The World and Everything in It: June 2, 2023 – WORLD News Group

MYRNA BROWN, HOST:Hey there, before we get started, I just want to remind you of the coming deadline for our call to new donors to join the ranks of our faithful WORLD Movers. If youve been listening all week, youve heard us talk about the importance of your financial gifts to keep WORLD strong and supplied.

NICK EICHER, HOST:And youve probably also heard that were specifically urging you if youve never given before to take advantage of a dollar-for-dollar match this week only. Please head over to wng.org/newdonor,and every dollar you give becomes two. But this week only.

BROWN:So double your impact today at wng.org/newdonor. Were grateful.

PREROLL:The World and Everything in It is made possible by listeners like me. My name is Whitney Pipkin, and I am a 2008 World Journalism Institute graduate working as a journalist and soon-to-be book author here in Washington, DC area.I hope you enjoy todays program.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST:Good morning!Well, June, they say, is pride month. Today on Culture Friday, well talk with author Katie McCoy about the parental pushback thats making this year different.

NICK EICHER, HOST:Also today, the Spiderverse sequel opens this weekend.WORLDs Collin Garbarino has a review.

MOVIEAUDIO:Hey, whos the new guy? Hey Pav.Im sorry, who are you? Im glad you asked new guy. Im not a new guy!

And Ask the Editor.

BROWN:Its Friday, June 2nd. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. Im Myrna Brown.

EICHER:And Im Nick Eicher. Good morning!

BROWN:Time now for the news with Kent Covington.

SOUND: On this vote, the yeas are 63. The nays are 36. The 60-vote threshold having been achieved, the bill is passed.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Debt limit With that vote in the Senate last night, a bill to raise the federal debt ceiling is heading to the Oval office for the presidents signature.

Senators pushed late in the evening, passing the bill after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urged fellow Republicans to back it.

MITCHMCCONNELL: It locks in promising reforms to infrastructure permitting. It claws back unspent COVID emergency funds. It slashes bloated spending at the IRS.

But many Republicans argued that the bill dangerously cuts defense spending while allowing too much spending everywhere else. Sen. Eric Schmitt:

ERICSCHMITT: I think weve got to start dealing with structural reform. We simply are spending too much money with out the needed reform, and thats why Im not supporting the bill in its current form.

The House passed the bill Wednesday night. President Biden said hell waste no time signing it into law.

Senate votes to nix Biden student debt plan Hours earlier, the Senate voted to overturn the presidents plan to cancel up to $20,000 in federal student loans for more than 40 million people.

Critics say the plan would effectively have many blue collar workers paying for the student loans of other Americans.

Republican Sen. John Thune:

JOHNTHUNE: Its something of a slap in the face to Americans who chose more affordable college options or worked their way through school to avoid taking on student loans.

Opponents also argue the president doesnt have the authority to forgive the debt on his own with the stroke of a pen.

The vote was 52-to-46. Two Democrats and one left-leaning independent voted for the bill.

They were Sens. Joe Manchin, Jon Tester, and Kyrsten Sinema, an independent.

It now heads to President Bidens desk, where he is certain to veto it.

Pence/Christie Three more Republicans are set to jump into the presidential race in the days ahead. WORLDs Mary Muncy has more.

MARYMUNCY: The Associated Press reports that former Vice President Mike Pence is in,and hell formally launch his campaign at a kickoff event in Des Moines, Iowa on Wednesday.

Meantime, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will reportedly launch his campaign one day earlier in New Hampshire.

And North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is expected to enter the race next week, as well.

Thatll bring the rapidly growing number of GOP candidates to 11.

For WORLD, Im Mary Muncy.

DeSantis and Trump stump The top two candidates in early Republican polls are also hitting early voting states.

Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis both campaigned in Iowa this week, with the rivalry between them heating up.

Trump spoke to a conservative group on Thursday in suburban Des Moines.

DONALD TRUMP: Ive been watching DeSanctus go out and say Ive got eight years. Its going to be eight years. Let me tell you something, right there you should vote against him. Itll take me six months to have it totally the way it was.

Trump has taken to purposely misstating Ron DeSantis name, calling him Rob DeSanctus.

For his part, DeSantis talked about the rise during Trumps presidency of COVID policies that he called Fauciism.

RONDESANTIS: In Florida, we chose freedom over Fauciism, and we are better for doing that.

He also took a jab without saying Trumps name, telling a crowd in Des Moines that leadership is not about entertaining.

U.S. Sudan sanctions The White House says that it is imposing sanctions on weapons companies supporting both sides of the violence in Sudan.

The announcement comes as the Sudanese military earlier this week backed out of peace talks with its paramilitary opponentthe Rapid Support Forces.

U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken says a ceasefire in the country has beenhis words incredibly imperfect and fragile.

TONY BLINKEN:And now we're seeing actions again by both sides in clear violation of the commitments they made in terms of the cease-fire.

The fighting in Sudan has killed more than 800 people and wounded thousands more.

Iowa apartments update Several people are still missing after an apartment building partially collapsed in Iowa earlier this week.

Davenport Police Chief Jeff Bladel:

JEFFBLADEL:We had a number of people displaced, but we have families here that are still wanting answers and searching for their loved ones.

A report issued days before the building collapsed said parts of the brick exterior appeared ready to fall, but authorities did not order residents to leave.

Officials say they were relying on a structural engineer who said the building needed repairs but was not at imminent risk of crumbling.

I'm Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Culture Friday with Katie McCoy.Plus, returning to the Spiderverse.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Its the 2nd day of June 2023.

Glad to have you along for todays edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, Im Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And Im Nick Eicher. Its Culture Friday.

Joining us now is Katie McCoy. She has a PhD in theology and is author of a book just released, titled To Be A Woman. Good morning, Katie!

KATIE McCOY, GUEST:Good morning to you both.

EICHER:So congratulations on the book, first of all.And I just want to note that I have a level of appreciation for the lead time necessary to have a book produced. So, given the lengthy timeline, did you really imagine that the issues you raise in the book would be so front and center, with the growth of trans identity issues? But before you even get there, did you at least plan the release for Pride Month?

McCOY:I did not, and that was entirely out of my hands. The publisher made that decision, and it wasn't until my brother pointed it out. He said, Did you mean to do this for Pride Month? I said no, I had no idea did not even connect that dot. So to your first question, you know, yes and no, because I had seen all of these things happening in the news and had been teaching on this in different venues for several years. And you can see it sort of evolving. And at the same time, I remember turning in the manuscript in mid-September. And it seemed like every week, there would be something that happened in the news, and I thought, if I were still writing, I would have to put that in that would be a paragraph, or at least a section, because we saw mounting evidence, and now it has all come to the surface in a way that I don't think we've seen before. And now something that was on the fringes is now mainstream, it's everywhere. In fact, it's boring to be cisgender. Now you have to stick your identity in something related to gender, and sexual orientation. And so now all of a sudden, seemingly all of a sudden, it has exploded to the point that now average decent Americans that are not privy to most controversies. Well, it's come to their homes, usually through social media, and also through the entertainment industry, and even education.

EICHER:Along these same lines of Pride Month: In previous years, and certainly this was the case last year, it seemed as though these four weeks were to be endured but this year were seeing a little pushback. Are you seeing the same?

McCOY:I would agree, and first of all, we have to remember Pride Month has been around for a long time. It started under President Clinton, it was expanded under President Obama. But then since the policies of President Biden's administration, I think we're seeing this come up to a new level of activism, especially corporate activism. You know, it used to be that this was about tolerance, acceptance, respect, things that every human being should be able to expect from their fellow citizen. Now, however, this isn't about tolerance. This is about recognition. I think there's a couple of things going on, first of all, this year, it seems like we're seeing so much more that specifically targeted to children, and parents all over whether or not they are religious, some of them are atheist, and they're just saying enough, this is enough. And that is exactly as it should be. Because what gets lost in this Nick is how gender is based in our biology. It's it's driven and informed by our biology. But we understand our sense of who we are as a man or a woman according to our relationships, beginning in our families, and then in society. The other thing we're seeing too, not only in that corporate agenda, the political agenda, but what we cannot deny is the reality of the spiritual source of so much of this darkness coming from gender confusion, the way that it is targeting vulnerable people, but especially how it is anti-God and specifically anti-Christ. You know, you heard about this nun group, this faux-nun on what are they even called the Sisters of indulgence? Yes, some some blasphemous thing. Honestly, I saw this. I saw this mocking of the crucifixion. And the only thing I could think of is if I were there, I'd be walking away before the lightning started to come down. I mean, it was breathtakingly blasphemous. And we have a major sports franchise making room for them giving them an award. And now who are the opponents? Who are the bad guys now in society? Well, now it's the Christians. Can you imagine any other world religion receiving this type of mockery and being dusted under the rug? No, we--if this were happening, and people were making fun of Allah, we would have public outcry against Islamophobia. You don't see them doing this without Allah, Buddha, Confucius, any other major world religion.

BROWN:Let me jump in there real quick. Katie, you know, not only is this so called Pride Month, its presidential campaign launch season. Republicans Ron DeSantis. And Tim Scott announced last week chris Christie and Mike Pence are expected to announce sometime in the next few weeks. And you know, there's been a lot of focus on issues like immigration and abortion. But I'm wondering, what questions should voters be asking these candidates regarding issues of sexuality and gender?

McCOY:It's a great question, Myrna. You know if parents wanted to turn the tide of all of this in one election cycle, they would ask every candidate to make a statement on where they fall on WPATH standards of care, you can go online and read about what these standards of care entail. They are an activist organization that involved doctors, but they're not a medical organization. It's an activist organization. And they are lobbying for how transgender care should go about within the medical community, one of the stipulations that WPATH says, for instance, is that only one doctor is necessary to approve the gender transition of someone. But then if that person wants to detransition, well, now we need to put some guardrails up. Now we need a multiplicity of voices to weigh into that decision. So essentially, it's making it more difficult for the person to detransition. Other things that people should be asking candidates specifically is the role of gender education in public school systems. And every school district every state that is a school district by school districts state by state question. So as important as it is to keep our eyes on what's happening at the federal level in Washington, it really is what's happening in your local school district that you need to get very inquisitive about. But but the truth is, parents still really do hold the power, they have the ability to hold the candidates feet to the fire on where they stand, not just on the kind of conceptual issue of things like women's sports or, or the idea of men in women's spaces, but specifically ask them where do they fall on the government involvement in endorsing things like WPATH standards of care, but I would love to see people make this a litmus test issue, as so many other things are.

EICHER:Katie, were on our last day for WORLD Journalism Institute, and I wanted to make room for one final student question, and here it is:

JOHANNA HUEBSCHER:Hi, my name is Johanna Huebscher and I'm a rising senior at Bob Jones University attending WJI this week. My question is, as young Christians who are beginning to enter into marriage, how do we decide which forms of birth control are biblically acceptable and which ones are not?

McCOY:That's a wonderful question and one that many women have asked before. So first, we know that we may not have a specific Bible verse to tack on to it. Instead, we need to take in the whole counsel of Scripture when we approach a question like that. So we know already that anything that would be in abortifacients. So something inducing an abortion is something that we should not participate in. Now, unfortunately, we've got to do our homework, because drug companies can get a little artful in how they define pregnancy and abortion. So they may say things like, oh, no, it's not causing an abortion. But what they're really saying behind all of that research is, we're not actually acknowledging that a pregnancy at seven weeks is actually a pregnancy. So you've got to do your homework on how pharmaceutical companies are using those definitions. But I think even more than that, there's a broader question. And this isn't to say that people should just have children without having a plan for how to care for them or provide for them or anything like that, but, but I think we do need to consider a broader question. I heard a medical doctor say it this way that the woman's reproductive system is designed to be expressed, not suppressed. And there is a lot of research coming out on the negative physical effects that the birth control pill has on women, you figure so many of these women have been on it for many years, they get off thinking they can get pregnant immediately. And it doesn't work out like that. Well, some other things that you won't find, again, unless you do your own digging, because birth control is big money. There's a lot of money to be lost if a lot of this information came out mainstream, is that there are a lot of significant side effects to a woman taking hormonal birth control, including on her mental and emotional health. It's linked to increase of stroke and blood clots. It's even linked to some studies demonstrating that it changes a woman's sexual attractions and sexual drive. And so some of these things that are billed as completely side effect free. It's not that case at all. And not only do we have that moral question, but we even have that question of wisdom is this even best Is this the best thing for a woman to do for her reproductive system? Is is how God designed a woman's body to function. And anytime you're taking a pill that changes your hormone, you're going to have side effects. I'm no doctor, but I can I'm not I'm not the real kind of doctor.

EICHER:When we say doctor, we mean PhD.

McCOY:Thank you. That's good. That's good. I'm not the kind who can can get you out of a real crisis.

BROWN:Katie McCoy has a PhD in theology and is author of the new book To Be A Woman. Thank you, Katie.

McCOY:Thank you so much.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, June 2nd. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.Good morning. Im Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST:And Im Myrna Brown.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: Marvels friendly neighborhood Spider-Man swings back into theaters with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Heres arts and culture editor Collin Garbarino.

COLLIN GARBARINO: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is the much anticipated follow up to 20-18s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The original movie was groundbreaking in both its animation and narrative. And fans of Into the Spider-Verse wont be disappointed with this sequel.

Across the Spider-Verse picks up where the original movie left off. In the first movie, a variety of Spider-Men from different dimensions come together to defeat a bad guy who risks collapsing the multiverse with a giant supercollider. The Spider-Team prevents the collapse, but at the beginning of this new movie, we learn that their battle poked some holes in the multiverse, letting both good guys and bad guys travel between dimensions.

The hero of this story is Miles Morales, voiced by Shameik Moore. This version of Spider-Man is a science-loving 15-year-old of African-American and Puerto Rican descent.

GUIDANCE COUNSELOR: Miless grades are pretty good. A in AP Physics.

MOM: Thats my little man!

GUIDANCE COUNSELOR: And AP studio art.

DAD: He takes after his uncle.

But trying to balance the responsibilities of family and school with his secret identity as Spider-Man is proving to be a bit of a challenge for Miles.

GUIDANCE COUNSELOR: And a B in Spanish.

MOM: What?!

DAD: Whoo. OK.

MOM: Miles!

Brian Tyree Henry and Luna Lauren Vlez voice Miless parents Jeff and Rio, and their scenes are some of the best in the movie. The movie taps into something real with its depiction of a father and mother struggling with how to parent a teenager whos trying to make a life for himself.

Then Miless sort-of girlfriend Gwen, voiced by Hailee Steinfeld, steps back into his life through an interdimensional portal. Gwen is the Spider-Woman in another dimension, and she introduces him to the wider Spider-Verse.

MILES: Wait, wait, wait. Hold on! Theres an elite society with all the best Spider-People in it?

Thousands of Spider-People from thousands of worlds are teaming up to keep the multiverse from collapsing. They need to plug those holes that were left after the supercollider exploded in the last movie. Theyre led by Miguel, the Spider-Man from 2099.

MILES: And whos Miguel?

GWEN: Hes like a ninja, vampire Spider-Man, but a good guy.

MILES: A vampire good guy. Id pay good money to see that.

Besides Miguel, Miles meets Jessica Drew, a pregnant Spider-Woman who rides a motorcycle; Hobie, a punk rock anarchist Spider-Man who carries a guitar; and Pavitr Prabhakar, an Indian Spider-Man who defends a city thats a synthesis of Mumbai and Manhattan.

PAVITR: Being Spider-Man is so easy. I fight a few bad guys. Quick break for Chai with my auntie.

MILES: I love Chai tea.

PAVITR: What did you just say? Chai means TeaYoure saying Tea Tea!

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller return as the creative power behind this sequel. Besides the first Spider-Verse movie, theyre also responsible for the two Lego movies, which are also stellar.

Lord and Miller cover familiar Spidey territory with ideas like, actions have consequences and our hardships define us. But they add an interesting thought experiment. What if we could erase those hardships in order to alleviate the suffering of others? Would we? Even though that might redefine us?

MIGUEL: You have a choice between saving one person and saving every world.

Continued here:
The World and Everything in It: June 2, 2023 - WORLD News Group