3.31.26 Military force and diplomacy in Iran, social media companies held accountable, Gen Z relationships, and church design for music and preaching

Good morning. More American troops in the Middle East as the U.S. looks for its next

lever to force Iran to the table short of a full-scale invasion. They'll talk with an

expert.

Also today a mother's warning about the dangers of social media for kids and Gen Z's dating

rut will have a report later how sound shapes the way a congregation worships.

You've got the music and then you've got spoken word right next to each other and usually

they want pretty opposite things acoustically.

And World Commentator Bethel McGrew on the criminalization of Christian speech and Euro.

It's Tuesday March 31st. This is The World and everything in it from Listener supported

World Radio. I'm Mary Reichard.

And I'm Nick Einker. Good morning.

Next Mark Mellinger with today's news.

President Trump is threatening devastating damage to Iran's infrastructure if that Middle

Eastern nation does not reach a deal soon to end the U.S. Israeli air campaign Operation

Epic Fury. In a social media post, the president said great progress is being made in peace

talks with Iran while also threatening that the U.S. will completely obliterate Iran's

power plants, oil wells, and possibly even plants that supply drinking water if a deal

to end the conflict and reopen the Strait of Hormuz isn't in place shortly. White House

press secretary Caroline Levin.

This remains a truly once in a generation opportunity for the regime to make a good deal

with the United States permanently abandoned their nuclear ambitions and stop acting as

the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism.

Trump says he's negotiating with the speaker of Iran's parliament, though the speaker denies

the talks. A few days ago, the president said he'd hold off on bombing key Iranian infrastructure

until April 6th. And there's no indication that date has changed. While Trump says negotiations

are moving in the right direction, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman has a different

view calling the peace proposal from the White House excessive, unrealistic, and irrational.

Meanwhile, more retaliatory strikes from Iran and its proxies on key infrastructure of

Israel and other U.S. Middle East allies Monday as the U.S. and Israel blistered Iran with

fresh strikes of their own. Middle East allies like Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait

are urging the U.S. to continue epic fury until Iran's leadership or behavior has changed

significantly. They say Iran hasn't been weakened enough yet. The U.S. is preparing to

possibly send in ground troops for special targeted missions short of a full-ground invasion,

like seizing Iran's oil facilities or enriched uranium.

The gunman who ploughed his truck into a synagogue in Michigan earlier this month was inspired

by the Islamic terror group Hezbollah. That is the finding of the FBI.

We assess this attack to be a Hezbollah-inspired act of terrorism, purposely targeting the

Jewish community and the largest Jewish temple in Michigan.

That is FBI Detroit special agent in charge Jennifer Runyon. The gunman, Lebanese national

who entered the country in 2011 as the spouse of a U.S. citizen drove his truck into the

building while it served as a daycare. He ended up killing himself after exchanging gun

shots with security. Investigators have found he planned out the attack beforehand, searching

online for where he could find large gatherings of Jews in Michigan and had also posted

anti-Semitic sentiments online. Children were inside the synagogue at the time of the

attack, but they were all okay. 30 officers did need treatment for smoke inhalation.

Transportation Security Administration TSA workers finally started getting paid for the

first time in a month and a half Monday, and as they did those long security lines in

America's airports got a whole lot shorter. TSA falls under the Department of Homeland

Security, DHS, and is caught up in a political stalemate over DHS funding. TSA officer

Aaron Barker says he didn't receive his full back pay yet, but anything coming in right

now helps.

This morning I did receive a deposit into my account as many of my colleagues have. That

money is needed. I know we're going to get some sense of normalcy back to officers

everyday lives.

Hundreds of TSA workers quit, and large numbers called in sick over the past few weeks, leading

to very long lines at airport security checkpoints. Monday those lines were generally way down.

At Houston's main airport, the wait went from about four hours over the weekend to roughly

ten minutes Monday. Controversy with other DHS agencies responsible for immigration enforcement

and border patrol sparked the standoff. After two U.S. citizens died in confrontations

over immigration raids this year, Democrats are refusing to fully fund DHS unless there

are reforms to immigration and customs enforcement, ICE, and customs and border patrol.

The lack of the DHS funding deal isn't keeping lawmakers on Capitol Hill from their Easter

recess. The Senate met for 31 seconds Monday, giving Republicans the theoretical possibility

of passing a house bill via unanimous consent that would have funded DHS for two months.

But Democrats squelched such a political maneuver, making sure Senator Chris Coons of Delaware

was there as a watchdog and the Senate recessed without voting.

Just in case a Republican member showed up and said, I ask unanimous consent that we fund

ICE and border patrol or that we adopt the house bill, I was there to object.

Republicans argue the reforms Democrats want, like barring agents from wearing masks and

making them prove their identities, would make those agents less safe.

Now both chambers are on a two week Easter recess. The White House is still urging the

Senate to come back to try to pass key priorities like DHS funding. President Trump says

Hill hosts an Easter dinner for lawmakers if they do. A 15 year old student shot a teacher

then fatally shot himself at a high school near San Antonio Monday morning. Another student

at the school, Jesse Garza, described the scene to KSAT TV.

All I know is that there were three to four gunshots. It sounded like a table slamming

down and then heard someone scream. Everyone just like ran out the back to the bus area.

The gunfire rang out at Hill Country College Preparatory High School in the city of Bolverde.

Medics took the teacher to a hospital nearby, no official word on the teacher's condition

or on what exactly led to the shooting. Afterward, school officials took students to

a middle school nearby to reunite with their parents. Classes at the high school are canceled

today, but counselors will be on hand if students or families need to talk.

The Trump administration is taking legal action in Minnesota to protect women's sports,

World's Travis Courts reports.

The Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division filed a lawsuit Monday against education

and sports officials in Minnesota. The lawsuit accuses the Minnesota Department of Education

and the Minnesota State High School League of violating Title IX when they allowed boys

who identify as female to compete in girls-only sports. The lawsuit also says boys were

allowed to invade girls' locker rooms and bathrooms. In a statement, Minnesota's Democratic

Attorney General Keith Ellison characterized the lawsuit as a sad attempt to get attention.

He also accused the Trump administration of trying to shame and harass children. But

the DOJ says those policies create unfair competition in fringe on girls' athletic opportunities

and create a hostile environment for girls. For World, I'm Travis Courtshire.

And I'm Mark Mellinger. Straight ahead, a former Special Forces Officer on the Balancing

Act, the U.S. is trying to pull off in Iran. And later, why Gen Z appears to be deading

less often than previous generations. This is the world and everything in it.

It's Tuesday the 31st of March. You're listening to World Radio and we're glad you've joined

us today. Good morning. I'm Mary Reichard. And I'm Nick Eiger. First up on the world

and everything in it America's new options in Iran. Over the weekend, the U.S. deployed

more troops to the Middle East, bringing the number of troops near the ground to more

than 50,000. This comes as the president threatens more strikes on Iran's energy sector if

the country's new leaders do not negotiate the end of its weapons programs. We're doing

extremely well in that negotiation, but you never know with the rent because we negotiate

with them and then we always have to blow them up. Joining us now to talk about the operation

is retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Mike Nelson. He's now Chief of Staff for the University

of Pennsylvania's Washington, D.C. office. He previously served in the Middle East with

U.S. Special Forces. Mike, good morning. Good morning. Thanks for having me here.

Well, let's just start with what the U.S. has accomplished so far. How far have the

U.S. and Israel gotten to achieve its four military objectives? And I believe that's

destroying Iran's missile program, sinking its Navy, ending its nuclear program, and then

halting its support for international terror. For the purposes of your question, I think

it's important to focus on two of those, destroying the Navy and destroying the ballistic

missile capability. And at one point in time, the president had kind of expanded that second

one to destroying the industrial base that allows them to produce some of these missiles.

To answer that, United States Central Command has been incredibly effective as well as

the Israelis at targeting these military capabilities that the Iranians had prior to

the beginning of the conflict and have been severely diminished since. The key problem

I think right now is those last two of the four that you specified that the president

had enumerated before, ending the nuclear program and a lack of support for the regional

proxies, short of truly removing the regime and the people who would make the decisions

to sponsor both of those programs. This is going to require some kind of agreement from

the Iranian regime that they are going to end those activities or agree to some kind

of negotiation where we have some kind of verification of that. So there's going to be

either a changing in what we determine the end state of this operation is or some kind

of need to ramp up the pressure both militarily and diplomatically so that the regime eventually

capitulates. What do we know about Iran's lethality

these days? On Friday, 12 Americans in Saudi Arabia were wounded and Iranian strike. So

what do we know? The regime does not want to capitulate. The regime is choosing a path

of resistance rather than concession and to that end they are using different levers

that they have at their disposal to achieve some kind of pressure back towards us. We saw

in the initial days that they kind of lashed out with some of their ballistic missiles

around the region with not very good effects. They were able to unfortunately kill several

U.S. service members in Kuwait and then we've had several casualties since then. We also

saw that they've been able to target key capabilities like the E3 aircraft that was destroyed

in Saudi Arabia just over the weekend. So the Iranians are trying to be creative. They

are trying to resist. I think they may be trying to entertain a certain kind of nonstandard

and asymmetric attacks to try to achieve some kind of pressure against us. Let's talk

about options. The Pentagon says sending 2500 additional Marines and around 2000 Army

pair of troopers gives the U.S. more options. What are those? The first thing I think we

should get out of the way is we are not necessarily talking about a repeat of Operation Iraqi

Freedom from 2003. Large scale invasion of Iran. The President may be considering options

for specific capabilities that he wants to bring a bear in the campaign. And those are largely

I think can be been in three different categories. The first one right now through our air and

maritime campaigns, we've brought some amount of leverage and pressure against Iran, but not

enough to change their calculus. So the President may be looking at the next lever to try to

increase that pressure to make them change their decisions. So that would be the kind of thing

we've heard talked about with the seizing of Carg Island. This is a significant hub for

their oil trade and removing that seizing it could increase the pressure and try to make

them compelled to agree to some of the things that the President has said he's wanted in

the end state. The second option would be something to try to remove some of the Iranian

capabilities that they're using to try to fight against us. So we've seen the Iranians

try to use missiles fast moving boats and drones to interdict maritime traffic in the

state of Hormuz. So potentially using the Marines or other forces to clear out the literal

zone just in the vicinity of the state of Hormuz to push back Iranian capability project

power against maritime traffic. And then the third option which I think is being discussed

and you can see this from some of the specialty capabilities that are being deployed is a

raid to secure the enriched uranium that we know was left over after midnight hammer from

last summer. This will require excavation, securing, moving thousands of pounds of this stuff

onto aircraft and exfiltrating it. So some kind of multi-day or up to a week-long raid

by specialized forces that would secure that material and remove it so that the President

can say now we've also removed the remaining nuclear material that could be used for additional

enrichment or weaponization. You know that strategy here looks to be a mix of

lethal force and diplomacy very Trumpian in its approach you might say. What do you think it's

going to take to really force Iran to the table? The regime now probably believes that they are

in a fight for their own survival and whatever conditions they're going to agree to have to be

something that allowed them to very quickly determine a new deterrent capability to replace the

ones that were lost. So I don't think that short of some kind of truly verifiable agreement

I don't think we're going to end up with a regime that is more compliant and willing to

work with the coalition of nations. I think we're going to end up with a regime that is probably

more resistant in the long term and looking for some way to try to ramp up capabilities

either those that were destroyed to replace those or find some new deterrent.

Mike Nelson is a retired army lieutenant colonel and chief of staff for Penn Washington.

Mike thanks so much for your time and your expertise really appreciate it.

Additional support comes from the evangelistic film heaven how I got here with Stephen Baldwin

as the thief on the cross in 30 languages open the bible.org slash heaven from the Joshua

program at St. Dunston's Academy in the Blue Ridge Mountains work prayer and adventure for young

men st. Dunston's Academy.org and from dork university equipping students to serve others with

faith skill and conviction while they complete their master of social work degree in just four years

coming up next on the world and everything in it parents keep the pressure and social media

companies. The story contains details of a young person's self-harm. We will resume in just a moment.

Last week courts in California and New Mexico ruled that social media companies harmed young people

and showed that social media platforms can be held responsible under certain conditions.

Combine the courts hit meta with penalties and damage awards totaling about four hundred million

dollars. Of course, that's a drop in the bucket of the company's more than one trillion dollar

value, but the winds opened the door for thousands of similar lawsuits already in the works.

World's Mary Muncie talked with one mother waiting to bring her daughter's case to court.

In 2022 Cheryl McCormick Brown's 16 year old daughter committed suicide after being bullied online.

McCana shared her family's strong Christian faith.

She volunteered at her school in Tampa, Florida and was a hockey player.

She traveled just about every weekend for practice and games and played at the highest levels of

competitive hockey. She was a goalie which she was fearless in many ways. She was resilient in many

ways which you know I certainly recognize some irony there. She also used Snapchat and Instagram

just like her friends. We thought the platforms were safe you know they they came with the phone

you know and she was of age. The summer before McCana's senior year, Brown says she became more

withdrawn. She was constantly tired and constantly on her phone. We think that we'd go to bed and

that she was going to bed up in her room and she's tired the next morning like she you know was on

her phone. Brown says that summer McCana got caught up in some teenage boy drama.

People at her school tried to humiliate her online, calling her names and accusing her

of stealing a boyfriend. Trying and I can quote trying to leave her without a single friend.

Brown believes social media algorithms contributed to McCana's death by pushing content that

reinforced her negative thinking and she says the design of the platforms kept McCana from coming

up for air. The infinite scroll, the constant notifications, the algorithms pushing that content

that it's it's it was all designed to be to target kids that were younger than were even allowed

to be on the platform. But social media companies and some libertarian policy groups dispute that.

When we look at these particular proposals around young people I think we have chast two questions.

First, what these actually make the situation any better?

Jennifer Huddleston is a senior fellow with the Cato Institute.

She says parents have always been concerned about what their kids are viewing, whether that's

video games or comic books. But different kids have different needs and parents should be the

ones choosing what they use, not the government. The second though is what does this mean for all

users at the internet? Any new laws must either affect all of social media or use some

kind of age verification. We have to think not only what does this mean for tech companies,

but what does this mean for users and what does it particularly mean for those users who in a more

traditional media ecosystem might not have had the same opportunities. Brown thinks any harm that

might come from these laws is worth it. After McCana died, Brown filed a lawsuit with the

social media victims law center, the same firm that won a case against meta and YouTube in Los Angeles.

In that landmark case, a 20 year old identified in court records as KGM said social media use as

a child harmed her mental health and that social media companies deliberately designed products

to target vulnerable children. The jury found that YouTube and meta were negligent in their

platform design features and awarded KGM $3 million. When Brown heard that KGM won her case in

California, she cried. During the trial, KGM's lawyers pointed to an internal meta document showing

the company wanted to hook children young and keep them through their teenage years.

In one message, a meta employee called Instagram a drug and the company's role as that of a pusher.

It also revealed several internal studies that were not previously made public.

One showed millions of users under the minimum age of 13 were on the platform in 2015.

Another showed that parental controls often failed to keep children off the platform.

This case wasn't about one bad person online. It was about systems that connect kids to harm.

And yes, parents should be involved and need to be involved, but they can't do it alone.

Brown hopes this court decision will give Congress and States momentum to regulate social media

platforms design. Brown has been advocating for one bill called the Kids Online Safety Act.

It overwhelmingly passed in the Senate in 2024, but stalled in the House. It's being reconsidered

this term. For now, Brown's lawyers are waiting to bring her case until a few other

bellweather cases are litigated. She says she and her family have learned a lot since

McKenna's death. That's why we're trying to be transparent with McKenna's story and to help other

families and prevent other kids from, you know, turning to the same outcome.

It's a caution. Brown says she wishes she'd hurt herself before it was too late for her daughter.

Reporting for World, I'm Mary Muncie in Tampa, Florida.

Up next are Gen Zers Dating Less. Last month, the Institute for Family Studies released the

results of a survey about dating. They interviewed more than 5,000 young adults and found that

most had either not been on a date in the past year or had only gone on just a couple of them.

Researchers say this may mean a future with fewer marriages.

World's Juliana Chan Erickson has the story.

Which show is a 22-year-old graduate student who wants to get married and have kids one day?

She says that makes her an outlier among her peers.

When I brought it up to my cohort, it's like, oh, you know what? I want to be a mom one day.

I really don't mind becoming a housewife. I think it's a very honorable job.

They all just stare at me like, what? How can a PhD student say that?

But Xiao says it's hard to find someone to date, even in her college town.

It seems like people don't want to try a date. They want to buy in like,

minimal effort to give it a shot.

A survey by the Institute for Family Studies seems to echo Xiao's observations.

The Institute surveyed 5,275 young adults between the ages of 22 and 35 about their dating habits.

It found that 74% of women and 64% of men had never been on a date or only dated sporadically

in the last year. Some say Gen Z is putting off dating because Americans are putting off marriage.

According to US Census data, the average American woman is 28 at her first marriage.

Men are nearly 31. 50 years ago, women were 21 and men 25 at their first wedding.

Experts say older Americans likely felt pressure to stay on the same life track as their peers

when it came to dating and marriage. Lisa Anderson is director of young adults for a focus on the

family. So you saw this play out in churches where if you weren't finishing college and going

into the Young Married Group, there wasn't really anywhere for you to go. But Gen Z, not so much.

Anderson says that without the pressure to marry, young adults are left with lots of options,

but no clear direction. Dating can be fun, but to what end. So without having like a story arc

around dating and where's this actually going, it just leaves a lot of young adults saying,

you know, I could take it or leave it or maybe it'll hit me.

Young adults also admitted they don't have dating skills. Only 36% of respondents said they felt

confident reading social cues. 45% also said they've passed updates after too many bad experiences.

Josiah Dolan is a 22 year old college student in Colorado Springs. He told World

that guys get conflicting signals about how a modern man should behave. That makes it hard to

ask a woman out. We don't want to make the wrong move. We don't want to upset. And I think

that sort of resilience and that confidence and that outgoingness of what a male should be in

a relationship kind of definitely takes a hit in that regard. Meanwhile, Shows says young women like

her often set their sights too high. All my friends, they are very pretty girls and highly achieved.

Including myself, we have kind of like high expectations that we don't really see

day to day around us. Several young adults blamed dating apps for taking the joy out of the

process. Reports vary, but anywhere from a quarter to a half of young adults use dating apps,

but usage is declining among Gen Z. I mean, dating fatigue is definitely something that's on

on the minds and the forefront of many people within the dating sector. Ashley Bishop is with

the online dating and discovery association. She admitted that users complain about spending more

times swiping than actually going on dates, but she says companies are already coming up with

solutions. Apps that are introducing AI and almost like Wingman, you know, they're coming in,

their partners, they're helping you have better conversations. Not to replace you, but to say,

you know, maybe to give you prompts or ways to start a conversation if you're not quite sure.

Some dating app users say they're skeptical. Marco Gonzalez is a 25 year old engineer in Milwaukee.

He uses hinge a popular dating app. Like if you went on a date with somebody like on the date,

for example, you're not going to like whip out your phone and be like,

K-Wingman, like, what is what do I say next? Still, that hasn't stopped him from using the

dating platform. That's actually how he found the woman he's currently seeing. I actually met

her through Hens, believe it or not, which is I think it's funny that all my attempts in person

did not work, but somehow the hinge one is working pretty well. I asked Gonzalez what his expectations

are and he said he's aiming high. Yes, that is my hope. That is my hope to be marrying.

Researchers from the Institute for Family Studies say some people just need help learning how

to date. They encourage young adults to get training, like through dating boot camps and counseling.

They also say it's good to remind everyone about what Gonzalez already knows. The whole point of

dating is to find someone to marry. Reporting for World, I'm Juliana Chan Erickson.

At Philadelphia International Airport, just like everywhere else,

travelers are expecting very long lines, but on National Cheese Steak Day in Philly,

the longest line was not security. It was lunch. Organizers set out to break a Guinness

World Record, lining up more than 1200 cheese steaks and to delicious end inside the terminal.

So today we accomplished that goal here in Philadelphia. Once the record was certified,

the Sandwiches went to hungry travelers, airport staff and a group that could not be more deserving.

They're going to see us agents. He definitely could use some lunch.

Finally, a long line you don't mind getting into. It's the world and everything in it.

Today is Tuesday, March 31st. Thank you for turning to World Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I'm Nick Eiker. And I'm Mary Rankard. Coming next on the world and everything in it,

the art and science of church acoustics. Music in church can spark strong opinions,

but before style comes something more basic. How the room actually sounds.

World's Jenny Ruff reports on how acoustics shape what we hear and how we worship.

So we're at the corner of East 91stery in Lexington Avenue.

Andy Morgan lives in works in New York City. A place he describes as very, very loud.

That's the last thing most people want to hear in church. And although churches do consider

acoustics, it's usually too late. It's usually after the design is already done that they sort of come

back and say, okay, now what do we do about the acoustics and the sound system? Morgan is an

acoustics consultant. He designs indoor spaces to enhance desired sounds and reduce subtrusive ones.

Every time I tell a Christian what I do, they almost always tell me, oh, I go to this great church

and we just built this new building. And we love it all except the acoustics are terrible.

He worked on Redeemer East Side, a Presbyterian church on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

As soon as we step inside, the city sounds disappear. He walks toward the sanctuary.

Well, everything in there's got to be quiet. Even the church lobby is quiet.

One of the main subway lines in the city, you know, is right outside. We don't want to hear that.

And inside, you can't, thanks to deliberate design choices.

When he planned the sanctuary, he had to keep in mind that this particular church offers a mix

of services. In the morning, they do a traditional service, so there's an organ.

And so they do mostly hymns. Organs tend to require large open spaces,

think of a historic cathedral. You want a highly reverberant space where the sound really echoes

around and you feel like you're enveloped in that organ sound. But the evening service is totally

different. And that required other needs. You want a really nice sound system in a really

dead room, so you just hear exactly what's coming out of the speakers without the room changing it.

Morgan had to consider how to create a space where both those styles sound good.

The walls in this room are all fabric, but most of them actually are on hard plywood backing.

So it looks fuzzy, but actually acoustically, it's hard. And so some of these panels selectively

have different material behind them to absorb sound where we want it to. Insolation, fiberglass

insulation, which is very highly sound absorbing. Morgan has always liked music. After college,

he took a job with a company that specialized in acoustics for concert halls,

theaters, and opera houses. Then seven years ago, he started his own firm.

Part of the reason is because I wanted to do a lot more work for churches.

In concert halls and theaters, the sound has to go only one way, out from the performer to the listeners.

Churches present a unique challenge. In a church, it's different right because the people in the

pews are actively participating. We have to think about the people in the pews hearing each other.

Another layer of complexity, the emphasis on preaching and liturgy.

In a church, you've got the music, and then you've got spoken word right next to each other,

and they both have to sound good, and usually they want pretty opposite things acoustically.

Morgan has worked with all sorts of denominations. Some have big choirs,

others guitars, or drums, or no instruments at all. Redeemer Eastside purchased what used to be

an apartment complex. So in New York, it's a very, it's a vertical city.

That's Josh Ryder. He's the architect who worked with Morgan.

So you have to build a church that used to be an apartment building into a vertical rectangle.

And so you're really seeing the edges of the property line on each side.

The two say this project was ideal because they were involved from the start

that enabled them to integrate the acoustics into the design and hide elements behind the walls.

Ryder realized he could maximize the seating by turning the pews diagonal

and adding a balcony on only the right side.

You can actually see the congregation, the balcony. They're not behind you.

And it makes a much more intimate experience.

But that presented another challenge because it made the sound asymmetrical.

Morgan made adjustments so people would hear the same thing in their right ear as their left ear.

Churches that cannot afford to buy a building often rent. Morgan also worked with

Exilic, a church that leases space within an office building.

Sound travels slowly. So by the time the sound from the stage reached the back of the room,

it was muddy. Morgan worked his audio magic to add speakers and delay sound coming from some of

them by milliseconds for the perfect fix. The sound from here and there moved together.

They create what you call cohesive way of front. Morgan says historically,

church design has always been intentional. Whether it's the altar table for communion,

the baptistry, the pulpit, or the cross. Likewise, a thoughtful soundscape

brings the space to life. And Ryder adds that in a church, that's especially significant.

And really that you could be here in stillness and serenity. It's about, you know,

how can the space support a deeper connection with the being that we're all worshiping?

Reporting for World, I'm Jenny Ruff in New York City.

Good morning. This is The World and everything in it from listeners supported world radio.

I'm Mary Reichard. And I'm Nick Einker. There's a pattern emerging across Europe with recent court

cases putting speech and religious expression to the test. Here is World Commentator Bethel McGrew.

In 2019, Finnish politician Paivia Rassana posted a Bible for a sensual media

questioning her church's support for a pride event. That post triggered a year's long legal

ordeal. Authorities eventually dropped charges over the tweet, but not before digging up something

else. There became more and more criminal complaints about my right things, about the booklet that I

had written 20 years ago, male and female. He created them. It's title. That pamphlet outlining

a traditional Christian view of homosexuality and the harmful effects of normalizing it would

become the basis for a so-called hate speech conviction. A court has now ordered the Christian

lawmaker to pay fines, along with the conservative Lutheran bishop who helped her publish the pamphlet.

They are considering an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. In Europe more broadly,

this is not an isolated case, as bureaucrats weaponize laws against so-called conversion therapy

to crack down on the free expression of basic Christian doctrine. In Iceland, a Catholic priest,

Father Jacob Rowland, is under investigation for explaining church teaching during a radio interview.

He made a careful distinction between same-sex attraction and same-sex behavior,

urging repentance before receiving communion. Even this gentle answer was enough to trigger a

complaint with the possibility of jail time in his future. A member of parliament went so far as

to say Icelandic society has nothing to do with the Catholic Church. Meanwhile, in Malta,

a Christian man named Matthew Grex spent three years in court for sharing his own testimony

about leaving the gay vise style on a radio program. He was ultimately acquitted but wasn't

to how he describes the cost. We won, the court has decided in our favor. However, it doesn't stop

here. This law has caused me and the coacused to go through a lengthy and dragging three-year

process for a simple conversation. Even in victory, his warning is clear. This law is a weapon,

it doesn't matter what these laws say, all that matters is that activists will use these laws

to target any dissenting view around sexuality and gender.

Seventeen court appearances, three years of legal pressure, not just for Matthew but also for

the radio presenters who aired his testimony. Even when cases like this end happily, the process

is the punishment. The message is clear. Some views may be expressed freely in the public square,

others may not. In all of these cases, the conflict is disingenuously framed as

protecting the dignity of sexual minorities, but it is traditional Christians who are pushed to

the margins in the name of standing for the marginalized. The game is zero sum. One side will be

normalized while the other is stigmatized, but not without a fight. As Father Rowan denisely

put it, I must fight for the Lord. If we don't speak up, no one does. For world, I'm the

felmic group. Tomorrow we'll talk about birthright citizenship at the Supreme Court on Washington

Wednesday and helping kids understand the full story of Holy Week. That and more tomorrow,

I'm Mary Rikard. And I'm Nick Eiker. The world and everything in it comes to you from world

radio. World's mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates and inspires.

The Bible says, Did any people ever hear the voice of a God speaking out of the midst of the

fire as you have heard and still live? Or has any God ever attempted to go and take a nation

for himself from the midst of another nation? By trials, by signs, by wonders, and by war,

by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great deeds of terror, all of which the Lord

your God did for you and Egypt before your eyes. To you, it was shown that you might know that the

Lord is God. There is no other besides Him. Deuteronomy chapter 4 verses 33 through 35. Go now

in grace and peace.