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 30 4 News / Human Race / 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. 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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.