas to commemorate the two-year anniversary of the movement. But even as Hong Kong residents continue to press for democracy and autonomy, many now worry how much longer their society, with its different political, legal, and economic system, can coexist with the Communist power.
IN THE 1997 SINO-BRITISH agreement, China promised to grant Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy for 50 years, after which Hong Kong would fully rejoin China. At first, this “one country, two systems” policy seemed to work well, as China largely let Hong Kong be. But today, as China rises in economic power and confidence, Communist leaders seem less interested in catering to Hong Kong’s uniqueness and more eager to control the region. In a 1997 article published just before the handover, WORLD summed up the expected tension: “Hong Kong seems likely to show in microcosm the difficulty of combining economic freedom with totalitarian rule.” Some resi- dents believed Beijing would respect Hong Kong’s autonomy and hoped the influence of free trade would lead China to greater democratization. Others worried that Beijing would clamp down on free speech, indoctrinate students, and shutter churches. Some churches even held training sessions to prepare Christians to maintain their faith if they were pushed underground. Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a Chinese history professor at the University of California, Irvine, visited a Hong Kong university nine months before the handover for a screening of The Gate of Heavenly Peace, a documentary about the Tiananmen Square massacre. After the film, students asked, “Do you think STEP ACROSS the border from Shenzhen, we’ll face tanks on the streets if we protest in the future?” Wasserstrom told the China, into Hong Kong, and you enter a different students that while he wasn’t sure if that would happen, he did think sensitive world—one where baby formula is safe to drink, films like this documentary would be outlawed. where a search on Google brings up historical After the handover, Wasserstrom was surprised to find that one movie facts silenced in China, and where up until theater showed The Gate of Heavenly Peace for an entire month. People were recently you could find books criticizing even the free to say what they wished. They traveled freely and could criticize the Chinese president. government as before. Church worship continued unfettered, with Chinese Small signs of divergence from China’s norm: religious officials even befriending Hong Kong pastors and inviting them to Hong Kong residents drive on the left-hand side partner with the government-approved Three-Self church in China—a of streets named “Queen Victoria” or “Baker,” mission field previously closed to Hong Kong churches. remnants of British rule from 1842 to 1997. “Initially, a lot of us were surprised about how slowly Beijing moved to sti- Foreign businessmen are a typical sight, and many fle things in Hong Kong,” Wasserstrom told me. “They didn’t want it to stop Hong Kongers speak English along with their being as economically thriving as it was, so the economics and the politics mother tongue of Cantonese. Young people post were always intertwined.” Under British rule, Hong Kong had grown into a their uncensored political thoughts on Facebook booming financial hub with a GDP that was 16 percent of China’s. Once Hong (which is banned in China) and give up their seats Kong returned to Chinese control, Beijing authorities gained tax revenue and to elders on the subway (an uncommon practice relied on Hong Kong for its international currency and access to global markets. in China). A greater sign of divergence: the Chinese WHILE THINGS STARTED out much better than expected, cracks began to Communist Party’s restrained response to the emerge. Even before the handover, Wasserstrom caught a glimpse of the type 2014 Umbrella Movement protests, where tens of of pressures Hong Kongers would face under China: The documentary show- thousands of people filled the typically busy thor- ing coincided with China’s National Day holiday, and some student leaders oughfare in Hong Kong’s central business district. skipped the screening to attend a reception held by Beijing officials, thinking it They demonstrated for the opportunity to choose would be more beneficial for their future. “I try to remember both—that there
October 29, 2016 • WORLD Magazine 43 wasn’t an instant blocking of alternative speech, but the pressure existed that FAST-FORWARD to today, and Hong Kong’s if you want to have a smooth economic future, you might want to be cautious freedoms and autonomy are deteriorating at a with your politics,” Wasserstrom said. faster rate. While China had promised that Hong As Hong Kong grows increasingly dependent on China, China’s influence Kong could develop its democracy without inter- on society grows. Today, half of Hong Kong exports end up in China and a ference, it changed course in 2014. China fifth of its bank assets go toward Chinese loans. Chinese tourism and retail announced an election reform package that would spending make up 10 percent of Hong Kong’s GDP. Those hoping to strike it allow a committee filled with Beijing loyalists to rich in Hong Kong need to cozy up to Chinese officials for a slice of the choose the two or three candidates on the 2017 Chinese marketplace. ballot for chief executive. Citizens disgruntled In addition, some Chinese state-owned enterprises in Hong Kong instruct employees how to vote. Wealthy Chinese companies buy out newspapers to ensure the pro-Beijing viewpoints are heard. Pastors keep silent on political issues because they wish to maintain their relationship with China’s church. Politically, the first major blowup occurred in 2002, when Beijing asked Hong Kong’s then-Chief Executive Tung Chee Hwa to draft an anti-subver- sion law. Locals were upset to find the proposed law would curtail freedom of speech and ban organizations Beijing disliked. In 2003, about 500,000 people took to the streets in protest, resulting in the withdrawal of the bill and Tung’s resignation two years later. Christian schools felt a pushback in 2004, when an education law stated that all schools must set up management committees and churches could only nominate 60 percent of committee members. The rest would be made up of teachers, alumni, parents, and community members. The law’s fiercest critic, former Cardinal Joseph Zen, brought the policy to the courts on the grounds that Hong Kong’s Basic Law granted religious groups the freedom to run schools. For seven years he fought the education law in court, conducting a three-day fast when the case lost its final appeal in 2011. “The church is sub- missive to the government now, they are not free anymore,” Zen recently said. “It is simply ridiculous.” `2 `3
`1
44 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016 with this faux democratic election then launched we don’t have real democracy, so the government does not need to seriously the 79-day Umbrella Movement protest. take into consideration the view of the voter,” Yip said. “They just do nothing … Yet through the protests, Hong Kong residents as long as there is no social disruption.” were also expressing their frustrations with a Also concerning is the tightening noose around the free press in Hong government many saw as favoring businesses over Kong. In December, Chinese tech company Alibaba bought out Hong Kong’s people. On one hand, Hong Kong tops the 2016 revered English-language South China Morning Post. While the newspaper Index of Economic Freedom, 10 spots ahead of the still covers a wide range of news, its editorial pages now reflect party lines, United States. A transparent legal system, a simple and the company recently closed the newspaper’s Chinese-language website tax code, and a straightforward business startup and deleted its archives. Publishers must also practice self-censorship: Chinese offi- cials late last year kidnapped five booksellers for their work on gossipy books about China’s top leaders. One bookseller revealed that while detained, authorities psychologically tortured him and forced him to make a false confession on television. The government also halted short-term missions trips to China and stopped many mainland Christians from crossing the border to attend evangelical meetings in Hong Kong. Officials even summoned Hong Kong pastor Philip Woo to Shenzhen last year, ordering him to stop training mainland students.
SOME BELIEVE China’s heavy-handedness with Hong Kong has come as the territory’s importance has waned. China’s econ- omy saw unprecedented growth in the past two decades, leaving Hong Kong in the dust: Today Hong Kong’s GDP is only 3 per- cent of China’s, and China has formed its own trade partners. With more countries economically dependent on China, fewer countries are willing to speak out against Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong. Upset with the current state of affairs, 2.2 million people—58 percent of registered voters—turned out to vote for the Legislative Council in September, the highest turnout since the handover. In (1) The financial process have helped Hong Kong’s semi-democratic system, the people elect 35 of the 70 seats, district of Central Hong Kong grow and while pro-China interest groups elect the other 35. Pro-democracy candidates in Hong Kong. (2) maintain its economic maintained their veto power by winning more than a third of the seats. Retired Cardinal Joseph Zen. (3) A edge. Most surprisingly, a new group of voters born out of the Umbrella new generation of At the same time, Movement showed its strength by voting for six localists who supported Hong Kong activists Hong Kong is one of the either a referendum to decide the region’s future or complete independence participate in the most expensive cities in from China. Both options have Beijing and older Hong Kongers reeling— 2016 election. the world and faces one many parents and grandparents watched as China rose from the depths of the of the widest income gaps. Cultural Revolution to a world power and saw their living standards rise with A million dollars buys only 215 square feet in the it. Rather than focus on politics, they kept their heads down and made money. city, compared with 366 square feet in New York. But Hong Kongers of the younger generation came of age after the handover Several factors contribute to the astronomical and only see China constricting Hong Kong’s freedoms. They don’t identify as housing prices. The government owns all the land Chinese and worry about their future as they’ll be entering middle age—and in Hong Kong and uses it to raise revenue. Keeping leading Hong Kong—by the time the territory reunifies with China in 2047. property prices high allows the government to Some groups even encourage violence in their fight for independence: They keep taxes low. These policies have benefited a believe peaceful protests are ineffective against Beijing. handful of tycoons who purchased land while it Former Cardinal Zen believes violence may be exactly what China wants. was still cheap and now own much of Hong Kong’s “If there is violence, then they can also use violence and have more power,” he real estate, utilities, and transportation. In addition, said. “But in violence, we will never win.” environmentalists prevent the construction of housing on large portions of parkland. Mainland YIP, THE CHUNG CHI College professor, believes that even if Hong Kong’s Chinese also buy up apartments as investments, GDP pales in comparison with the mainland, its value lies in something decreasing the supply for locals. deeper than dollar signs. “The most important asset of Hong Kong is not just While the older generations were able to buy the institution or structure, but also its culture,” Yip said. “People work hard, property while it was still affordable, young people they are lawful, and because of influence of the British system, there has been feel priced out of their city. Francis Yip, a profes- a general regard for freedom and the rule of law.” sor at the Divinity School of Chung Chi College at This moral quality continues to attract mainlanders and even government the Chinese University of Hong Kong, describes officials to Hong Kong. China stands to lose out on the benefits of freedom if
1: PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/GETTY IMAGES • 2: KIN CHEUNG/GETTY IMAGES • 3: ISAAC LAWRENCE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES the economy as free but not just. “In Hong Kong Hong Kong becomes just another Chinese city. A
October 29, 2016 • WORLD Magazine 45 F E AT U R E S
Life in the
bushFinding tightknit, resourceful, hurting communities amid the stunning Alaska landscape by SOPHIA LEE in Huslia & Kobuk, Alaska
46 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016 ; WE WERE FIVE PUNY HUMAN and ears popping, was Don Ernst the family had built using plywood scraps beings stuffed inside an aluminum box standing by his four-wheeler with a from the school. When we reached a with white wings, just a pale dot in a mock-stern expression. “You’re in my small channel, Henry thrust a heavy tree watercolor-blue sky. As the 1998 country now,” the 66-year-old pastor branch into the riverbank, tied one end Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft trembled told us, wagging one finger. “Here, I’m of his giant fishnet to the branch, then against the air masses, causing my head boss!” When I sniggered, he set his blue dropped the net into the river. Weights to repeatedly bump its roof and window, eyes on me and warned me that the kept the bottom of the net down, while I gazed down at the fields of velvet chicken coop behind his log house is empty milk jugs buoyed the top. greens, ribbons of inky pools, and always ready for miscreants. The following night (the summer sun snowcapped mountains, and sighed with All jokes aside, Ernst is serious about never sets in Huslia), we went back to wonder: What a sight! his pastoral ministry, which he and his the channel to collect the trapped fish. It Few experiences are as humbling and wife Brenda started in 1990 in this village was not pike season yet, so our catch awe-inspiring as flying over the vast, of about 300 Athabaskan Indians. A was meager. White fluffs of cotton had untouched landscape of Alaska in a lean, 5-foot-10 dynamic leader, Ernst only just started dotting the air, and you six-seater aircraft. I had my moment of was content as a self-employed home- know it’s fishing season when the cot- hanging jaw and boggled eyes during a builder in Colorado until God called him ton’s flying wild, Henry taught me—the three-week reporting trip to Alaska to to something he had sworn he’d never do: same way his grandfather once taught learn about Alaska Natives (see “Way up plant and pastor a church—in a foreign him. Everything Henry knows about the north,” Oct. 1, 2016). One clear-skied culture, no less. land, he learned from his grandfather morning, I joined four members from Sometimes Ernst wonders why God while hunting and fishing. During peak SEND North, an Anchorage-based evan- picked him and his family for mission season, the Henrys net about 30 pikes gelical mission organization that serves work in the bush (a term used in Alaska per day, which they either deep-fry, feed remote areas in Alaska and northwest for any region that’s off the North the dogs, or mash into “Indian ice Canada, on a 2½-hour flight from American road system). After all, he’s an cream”—a sweet, creamy, fatty concoc- Anchorage to Huslia, an Athabaskan all-American white guy who considers tion whipped from dried fish, fresh village in central Alaska. cheeseburgers the greatest edible berries, and Crisco. As we soared over hundreds of miles invention of mankind, and both he and After untangling pikes from the nets, of pristine land, I tried to imagine what Brenda detest seafood in a place where we drifted by the riverbanks to fish for this state must have looked like thou- its people eagerly prepare backyard more. While Henry’s oldest son, Trevor, sands of years ago. It probably looked smokehouses for salmon season. He’s a flung out his fishing hook, I strung up little different from now, with its jagged chronic teaser and joker among a typi- my hoodie and flailed my leggings- silhouettes of mountain ranges blan- cally reserved community that values covered legs against the swarm of keted with trackless snow—and not a solemnity and silence. But after a few single human figure in sight. We passed rocky years, the Ernsts gradually found acre after acre with no power lines, no their nook in the community. asphalt, no trash, no trucks or cars. The The Ernsts’ three children grew up territory looked lush and blooming and attending public schools in the village. spotless, yet lined and grooved with Their only daughter, Jess, married the ancient dunes and shorelines. village hunk Wes Henry, a stoic, copper- And then, all of a sudden, we found skinned Indian with shoulders so strong human civilization, Huslia, where that he regularly breaks his chainsaws. families who have for generations called One of the rare times this hardy hunter- Alaska home continue to live. After fisher broke into cold sweat was when staring at all that unsubdued nature, the he sat in the Ernsts’ living room to ask contrast felt jarring. Among the woods for their daughter’s hand in marriage. As lay a 4,000-foot gravel runway that someone who grew up in a broken fam- forms the Huslia Airport. Dirt roads ily, Henry said, he was initially attracted pockmarked with vehicle tracks and to the Ernsts for their solid and godly footprints connect the airport to the marriage. Today Wes and Jess Henry live neighborhood where government-built, with their five children in a two-story light-blue houses sit in neat rows. Satellite log cabin, a five-minute stroll from the dishes poke out of roofs; ATVs and snow Ernsts’ home. machines park outside every porch. As One Thursday night after dinner, the our plane descended, little figures Henrys invited me to go pike fishing perched on ATVs tilted their blurred with them. We piled into Henry’s truck faces toward us and waved. I waved and drove 15 minutes back, even though they couldn’t see me. out to the Koyukuk Trevor Henry The first thing we saw after stepping River. Then we with a freshly
ALL PHOTOS: SOPHIA LEE out of the aircraft, head still spinning climbed into a boat netted pike
October 29, 2016 • WORLD Magazine 47 mosquitoes. Summertime in Alaska is up at me for a few seconds, looking nei- ing into a different ministry role in gorgeous, but mosquitoes are ever ther friendly nor hostile, then shrugged Fairbanks. present—so much so that some Alaskans and muttered, “If you want to.” I plopped Some villagers teared up as they joke that they should be the state bird. down and started sharing details about talked about having to say farewell to Once the gnats crawl out to party, myself—and soon enough, the woman the Ernsts. “They’re like my lifelong Alaskans are begging for the relief of reciprocated. Vina Bilow was born on friends,” said Cesa Agnes, dabbing her negative-30-degree winter. May 25, 1947, to Steven and Catherine red eyes. The 47-year-old tribal justice By the time we got home at 11 p.m. Attla, and she was one of only four of the worker and lifelong Huslia resident said with our bucket of flopping pikes, itchy 10 babies born that year to survive. She it was through the Ernsts that she first red bumps polka-dotted my face and was the first of the Attlas’ nine children. learned to study the Bible and save her ankles. The bites were worth it, though, After high school, Bilow enlisted in the alcoholism-poisoned marriage. when Henry immediately filleted the Women’s Army Corps and served as a Like many other Alaska Natives, plumpest pike, dipped the chunks in an medical specialist for three years, during Agnes has no desire to leave her isolated, egg-milk mixture, breaded them, and which she experienced the comfortable rural hometown. She remembers with dunked them into the deep fryer. Soon life of the Outside (what Alaskans call fondness camping 20 miles down the we were feasting on deep-fried pike the lower 48 states) but realized “Huslia river with her family every summer as a slathered with ketchup-mayonnaise— will always be home.” child, waking up to the sizzle of pan- the tastiest hot, crispy, flaky midnight Today, as she walks back home from cakes and bacon, swimming and fishing treat I’ve ever had. dinner, Bilow watches the village in the afternoon, and learning how to What I loved about Huslia is its children pedal and crash and perform cut and smoke that day’s catch from her tightknit community: Walk about a half- stunts on colorful bikes in the same parents. That’s why it devastates her to mile to “downtown”—a tree-edged courtyard in which she used to play. see how alcohol and drugs have stolen clearing with a basketball court, post That evening, I walked back with Bilow such childhood memories from today’s office, a couple of small shops, the to her birch-shaded home. We sat next younger generation. Both Agnes and her community center, and playground—and to a rumbling washing machine, and I husband once abused alcohol—she for you bump into familiar people who flick listened to her read out one of her 20 years, he longer—and their now their palms up in greeting. Here in numerous personal essays, a 14-page grown-up kids bear the scars. Huslia, like most other native cultures in Alaska, the community takes care of its own. Nobody goes hungry, because everybody shares and gives. It’s easy to ‘Programs and agencies have not worked, meet people, but quite another matter to make friends: Though the villagers are although a number of people and agencies polite and friendly, not all are open to outsiders, and it takes a while to earn came to stop the suicides. … But it is still their trust. It took the Ernsts years. —Vina Bilow Nonetheless, I made it a personal happening, it is still going on.’ mission to make at least one friend in Huslia. When I heard that the elders’ center provides daily meals to its senior memoir about her 30-year battle with Today, it grieves Agnes when she citizens, I trekked over one evening. depression and suicide. “Programs and receives a call in the middle of the night One by one, Huslia elders entered the agencies have not worked, although a to rescue a child from another alcohol- room and greeted one another with number of people and agencies came to induced abusive situation, but it saddens quiet smiles as they served themselves stop the suicides [in Huslia],” she her just as much to see the same parent strong black coffee and cornbread wrote. “But it is still happening, it is laugh as he teaches his daughter how to muffins. Each week, a community still going on.” ride a bike. “The hardest thing is seeing member volunteers to cook the meals. Because the village is so intimately what could happen when people are That night, the elders got a special treat: connected, the whole community sober,” she said. “Oh my goodness, if crisp iceberg lettuce salad, which, like grieves for every death and tragedy. there were no alcohol or drugs, our all other fresh produce, is ridiculously One recent season, Huslia mourned people would be building houses, fishing expensive in the bush. eight deaths: three suicides, one sus- and camping, doing so much!” I stood out in the crowd with my pected suicide, two in house fires, two I saw that same dualism in Kobuk, an
28-year-old face and my awkward, from cancer. Throughout the years, the Inuit village of 150 in northwestern LEE SOPHIA PHOTOS: ALL hopeful, outsider smile. The elders Ernsts have conducted too many funer- Alaska. From Huslia, Don Ernst and I sipped their coffee, slurped moose chili, als, joined too many body searches, and flew a Cessna 206 into Kobuk, about a and ignored me until I pulled a chair comforted too many widows. This fall, two-hour flight—and by “flew” I mean beside a woman with beautiful, waist- after 26 years in Huslia, the Ernsts are Ernst let me steer the plane after takeoff. length gray hair and a freckled nose. I passing on their ministry to a younger As I gripped the wheel and gritted my asked, “Can I sit here?” and she glanced family from SEND North and transition- teeth through the turbulence, Ernst,
48 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016 Don Ernst, being his classic self, blessing: It softened the hearts of Vina Bilow, regaled me with villagers to see that the Stewarts Wes Henry, tales of near-death aren’t blue-blooded fixer-uppers but and Dessie Stewart piloting experiences. community investors not too proud (from top We touched down to receive the generosity of their to bottom) in Kobuk with all neighbors. our limbs intact. I also benefited from the villagers’ The first sight I saw in Kobuk charity. The first night, we had a was a father walking along the traditional Iñupiat dinner: Sticks of river with his toddler daughter dried fish soaked in seal oil and straddling his neck, her little slivers of raw whale blubber doused fingers clutching his ear and hair. in soy sauce. The next morning, I It was a tender introduction to woke up to view a half-frozen, half- Kobuk that later drooped with the plucked duck and two geese thawing broader facts of abuse and dysfunc- next to the morning coffee. That’s tion in the village. Here’s just one lunch, Sarah Stewart informed me, example: The Kobuk post office and we spent the morning hacking hasn’t opened in months—a grave away the head, wings, and webbed issue, since everything from food feet with a traditional Eskimo knife, to toiletries arrives in the mail by plucking and singeing off the feath- air. The post office shut down ers, wrenching out the innards, and because the last three postmasters stuffing the birds with onions, garlic, were charged with mismanage- and herbs before popping them in ment of finances, and no one in the the oven to bake. It was delicious, village could pass the background and we boiled the leftover meat into checks to fill that position. soup for dinner. My second cheery sight in The next day, the rest of the Kobuk was Sarah Stewart and her Stewart family joined us from two young daughters, 8-year-old Kotzebue, and we had moose meat Desert-rose (or Dessie) and 3-year- and bear ribs roasted with home- old Quya (short for “thank you” in made barbecue sauce—a thoroughly Iñupiaq), zipping over in an old enjoyable meal of game, fat, and ATV to greet me. I hopped on, and marrow. Except for the onion we bumpety-bumped back over (which cost $2.40), most of the food gravel and rocks to the Stewarts’ came from the generosity of Kobuk cozy two-level house. Stewart’s residents and their land. two other children—Isaak and That’s why the Stewarts bristle Shoshana—were in Kotzebue with when well-meaning Christians from their father Luke for a mission the Outside come on short-term report. The Stewarts’ fifth child mission trips bringing material gifts, kicked inside Sarah Stewart’s then- tutting and tsking about the “poor, six-month-pregnant belly. deprived Eskimos.” Life in the bush The Stewarts have been living has its own unique challenges, but in Kobuk for eight years as pastors the people are proud of their rich of the village Baptist church. They land and resources and subsistence live on a tight budget, with their lifestyle. one luxury being Luke Stewart’s On our last day together, the favorite Peet’s coffee. Luke Stewart Stewarts took me on an ATV ride to hunts and fishes when he can, and a hill they call “The Lookout,” where the children love berry-picking in in the fall you can see massive herds the fall. However, sometimes the of caribou teeming in pastures burst- food supply runs so low that the ing with shades of green, auburn, Stewarts don’t know where they’ll sienna, and gold. As I breathed in get their next meal. But someone the minty pine air, Sarah Stewart in the village always notices and walked up next to me and gazed at shows up at the doorstep with the boundless nature before us. “I hunted meat, dried fish, peanut wouldn’t live anywhere else in the butter, and pasta. Sarah Stewart world,” she said. I, a born-and-bred told me their lack of resources is a urbanite, almost agreed. A
[email protected] @SophiaLeeHyan October 29, 2016 • WORLD Magazine 49 FEATURES
LAUGHTER New and popular satire site The Babylon Bee tries to cut through superficiality to hard truths SERIOUS
LAUGHTERby Emily Belz • photos by Jordan Baker
These headlines from The Babylon Bee are satiri- cal, but they and ones like them carry enough humor and truth about today’s evangelical church to turn the Bee into a popular destination. The satire site has quickly become The Onion for Christians. Adam Ford—a former atheist, once an aspiring pastor, and now a father of three boys—launched The Babylon Bee in March, and already it has 108,000 fans on Facebook and 31,000 Twitter fol- lowers. After six months in existence, the website receives between 1 million and 2 million unique visitors every month. He won that large following on the strength of the content; Ford, 33, has no company or venture capital investors promoting or backing the site. “It seems to have filled a void in the Christian internet,” Ford said. And it’s mostly from his brain. At the begin- ning of this year Ford sat down for a few “blurry”
October 29, 2016 • WORLD Magazine 51 MANN: HANDOUT . Seinfeld or - - The Office The Ford calls Mann an “idea fire hose.” They hose.” an “idea fire calls Mann Ford Mann said he’s said he’s Mann “I realized at a young age the power of humor of the power age at a young “I realized a one-man he is no longer Another team. Now church setup. He and He setup. church bounce ideas off Adam each other to see what has but Ford works, reaches publication. on what the final say people on his asked first connected when Ford submissions. for story earlier this year website Spirit submitted this headline: “Holy Mann As Fog Congregation Through Move To Unable last seven years, pub years, seven last game lishing on board and video game sites. constantly writing ideas for the down wak sometimes Bee, ing up in the middle of the night or stopping in the middle of comedic “training,” but he likes observational observational he likes but “training,” comedic like comedy it study and made a point to ideas, for as a vehicle started said. “When I Ford forms,” in its different and people comics on the internet publishing I when them—I guess that’s liking really started something.” onto knew I was helps him churn out Mann, Kyle paid writer, elder at a small Southern is an 29, content. Mann, he’s where Calif., Diego, in San church Baptist and leading helping with preaching currently writer the as a freelance has worked He worship. - - - The Sacramento Sacramento The listening andlistening exclusively to the exclusively “The words seemed so “The words reading the Bible. reading toperfect and ... authoritative “I read recalled. Ford me,” And every and read. and read was It thing began to change. in the least.” doing, not of my himself as “a troublemaker, a troublemaker, himself as “a and a huge pothead.” fighter, one man began talkingBut to him about the gospel, and began Ford religious worldview,” Ford wrote on his wrote Ford worldview,” religious , but published from “Babylon.” from , but published He became a Christian in his early 20s. Ford Ford in his early 20s. became a Christian He Ford says a lot of Christians who suffer from who suffer lot of Christians a says Ford viewed Ford as a teenager, atheist An avowed That realization came when Ford began suffer began came when Ford That realization “Satire is a powerful, effective, and biblical tool and biblical effective, is a powerful, “Satire the nursery in his has transformed Ford Now “an intellectual hermit who likes to laugh,” and to laugh,” intellectual hermit who likes “an but he mild Asperger’s, thinks he might have Ford formal have doesn’t been diagnosed. Ford hasn’t didn’t want to share his church affiliation, but his church he share to want didn’t culture. deep familiarity with evangelical shows faith is because “my that world said he knows He internet” the “Christian but he also reads life,” my wife Chelsea describes him as Ford’s voraciously. mental health issues are afraid to talk about them. afraid mental health issues are have so I don’t up in the church, grow “I didn’t God and I think one reason some of that baggage, is so I can help me these problems has given I do.” like who struggle comfort other Christians was Ford cheap coping mechanism.” as “a religion and he described times in his teens, several arrested young sons wakes up first. He starts working onworking starts He up first. sons wakes young after a couple of hours goesthe site at 7 a.m., and often come to head. Ideas for a run to clear his come back and work him during his run. He’ll comics for his own also drawing until evening, project his first That was Adam4D.com. website, be a pastor. after deciding he couldn’t clinical and panic attacks, anxiety, severe ing from certain Suddenly ago. a few years depression became crip Bible studies, like social situations, to do an interview with me only agreed He pling. because he has learned that real-time email by snowball.” interviews can become an “anxiety other writers to contribute. The site launched to contribute. other writers is modeled name The site’s 20 articles. with about like newspaper, after a traditional Bee one that, much like ideas—and for conveying almost belongs webcomics, anti- launch. site in announcing the Bee’s webcomic pushing his office, Mich., into house in Detroit, he screens together to hold the three desks two the Bible, reads up early, wakes Ford from. works of his with whichever and then spends time weeks and put the site together, skipping sleep skipping together, the site and put weeks a few asked He coffee. of buckets drinking and October 29, 2016 • (bottom) (bottom) Kyle Mann Mann Kyle wife Chelsea Chelsea wife Ford with his Ford children (top); (top); children and their three three and their WORLD Magazine 52 intellectual hermit intellectual laugh.’ to who likes Ford’s wife Chelsea Chelsea wife Ford’s him as ‘an describes Machine Breaks.” It was a hit, and Ford asked him egregious, sadistic, false gospel that preys on the for more. Mann says many of the articles he vulnerable to enrich itself.” comes up with are autobiographical, “with only The Bee is certainly coming from a more names and places changed to protect the accused, conservative evangelical perspective, but it aims you might say.” He says more often than not he’s darts at evangelicals, the pope, Democrats, and making fun of himself. Republicans. It has jabbed televangelist Joel They also have a group that Ford calls the Osteen (“Joel Osteen Apologizes For Using Lord’s “Think Tank” that kicks around story ideas—Ford Name In Sermon”) and blogger Rachel Held won’t reveal its members. One rule the Bee team Evans (“Rachel Held Evans Suffers Momentary Lapse Of Doubt”). The mockery of evangelicals can be more subtle, often targeting cultural Christianity: “Local Family Attending Church On Easter Just In Case God Is Real” or “Pastor Kicks Off Comprehensive New Study Of His Personal Opinions.” Politics is fair game too. The site has consistently criticized both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. “Aides Hurriedly Teaching Trump Bible Stories Via Flannelgraph Ahead Of Meeting With Evangelicals,” reads one headline. Another: “Trump Delivers Eulogy As Republican Party Formally Laid To Rest.” And: “James Dobson Claims Ancient God Cthulhu Is ‘A Baby Christian.’” Clinton also gets her share of criticism: “Hillary Clinton Rehearsing Convention Speech In Dozens Of Different Dialects.” And: “Massive Dust Storm Envelops East Coast As Hillary Clinton Brushes Off Bible To Court Evangelicals.” Ford at The site especially targets Democrats work in on the issue of abortion: “DNC Crowd his studio has is “to satirize opinions we each personally hold dear.” He also isn’t afraid to be controversial. “There are plenty of things that are off-limits,” Ford said. “As editor, I go with my conscience. I ‘Satire is a powerful, effective, and will make mistakes, sure.” biblical tool for conveying ideas— One story after TBN co-founder and prosperity gospel preacher Jan Crouch’s death garnered criti- and one that, much like webcomics, cism on social media for insensitivity. The piece described “baffled prosperity gospel preachers” belongs almost exclusively to the wondering how Crouch could have died given —Ford “her supernatural ability to name and claim health anti-religious worldview.’ and wealth at will, and her decades of collecting donations while promising that God’s will is for Erupts As Kermit Gosnell Gives Surprise Speech everybody to be wealthy and healthy.” From Prison.” And: “Nation’s Unborn Collectively Some fans said the piece went too far and was Recoil As Hillary Clinton Accepts Nomination.” insensitive to Crouch’s mourning family. Fox Ford’s humor is pointed because he is. He finds News covered the controversy, interviewing that his anxiety and depression leave him impa- professor Barry McCarty at Southwestern Baptist tient over “fluff and superficiality.” That’s why Theological Seminary who is a fan of the site but he’s drawn to satire. who called the article “beyond the pale.” Ford “People in the church put too much emphasis stands by the piece. on ‘being nice,’ at the expense of the truth,” he said. “The prosperity gospel, in my opinion, is one “There are big, weighty, eternally important things of the more evil, damnable worldviews in being played out every single day, as my anxiety existence,” he said. “That one wasn’t an oppor- constantly reminds me. ... Wrapping the message in tunist joke, it was a calculated strike against an humor helps its reception sometimes.” A
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Expand Nativity Displays with our JOY Nativity 46" tall Medium and Large Add-On Sets KOEN VAN WEEL/AFP/GETTY IMAGES ANNIVERSARY 35 R drugs into an Ohio prison, drugs intoanOhio prison, Post report in according toarecent festival, injuringabystander, at anAlbuquerque outdoor DRONES FIGHT THE AGAINSTIN ROGUE FALCONRY LATEST THE IS STRATEGY Technology Air attack Air TH NOTEBOOK . Drones have smuggled drone buzzedacrowd Last year, arogue Celebrating 35 years of faithful reporting. The Washington by Michael Cochrane by their frequent involvement sized drones, alongwith in thenumberofhobby- New York City. with three airlinersover efforts, andnearlycollided impeded firefighting The explosive increase Technology Technology Donate now: wng.org/worldmovers / Sports
/ drone during apolice exercise. Above company grasps a An eagle of the Guard From fere withthedrone’s con uses radio beamstointer DroneDefender system shoulder-mounted ing drones. Battelle’s track anddisablethreaten and infrared cameras to drone system usingradars has developed acounter Airbus DefenseandSpace drone technologies. and sophisticated anti- has given risetocreative in dangerous situations, Science Science / Money - - - - October 29, 2016 29, October service during a public service duringa public Janus toldtheAFPnews police spokesman Dennis to ahigh-techproblem,” weapon: trained eagles. using acenturies-old hunting rogue drones, trying anewapproach to distance ofupto40feet. intruder drone from a shoots abignetatan rotor, defensive drone that demonstrated alarge, six- University recently Michigan Technological trols. Andateamfrom “It’s alow-tech solution Now Dutchpoliceare • WORLD Magazine WORLD 55 NOTEBOOK Technology
demonstration last month eliminate the 5-month-old bald eagle of the birds’ newly devel- public safety chicks. They will train oped skills. “The eagles see risk involved about 100 officers to work the drones as prey and in using fire- with the eagles before intercept them as they are power to shoot deploying them next sum- flying, before landing drones out of mer to several police units where they feel safe with the sky. across the Netherlands. the drone still in their A raptor Large drones might claws.” training com- pose some danger to the In a video demonstra- pany, Guard eagles, so the police are tion of the eagle versus From Above, developing a special talon drone contest, police partnered protector made of Kevlar, showed how they trained a with police IEEE Spectrum reported. female bald eagle named hunt drones that may be last year to study whether But typical hobby-sized Hunter not just to grab the posing a danger to the eagles could be effective drones didn’t seem to pose drone out of the air, but to public, such as during state in a counterdrone role, a big problem. take it to “a place desig- visits or when they are according to IEEE “None of the eagles were
nated by the police.” flying too close to airports. Spectrum. As a result of the hurt,” said Janus, “but as WASHINGTON OF WISE_UNIVERSITY DENNIS • HEMAAPP: MONKEYBUSINESSIMAGES/ISTOCK • SENIOR: ABOVE FROM VOORDE/GUARD VAN DER MAARTEN EAGLE: The Dutch police force Like other anti-drone successful tests, the Dutch for the drones, none of will deploy the eagles to technologies, the eagles help police have purchased four them survived.”
WATCHING YOUR STEP Our risk of taking a tumble increases as we age, and the consequences of even a minor fall can be serious, and in many cases life-threatening. University of Missouri researchers studying the relationship between an elderly person’s stride and the risk of falling have developed an in-home monitoring system that could alert caregivers to the likelihood of an imminent fall. The camera-based system monitors both gait speed and FLASH DIAGNOSIS stride length, sending email alerts and a Scientists have turned the ubiquitous smart- picture when it detects a decrease in phone into an instant medical device—one either. that helps doctors diagnose anemia without Using data collected from a Columbia, drawing blood. Mo., retirement residence, the researchers Researchers at the University of from the MU Sinclair School of Nursing and Washington created HemaApp, which uses a the College of Engineering found that when smartphone’s built-in camera and flash to an elderly person’s gait declined by about 2 assess hemoglobin levels in red blood cells, a inches per second, the probability of a fall basic diagnostic test for anemia. The flash in the next three weeks was 86 percent. shines light through the patient’s fingertip, Similarly, a shortened stride length was the camera records the color of the blood, associated with a 51 percent probability of and the app analyzes the color to estimate a fall within three weeks. hemoglobin concentrations. “For many older adults the risk of In tests, HemaApp performed as well as an falling impacts how long seniors can expensive, FDA-approved device that mea- remain independent,” said Marilyn Rantz, sures hemoglobin levels by clipping onto the an MU professor emerita of nursing. patient’s finger. “Being able to predict that a person is at Doug Hawkins, a pediatrics professor at risk of falling will allow caretakers to the UW School of Medicine, said HemaApp intervene with the necessary care to could improve doctors’ ability to screen help seniors remain independent as patients in places with few medical resources: long as possible.” —M.C. “Anemia is one of the most common problems affecting adults and children worldwide.” —M.C.
56 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016 NOTEBOOK Sports
ences. At least one coach banned any Political football talk about Trump because of the CAMPAIGN AND COLIN KAEPERNICK arguments. One BRING DIVISIONS TO THE GRIDIRON player joked that by Jae Wasson the Republican candidate is “the most divisive fig- ure in the league not named Roger Goodell,” the con- troversial league commissioner. National anthem arguments and divisions are even going local as some high-school and children’s teams join the Kaepernick pro- tests. When a team of 11- and 12-year- olds in Beaumont, Texas, knelt during the anthem, the team and coaches received death The football season worried team owners. Woodrow Wilson High’s Edwin threats. Before a game in R offers a break from Since advertisers pay for a Lopez (#1) stands while his Alabama, the announcer, teammates kneel during the news of politicians, police certain number of “eyes- national anthem before a Allen Joyner, shouted across shootings, and interna- on-their-ads,” they were game on Sept. 10. the field: “If you don’t want tional persecution. But this beginning to demand part to stand for the national season the line between of their money back, with player may parrot some- anthem, you can line up politics and football is the league and networks thing Trump says, and the over there … and let our mil- blurred. The protests San losing millions in revenue. black player may think, ‘Oh, itary personnel take a few Francisco quarterback The hashtag #BoycottNFL that’s how you feel?’ And it shots at you since they’re Colin Kaepernick began is sweeping Twitter, but could cause problems.” taking shots for you.” are spreading across the African-Americans said Trump has looked for Crowd members cheered. country as NFL players they were more likely to endorsements from NFL Others saw the protests kneel or raise their fists watch games this season athletes and coaches. He as a manifestation of during the national because of players like scored a four-minute American freedom. Bob anthem. A recent poll from Kaepernick. endorsement speech from Blair, a press box manager Rasmussen Reports found The racial divide Rex Ryan, head coach of in Aurora, Colo., watched more than one-third of extends into the locker the Buffalo Bills, but some his high-school football surveyed Americans saying room itself. NFL players of Ryan’s players weren’t team kneel. After the game, they are less likely to watch have tended to vote happy. White players often the 81-year-old told The the NFL games because of Republican, according to said they appreciate New York Times he thought the protests. Bleacher Report, but this Trump’s bluntness and the students didn’t under- Over the first four season black and white appearance of strength, but stand how little they were weeks of the season, NFL players are splitting over black players were often oppressed: Even though television viewership was politics. “Things are negative and said some many adults saw kneeling down 11 percent: League different when it comes to friendships with white during the anthem as executives sent out a Trump,” said ESPN analyst teammates were breaking disrespect, kids were free
YONG KIM/THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER VIA AP reassuring memo to Damien Woody: “A white down over political differ- to do so. A
35TH Celebrating 35 years of faithful reporting. Donate now: wng.org/worldmovers October 29, 2016 • WORLD Magazine 57 ANNIVERSARY NOTEBOOK Science A Darwinian affair EVOLUTIONISTS SAY WOMEN WHO HAVE AFFAIRS ARE JUST SEEKING ‘MATE INSURANCE’ by Julie Borg
If a woman has an affair, it’s sometimes seek out good genes from simply a “fancy story” spun by R ultimately because evolution an affair partner while they keep their researchers who assume evolution is has biologically programmed her for main partner around for security. responsible for human behaviors. infidelity. So claims a recent research In the new paper, published in the Darwinism dehumanizes all of us paper, in which U.S. researchers pro- July 2016 issue of the journal by reducing us to animals that exist pose that evolution has predisposed Personality and Individual Differences, merely by random chance mutations, women to seek out additional partners researchers instead say evolution has Weikart told me. At a conference, he as a “mate insurance” policy—someone programmed women to engage in once heard the presenter claim the to fall back on if their current mate affairs primarily as a way of maintain- only reason humans don’t eat their loses value to them. ing a backup partner, or as a means of mates after they breed, like black Not all experts are buying it. upgrading if a better opportunity widow spiders, is a matter of a flip of Richard Weikart, a history professor at presents itself. According to this so- the coin. If humans had evolved the California State University, said the new called “mate switching hypothesis,” same way as black widows, our sexual research is just another convenient fidelity has no moral value: Committing morality and religious systems would way of excusing sinful behavior, reliev- adultery is like investing in the stock revolve around the ceremony of eating ing people of moral responsibility with market, and it may even be the wisest our mates after reproduction, the a “my genes made me do it” mentality. choice. The authors write, “Mating presenter claimed. The general concept that infidelity market fluctuations, like stock market According to Darwinists, all is biologically programmed is not new, fluctuations, sometimes make trading behaviors—including sexual deviance, and evolutionists have applied it to a beneficial strategy.” abortion, infanticide, and warfare—are men as well. For women, the leading But Weikart says there’s no scien- part of “the reproductive advantage evolutionary theory regarding infidel- tific evidence for such an assertion. In that is accrued through the Darwinian ity has been the “good genes” or “dual a recent critique on the Evolution struggle for existence,” Weikart said. mating strategy” hypothesis. It claims News and Views blog, Weikart called The “mate switching hypothesis” is an evolution predisposes women to the “mate switching hypothesis” exercise in imagination. ILLUSTRATION: KRIEG BARRIE • BREAD: ALEAIMAGE/ISTOCK ALEAIMAGE/ISTOCK • BREAD: BARRIE KRIEG ILLUSTRATION: DELECTABLE DISCOVERY Oregon State University researchers may have discovered a sixth taste—“starchy”—that could explain our love of foods rich in complex carbohydrates. The currently recognized tastes are salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and umami, a pleasant, savory taste. Until now scientists believed humans couldn’t taste carbohydrates, since carbs break down quickly into sugar molecules. Taste buds aren’t fast enough to capture the carbohydrate taste and so only detect the sweetness left behind, scientists have thought. But the Oregon researchers, publishing in Chemical Senses in August, believe they have proved otherwise: They asked 22 subjects to rate the taste of a variety of solutions containing different levels of carbohydrates. Next they gave the participants a compound that blocked tongue receptors that detect sweet flavors. The subjects still tasted the starchy flavor, indicating they were tasting the carbohydrates themselves. “I believe that’s why people prefer complex carbs,” Juyun Lim, the lead researcher, told New Scientist. —J.B.
58 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016 NOTEBOOK Money
needs. Regulators often use scandals to impose rules they couldn’t push Wells Fargo fallout through otherwise, a tendency Yale law professor Roberta Romano calls THE MARKET IS PUNISHING WELLS FARGO FOR “quack corporate governance.” CREATING FAKE ACCOUNTS. WILL REGULATORS Because Stumpf serves as both chief PUNISH THE REST OF US? by David Skeel executive and chairman of Wells Fargo’s board of directors, federal reg- ulators may be tempted to seek a pro- Anyone with a Wells Fargo of Wells Fargo has now radically hibition on the same person serving in R checking account may be changed. both roles. Although having a separate wondering if he has two or three In Japan, there’s a simple script for board chair may be good for some hidden accounts as well. Wells Fargo a company embroiled in a scandal like companies, it’s probably unnecessary prides itself on “cross-selling” its this one: The chief executive issues a for others, and it has nothing to do services—persuading customers who public apology, then resigns, as did with Wells Fargo’s current misdeeds. open a checking account to use Wells Toshiba’s chief executive after an The other regulatory risk is more Fargo for their mortgage or credit accounting scandal last year. subtle. Because Wells Fargo has been card, too. Employees of the bank got In the United States, we do things weakened by the scandal, the govern- carried away, apparently because their differently. The Wells Fargo board ment will have unusual leverage over jobs and bonuses depended on it, and created up to 2 mil- lion unauthorized accounts for unsuspecting Wells Fargo customers. Who needs Russian hack- ers when your own bank is engaging in identity theft? Now the question is what the consequences should be. Wells Fargo has agreed to pay $185 million in fines, although its defenders point out that the actual cost of this outrageous behavior was far smaller than breathless media coverage suggests: Most of the fake accounts were quickly closed before the victims plans to claw back $41 million of stock Stumpf (left); the bank for the were saddled with any mystery fees. that bank CEO John Stumpf was a Wells Fargo foreseeable future. branch in The bank’s settlement with the scheduled to receive. But Stumpf isn’t Los Angeles If regulators Consumer Financial Protection resigning, and his board probably threaten to open a Bureau has included only $2.6 million won’t force him out. new investigation, in refunds for improper fees—a trivial Stumpf’s punishment may seem they could cripple Wells Fargo’s efforts amount for a large bank with 40 mil- like a slap on the wrist—and there’s to restore its reputation. Wells Fargo lion retail customers. certainly much to be said for the will therefore find it very difficult to What isn’t trivial is the loss of Japanese approach—but in this case a resist subtle suggestions from the trust. Wells Fargo had been the most slap is just about right. Normal market Obama administration that it devote financially conservative and widely forces will take care of the rest. The more of its lending to favored indus- admired of the big banks. It stayed market will batter Wells Fargo until tries—renewable energy, for instance— away from fancy financial contracts the bank manages to restore its good and that it steer clear of disfavored and other excesses during the real reputation, much like the market bat- industries like oil and coal. estate bubble and was financially tered Chipotle after the wave of food Wells Fargo has rightly suffered for healthy even during the Great poisoning cases. the outrageous behavior of thousands Recession. Of all the big banks, it The real risk is that regulators of its employees. Regrettably, the scan- seemed least likely to engage in won’t simply let the market provide dal could tempt regulators to punish
STUMPF: CLIFF OWEN/AP • WELLS FARGO: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES shenanigans. The public perception the discipline the wayward bank the rest of us as well. A
35TH Celebrating 35 years of faithful reporting. Donate now: wng.org/worldmovers October 29, 2016 • WORLD Magazine 59 ANNIVERSARY What kind of message are you going to send this Christmas?
The Word IMAGES OF CHRISTIAN became flesh and moved into the HOPE neighborhood.
—John 1:14
2017 Calendar
featuring the CCO artwork of Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy… Bonnie Liefer
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Order online: cards.ccojubilee.org CCO CARDS Or email us at [email protected] or call 888.569-9030 for a brochure. & PRINTS 100% of the proceeds support campus ministry through the CCO (Coalition for Christian Outreach). VOICES Mailbag
‘Nowhere to Hyde?’ SEPT. 17 Ironically, the party that calls Republicans “racist” promotes a culture of death and destruction that oppresses our poorest neighborhoods. How can one not see opposition to the Hyde Amendment as a racist attack that continues the vision of Margaret Sanger? Planned Parenthood will be the winner here, not mothers and certainly not those little ones who never get a chance at life. —DARLA DYKSTRA / Kansas City, Mo.
Hillary Clinton’s comment that “the disregarding people whose impressive ‘Bearing the image’ unborn person doesn’t have constitu- contributions are erased because they SEPT. 17 You report that a sociologist was tional rights” is quite revealing. At were immigrants. I am so thankful shocked to discover that those who least she recognized that a baby in the that Lin-Manuel Miranda and Ron believed humans bear the image of womb is a person. Does she realize Chernow told this story so beautifully. God held more humanitarian attitudes that others denied rights by their —MEGAN FOWLER on wng.org than those who did not. It is so obvious governments include American slaves that I am shocked that he is shocked. and Jews in Germany? The Hamilton soundtrack is abso- —ROBERT CASTEEL / Lynnwood, Wash. —JOHN IRELAND / Murfreesboro. Tenn. lutely stunning, both in the modern application of history and the raw By the Numbers ‘Free and equal?’ emotion one feels from the Founding SEPT. 17 It was so sad to read about the SEPT. 17 Because of my mother’s Fathers. 11 babies aborted in England and example of contentment without —FAITH ELIZABETH HUNTER on wng.org Wales because of a cleft lip or palate. bitterness, I never gave much thought In 1914 my father had three operations to who had what. My wife and I tried ‘Chaos driven life?’ to correct a double cleft lip and a cleft to teach that to our children, and SEPT. 17 Christians need to study the palate. Photos from before and after especially the idea that the more sciences and challenge evolution, but the operation went into textbooks. He God gives you the more responsibil- we should remember that scientists married and had three children, ity you have. who view life and creation through a including me. —ALLAN CAGE / Sarasota, Fla. Christian worldview commit career —NONIE MOODY / Topsham, Maine suicide. So sad. My wife and I raised our children to —TODD FINCH on wng.org ‘Restless art’ believe in equality, so they were dis- SEPT. 17 As a 47-year-old mom I’m not mayed when black kids mistreated ‘Consider the humble bee’ your typical rap aficionado, but I’m a them, even telling them, “This is our SEPT. 17 Mindy Belz’s thoughtful fan of Shai Linne because he plumbs bus. We don’t want you white kids on column about patience and bees is the depths of what he calls “lyrical here.” I have hope, but I am weary of both startling and beautiful. I will theology.” His lyrics call me to worship those in my generation who look at me never think about bees the same way and to think deeply upon my Savior. with suspicion. again. —STEPHANIE HOOPMAN / West Chester, Pa. —MIKE MANN / Sylvania, Ga. —AIDEN SEXTON / North Augusta, S.C. ‘Deep Oceans’ Another excellent column. This is why ‘Jobs solution’ SEPT. 17 Megan Basham’s careful, I subscribe. SEPT. 17 What a refreshing article! I will poignant descriptions give me just —JANET PICCIONE KLEPPER on Facebook pray for the Joseph Project jobs enough detail to make a firm decision program and Sen. Ron Johnson. A list about whether I’ll watch a movie. ‘ Hamilton’ of the participating manufacturers Thank you so much for wading SEPT. 17 Thank you for this review. This would be great. I would support them; through the inane and offensive to find musical seems to call out the Kohler will be one. the gems for us. American narrative for casually —JONI BRYANT on wng.org —BETH RAMIREZ on wng.org
35TH Celebrating 35 years of faithful reporting. Donate now: wng.org/worldmovers October 29, 2016 • WORLD Magazine 61 ANNIVERSARY VOICES Mailbag Statement of Ownership, ‘Fighting the war on ‘Dodging a bullet’ Management, and terror’ SEPT. 3 As a 1953 graduate of Biola Circulation SEPT. 17 I appreciated Sebastian University, I was taken aback when I Gorka’s comments on how to wage first heard about the California Date of filing: Sept. 29, 2016 an ideological battle with ISIS. One legislation to deny state funding to Title of publication: WORLD way is to show the kind of society biblically sound colleges. After Publication no.: 763-010 they say they would establish; what reading your article, my prayers are Frequency of publication: biweekly kind of freedoms would it have? going to be really specific. No. of issues published annually: 26 —RICHARD MAYFORTH / Clayton, N.Y. —NANCY GROVER / Portland, Ore. Annual subscription price: $59.76 Location of known office of ‘First time here’ ‘Faith and Olympics’ publication: WORLD Magazine, SEPT. 3 SEPT. 3 I’m 62 but could relate to Let’s remember also that P.O. Box 20002, Asheville, NC Andrée Seu Peterson’s column about divers David Boudia and Steele 28802-8202 turning the bewildering age of 64. I Johnson declared where their Mailing address of the headquarters recall as a small child marveling at medals rank in their lives, saying that or general business office of the my grandmother’s soft but very their identity is not in their success publisher: WORLD Magazine, wrinkled skin on her arms and hands. as divers, but in Christ. It’s a pro- 12 All Souls Crescent, Asheville, NC 28803-2625 Recently I looked at my arm and was found statement. Mailing address of publisher, editor, surprised to see her skin. She went to —STEPHEN ALEX STOUT on wng.org managing editor: Publisher: be with the Lord many years ago; but Kevin Martin, P.O. Box 20002, whenever I see my arm, it’s like she’s ‘“Love,” not rights’ Asheville, NC 28802-8202; Editor: right there with me. AUG. 20 Your otherwise excellent Timothy Lamer, P.O. Box 20002, —WAYNE KAMINSKI / Cuero, Texas article on the LGBT strategy for Asheville, NC 28802-8202; Managing cultural acceptance omitted one key Editor: Daniel James Devine, P.O. Box 20002, Asheville, NC 28802-8202 When my mom was in her late 60s tactic: the positive portrayal of she was ready to go home, except she homosexuality on TV. From Soap to Owner: God’s World Publications, Inc., 12 All Souls Crescent, Asheville, NC worried about who would pray for Will and Grace to Modern Family, the 28803-2625 her children. She did go at 101, and 16 gradual mainstreaming of gay charac- Known bondholders, mortgagees, years later her prayers still resonate ters in network comedies did more to and other security holders owning here. influence American acceptance of or holding 1 percent or more of —GLENN STRAUTINS / this lifestyle than almost any political total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities: W.H. Newton III, Ridgewood, Australia maneuvering. 112 Robinhood Road, Asheville, NC —STEFAN A.D. BUCEK / San Jose, Calif. 28804; Jeannie Pascale, ‘The welfare of our cities’ 680 Meandering Way Fairview, SEPT. 3 I love Mindy Belz’s reporting, Corrections McKinney, TX 75069 but Trump’s statements about In New York City, more African- Total number of copies printed refugees were not inflammatory. He American babies died in abortion (net press run): average for last year: was saying what most Americans than were born alive in 2013 85,391; last issue: 75,682 felt at the time. Also, Trump only (“Nowhere to Hyde?” Sept. 17, 2016). Paid circulation: Mail subscription: opposes refugees who wish to do us Hasidim are one kind of strictly average for last year: 77,437; last issue: 74,061 harm. ultra-Orthodox Jews (“Jumping in Sales through dealers and carriers, —JIM RICHARDSON / Oro Valley, Ariz. the deep end,” Sept. 17, 2016). street vendors, and counter sales: Aleppo is Syria’s largest city (“In average for last year: 0; last issue: 0 extremity, opportunity,” Sept. 17, ‘The devil’s bad news club’ Free distribution by mail and other SEPT. 3 The After School Satan Clubs 2016). means: average for last year: 7,954; can’t compete against the Good last issue: 1,621 News Clubs, and they know it; but Total distribution: average for last that doesn’t prevent them from LETTERS and COMMENTS year: 84,554; for last issue: 74,680 trying to demoralize Christians. Email: [email protected] Copies not distributed: average for Secularists have long owned the Mail: WORLD Mailbag, PO Box 20002, last year: 837; last issue: 1,002 entire public school system, yet they Asheville, NC 28802-9998 Website: wng.org are not satisfied if there is even a I certify that the statements made by Facebook: facebook.com/WORLD.magazine hint that Christianity still has some me above are correct and complete. Twitter: @WORLD_mag —Kevin Martin, publisher influence. Please include full name and address. Letters —GREG MANGRUM on wng.org may be edited to yield brevity and clarity.
62 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016 VOICES Andrée Seu Peterson
So in Nashville, Atlanta, and Sandusky, I found myself in the midst of a swelling army of Issachars, men and women who understand the garbage-in-garbage-out principle of education and who take seriously God’s plan for parenting: “For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord” (Genesis 18:19). The way they Training up children in the way they should go is a mandate that hasn’t changed. With the lucidity of the alien to a foreign should go country, I saw the grand convention halls with HOMESCHOOLING’S SPECTACULAR GROWTH different eyes than those who knew not the humble beginnings in the kitchens of Liz F. and AND ITS PITFALLS Susan L. with their volcano simulation experi- ments in a Ball jar. I saw I have been to three mega homeschooling rows of stalls of businessmen R conventions in the past several months— hawking their wares: curric- Nashville, Atlanta, and Sandusky, Ohio. When I ulum packages; Scripture last tuned in to the movement in the early memorization techniques; 1980s, Liz F. and Susan L. were the only people “how to’s” on creating indi- I knew doing it. There were also few curricu- vidualized college plans; lum choices: One of them was A Beka, and one parenting in the internet age; of them wasn’t. Liz and Sue made their own earth stewardship; care for yogurt and dressed like they had eight cats and the poor; brain stimulation; talked to them. cybersecurity; hands-on The big argument against homeschooling in learning suggestions; home- those days was “socialization”: Your kids are schooling pitfalls to avoid. going to grow up weird because they don’t see Speaking of homeschool- enough other kids. And to be honest, I lacked ing pitfalls to avoid, I courage. So I decided that if being bolted to discerned three. One is the rows of school desks six hours a day was good The challenge usual tendency for any good idea to become a enough for me and my mother and for program, and a program to become an industry, Columbus and Attila the Hun, it was good in this 2.5 and an industry to lose its original focus. The enough for my kids. I reaped what I sowed. generation focus must be raising kids for Christ, and the The world has gotten a whole lot worse of home- challenge in this 2.5 generation of homeschool- since that time. Back then you could be sure ers will be to keep their eyes on Christ. that if you went into the little girls’ room in schoolers The second pitfall is related. As I read North Carolina, there were no men in it wearing will be to through the list of offerings in the 200 breakout dresses. Of course, the prophets among us could keep their sessions, I saw more than a few titles addressing see it coming in the 1980s. Even in the 1970s, the problem of burnout and stress. This was Archie and Edith sang nostalgically in All in the eyes on corroborated by remarks of individual women I Family: “And you knew who you were then; Christ. spoke to who had either lost control of their girls were girls and men were men.” houses and were drowning in clutter, or were in There have always been the prophets. In serious need of R&R. the days of David on the lam from Saul, it was The third was the possibility of raising up a written of one tribe among those rallying to child for 12 years in the Lord, only to hand him the young giant-slayer, “Of Issachar, men who over to a college that will undo it all. That had understanding of the times, to know what would be tragic indeed—“as if a man fled from Israel ought to do” (1 Chronicles 12:32). a lion, and a bear met him” (Amos 5:19). As Regarding our own times, the prophetic Solzhenitsyn warned, “Truth eludes us as soon watchword of Paul is “ in the last days there as our concentration begins to flag, all the while will come times of difficulty. For people will leaving the illusion that we are continuing to be lovers of self, … always learning and never pursue it.” able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth” May the focus of educating for the Lord
KRIEG BARRIE KRIEG (2 Timothy 3:1-2, 7). always be kept on the Lord. A
[email protected] October 29, 2016 • WORLD Magazine 63 VOICES Marvin Olasky
Chinese characters for “delivered a speech” and “furiously spoke” are similarly pronounced. A computer input error apparently led to the impression that Xi ranted. At least Wang was only fired: Other journalists have been impris- oned. Some small publications can still fly under the government’s radar, but officials try to turn the important into the impotent. Mediadictablanda That’s mediadictadura. The United States now suffers undermediadictablanda , soft jour- TIME FOR A JOURNALISTIC REFORMATION nalistic despotism where officials do not tell reporters what they must write, but most jour- When I was 30 in Delaware and bored nalists at influential media outlets enthusiasti- R with writing speeches for DuPont cally participate in groupthink. They embraced Company executives, I inserted references to “progressive” concepts in college and have baseball in half a dozen consecutive speeches bulwarked those ideas since then by living and and then did the same with quotations from working in echo chambers where seldom is Alexis de Tocqueville, the 1830s author of heard a contrary word. The few who read more Democracy in America. widely and think more broadly learn to self- My favorite was his description of soft censor their work if they wish to rise. despotism: “The will of man is not shattered, but Mediadictablanda was evident when the softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced Obama administration could not completely by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from cover up all its initial $400 million cash pay- acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it pre- ment to Iran’s rulers. And on Aug. 18, as new vents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it com- evidence of Obama administration lies emerged, As seen on Public Television presses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a Most NBC, ABC, and CBS evening news shows gave people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better that news two minutes of coverage, while cover- RETURNING TO CONCERT HALLS ACROSS AMERICA THIS DECEMBER than a flock of timid and industrious animals.” journalists ing for almost 14 minutes a story about a lie at When I was 40 in Texas and eager to learn a at influential the Olympics. Mediadictablanda has also ruled 12/7: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts little Spanish, I sat in a classroom with students media outlets in recent months as those three networks have Opera House in Washington, D.C* half my age and learned how some Spaniards given much more coverage to Donald Trump 12/12: The Fox Theatre in Atlanta, GA* starting in 1930 played with the word dictadura enthusiasti- controversies than to Clinton ones. (dictatorship) and created a new word, dicta cally partici- Governments prefer mediadictablanda to 12/15: Clowes Memorial Hall in Indianapolis, IN blanda (soft dictatorship): A dictablanda pate in mediadictadura: No need to pay overtime to 12/19: The Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, PA* regime preserves some liberties as long as the groupthink. jailers if journalists will imprison themselves 12/20: Carnegie Hall in New York, NY* ruled don’t rile the rulers. and torture only readers and viewers who care 12/21: Severance Hall in Cleveland, OH* Having paid my dues, I’d now like to make about truth. But Oct. 31 is Reformation Day, up two longer Spanish words to create another celebrating the heroism 499 years ago of 12/22: The Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville* contrast: mediadictadura vs. mediadictablanda. Martin Luther when he sent 95 theses to his *Includes special guest, Alistair Begg! China and other countries that censor journalis- ruling archbishop, and then posted them on the tic content suffer undermediadictadura . Many door of All Saints’ Church. Maybe next year powerful Chinese media are state-run. Those will bring the beginning of a much-needed Find a full list of dates at GettyMusic.com/Tour that aren’t face increasingly heavy censorship. reformation of journalism. A As the South China Morning Post reported in August, “Beijing has tightened control over “You just have to get a copy of this new book online news websites, ordering editors-in-chief Susan and I recently spent an enjoyable weekend in California with and CD for your kids” -Joni Eareckson Tada to take full responsibility for any wrongdoings a couple who love both WORLD and The World and Everything In It, and implementing around the clock monitoring.” our daily news podcast—but they didn’t go to our website because The Post, still exerting occasional journalistic they assumed it only contained magazine and podcast content. independence in Hong Kong, reported that “the Not so. We have limited space in the magazine, so in each of the measures came within a month of the sacking of past two years we’ve run about 2,700 online-only articles and Wang Yongzhi, editor-in-chief of the online news columns. For example, wng.org this year has run many fascinating department of Tencent, the Shenzhen-based stories from our Nigeria-based reporter, Onize Ohikere, and if you’re KRIEG BARRIE This new CD and songbook engages kids with songs to carry for life that share timeless internet giant.” Wang’s offense: A Tencent interested in Israel you shouldn’t miss Sophia Lee’s personal essay truths with intentional artistry. 12 hymns old and new sung by kids for kids of all ages to report said Chinese President Xi Jinping had about her recent Jerusalem encounter at wng.org/israel_trip. sing along to! Recorded with kid friendly arrangements by the Getty Band. “furiously” given an important speech. 10% off your order at GettyMusic.com/kids 64 WORLD Magazine • October 29, 2016 [email protected] @MarvinOlasky with code GKHWORLD
WorldMagAd.indd 1 10/10/16 3:16 PM As seen on Public Television RETURNING TO CONCERT HALLS ACROSS AMERICA THIS DECEMBER 12/7: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Opera House in Washington, D.C* 12/12: The Fox Theatre in Atlanta, GA* 12/15: Clowes Memorial Hall in Indianapolis, IN 12/19: The Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, PA* 12/20: Carnegie Hall in New York, NY* 12/21: Severance Hall in Cleveland, OH* 12/22: The Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville* *Includes special guest, Alistair Begg! Find a full list of dates at GettyMusic.com/Tour
“You just have to get a copy of this new book and CD for your kids” -Joni Eareckson Tada
This new CD and songbook engages kids with songs to carry for life that share timeless truths with intentional artistry. 12 hymns old and new sung by kids for kids of all ages to sing along to! Recorded with kid friendly arrangements by the Getty Band. 10% off your order at GettyMusic.com/kids with code GKHWORLD
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