Crafting Policy with Conviction in an Age of Shifting Worldviews

Rick Green: 0:07

Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture This is the WallBuilders Show, where we're taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective, and today we're taking that on with George Barna. We yesterday started the presentation from George out at our Pro Family Legislators Conference. Today we're going to pick up right where we left off. Here's George at the Pro Family Legislators Conference.

George Barna: 0:28

Check this out. I put this together because I think this is the mindset of a typical millennial. They don't all think all these things, but on average this is the normative perspective of millennials. They believe that there are no facts. Feelings are the only thing you can pay attention to. There is no ultimate purpose for life. You know, we would say it so that you can know love and serve God before your heart might strengthen the soul. And they would say, no, it's so that I come back as something I'm going to come back as something other than a cow. They believe you get what you deserve. There's no source of grace that you can turn to because there is no God. Every choice you make is equal to any other choice that you could have chosen.

George Barna: 1:12

There's no basis for trusting other people. Once again, that feeling of anxiety. You can't trust anybody around you because they've got the same issues, the same desires and lusts that you've got. They would say history is meaningless, there's nothing to be learned from it. All you've got is every moment. Live in the moment. You know there's no possibility of being rescued from failure. You're just prone to it. There's no inherent value to life. There's this myth that the left is perpetuating kind of secretly. I would say that millennials are this big pro-life generation. Don't believe it. They are the least pro-life generation in America today, and so you've got to be very careful what you believe about those things. They have no relationship with God. They have no eternal hope. There is no sense of truth in their lives, anything goes, and when we say Christianity is the one true faith, they laugh.

George Barna: 2:12

You make your own faith. You're in charge of that. Most people know nothing about the benefits of a biblical worldview. Even churches don't talk about the benefits. You know we're a very transactional society and so we want to know yeah, but what's in it for me? Well, if you look at a biblical worldview, there is so much in it for you in terms of joy and fulfillment and all the things that I've got listed there and you look at how does a biblical worldview protect you in life? And actually there is research we can point you to that shows that you're less often going to feel any sense of anxiety, depression or fear. People with a biblical worldview are less likely to spend time in jail or prison, to get an abortion, to be addicted, to be afraid of death, to get divorced. All of these kinds of things are among the benefits of a biblical worldview. So I would suggest to you that, as you're thinking about this, don't look at the symptoms of what's going on in society. Look at the cause of those symptoms and all the kinds of issues that we're facing in our society. My whole point here is that it's not mental illness, it's bad worldview. This new book that David was alluding to or maybe it was Tim.

George Barna: 3:47

One of the things that I discovered this past year in the research and it's in this book, raising Spiritual Champions is, if you're trying to figure out, where do we start? And this maybe germane to you in your personal life, with your kids, your grandkids, your neighbors, the kids you coach on the ball team, the class you're leading, whatever it may be, whoever you influence, you may be thinking where do I start? Most Americans, most of the people in churches, don't have a biblical worldview. I discovered this thing I'm calling the seven cornerstones of a biblical worldview. If you buy all seven of these elements and they're such basic Christian principles, biblical principles if you buy all seven of them, you've got 83% probability of going on and developing a full-on biblical worldview. If you reject any one or more, but even if you reject one of these seven principles, you have only a 2% probability of then developing a biblical worldview.

George Barna: 4:45

And so you look at these things. They're very simple, orthodox view of God that we're sinful by nature and that sin has consequences. Christ is the soul means to salvation. Bible's true, reliable, relevant. The Bible gives us absolute moral truth. Success is nothing more, nothing less than consistent obedience to God, and the reason you get out of bed in the morning is to know, love and serve God with all your heart, mind, strength and soul. Very, very basic stuff, okay, but what a great starting place that becomes a very solid foundation for building a more complete biblical worldview, because you build on these building blocks, each of these foundation stones.

Rick Green: 5:36

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David Barton: 6:36

This is David Barton, with another moment from America's history. Today we heard that our founding fathers were largely atheist, agnostic or deist. The writings of founding father Richard Henry Lee strongly refute that assertion. Richard Henry Lee was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and he is specifically the man who made the motion in Congress that America separate from Great Britain. Following his death, his papers and correspondence, including numerous original handwritten letters from other prominent founding fathers, were passed on to his grandson After having studied those letters. This was how the grandson described our founding fathers. He declared the wise and great men of those days were not ashamed publicly to confess the name of our blessed Lord and Savior, jesus Christ, On behalf of the people. As their representatives and rulers, they acknowledge the sublime doctrine of his mediation.

Announcement: 7:27

For more information on God's hand in American history, contact Wall Builders at 1-800-8-REBUILD.

Rick Green: 7:40

Welcome back to Wall Builders. We're listening to George Barnard teaching at the Pro Family Legislators Conference. If you just joined us today and you missed yesterday, it's the first half of this presentation. You can get that today at our website, wallbuilderslive. com. Let's jump back in with George.

George Barna: 7:55

Check this out, the research I did for this book. We did seven new research projects for this book to understand what's going on with children and families, churches related to children, all these things. One of the things I look at is yeah, but what do kids believe kids 8 to 12 years old? And what we find is that only 3% of them believe all seven of those elements. And because your worldview is pretty much fully developed by the age of 13, by the, I mean we're losing ground with each succeeding generation. So you know, what I want to suggest to you is, as you're being pushed to create new policy related to mental health, don't be seduced into thinking. The solution is, you know, more drugs, new drugs, cheaper drugs, more psychiatric hospitals, more treatment centers, more counselors, more psychiatrists, more government funding, more programs, more federal oversight. None of that is the big solution that we need. The big solution that we need is to get rid of anxiety, depression, fear, suicidal thoughts by getting them to understand, life is not about them. Getting them to understand they are not in charge. Getting them to understand life is not determined. Truth is not determined by your feelings. I mean you start going through all these things, you start introducing them to the seven cornerstones. How you do that in policy, I leave that to you. That's your expertise. My expertise is to tell you don't buy into the lie of the pharmaceutical industry that we need more drugs. Let me just tag on to that too,

George Barna: 9:43

maybe you can address some of these causes. Think about religious freedom. For you to be able to build policy on God's truth, you're going to need to make sure that you still have the religious liberty to do that, and so never lose sight of that fact. We do tend to take it for granted I know you do less than other people, but most Christians, based on my research, take it for granted. They say, well, we've got it. And they don't think about all the liberty, religious liberties we've already lost. Think about Bible based educational options, whether that comes through school choice, whether it comes through homeschooling, whether it comes through Christian schools, various ways of getting there. But we've got to protect and defend and facilitate that, and I would encourage you to continue to drink milk to build the strength of your bones so that your backbone is strong enough so that every time you are challenged and you will be challenged when you do this, you can speak boldly for the cause of Christ. That's why you're in office. Okay, you know, and you get to do great things while you're in office, but the greatest thing that you get to do is to prove that you're a disciple by always standing up for the cause of Christ, and so the more you can do that, the better off we all are.

George Barna: 11:11

I'm going to transition now. Let me talk to you a little bit about the election that's coming up and something for you to keep in mind, based on a different set of research projects that we did. And that's that, I believe that America is floundering politically because our leaders have failed, for decades and decades now, to cast a compelling vision of the future for our people. We've been all about tactics. What about this policy and that policy and this idea and that approach, as opposed to painting the portrait of an America that would glorify God, one that would be so honoring of God that people couldn't turn their backs on it and they'd say, yeah, I need to if not want to be part of that. But we I mean when you talk about leadership understand,

George Barna: 12:00

one of the great things about leadership is that you motivate, you mobilize, you resource and you direct people toward a vision from God. That's the definition of a leader. Those are the things that you do. Those are the skills that you bring to the table, and if you want to know how successful you are, the question is are you doing that? It's not how many votes did you get, how much money did you raise, how many policies did you enter into the log? How many of them got passed? It's what am I doing to motivate, mobilize, resource and direct people to pursue God's vision for his nation. So understand that as a leader, one of the things I like to say is that vision is the air that you breathe, and many of you haven't breathed in years and I feel bad for you, but you've got to constantly bring people back to the vision, because their interest in your ideas and your policies and your laws and your arguments is going to waver over time. But if you can keep bringing them back to the vision, that's critical. Why? Because vision also determines our values and ultimately, people are going to be voting their values.

George Barna: 13:23

So we did a huge national study looking at so what are the values that Americans believe in today? We broke it out into about 60 different subgroups to understand that. What we found is that there are only three values, because we're such a divided nation, because we have no shared vision, and so our values are very different. We found there are only three values that most of the groups that we would care about winning over, if you will, or interacting with. Most of the groups who might possibly support us buy into, as well as some of the others. So they turn out to be family, justice and personal independence. And so my encouragement to you is okay.

George Barna: 14:15

Well, knowing that, what kinds of policies, what kinds of vision, first of all, can we cast for Americans that help them understand what family really is all about? Because part of the challenge with this is, yes, more than 80% of Americans. We gave them a five point scale, a Lycurt scale, where we defined each of the five points on the scale. Top point on the scale is you know, I'm willing to fight to defend it or I'm willing to die to protect it. I mean, that's pretty strong. And we found that more than 80% of Americans said they would do that related to family. We found that close to that said they were going to do that related to justice, because they believe America is called to be a just nation. They're called to be a just person. They're called to live in a just community. And personal independence, they say, but that's the hallmark of America, all these rights that I want to have, that's what gives me my personal freedom and independence.

Rick Green: 15:18

Another break. Everybody, stay with us. You're listening to George Barna speaking at the pro-family legislators conference here on The Wall Builders Show.

Tim Barton: 15:28

Hi, friends, this is Tim Barton of WallB uilders.

Tim Barton: 15:30

This is a time when most Americans don't know much about American history, or even Hebrews of the faith, and I know oftentimes for parents we're trying to find good content for our kids to read and if you remember, back to the Bible, to the book of Heroes, it has the faith hall of fame where they outlined the leaders of faith that had gone before them.

Tim Barton: 15:46

Well, this is something that, as Americans, we really want to go back and outline some of these heroes, not just of American history, but heroes of Christianity and our faith as well. I want to let you know about some biographical sketches we have available on our website. One is called the courageous leaders collection, and this collection includes people like Abigail Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Francis Scott Key, George Washington Carver, Susanna Wesley, even the Wright brothers, and there's a second collection called heroes of history, and this collection you'll read about people like Benjamin Franklin or Christopher Columbus, Daniel Boone, George Washington, Harriet Tubman, friends the list goes on and on. This is a great collection for your young person to have and read and it's a providential view of American and Christian history. This is available at WallB uilders. com that's www. wallbuilders. com.

Rick Green: 16:32

We're back here on the WallB uilders Show, jumping right back in with George Barna.

George Barna: 16:36

The challenge isn't how we define these things, because what you'll find is within each of those subgroups Millennials, gen X, builders and elders, strong conservatives, liberals all these different groups SAGE CONS, spiritually active governance, engage conservative Christians group that 99% turn out in the last election. 99% voted for Mr. Trump In the prior election first time when he was actually Elected. According to the numbers, he was elected both times, but I mean second time it didn't count, I guess. The the first time he was elected it was 91% turn out, 93% voters from Trump. This is a group that hated him when he first started running, but when they looked at the alternatives and what they needed to do, they got the job done. The SAGE CONS very important group for you. We can talk about them another time, but you look at all of these. There are different definitions embedded within there. You know what we'll find is that there are a number of things that Americans are not willing to lift the finger for things like fame, uncensored entertainment yes, they believe there are some things that we should not see unrestricted sexual activity. They believe there should be some boundaries as to what's legitimate. Universal empowerment, unrestrained choice, tolerance, winning convenience these are ideas that don't sell. Why do I bring this up? Because you need to be thinking about how do I communicate with people? What kinds of things am I promoting or proposing to the public in terms of policy, what kind of things will work?

George Barna: 18:24

We found that there are some very divisive values. Conservatives and Christians turn their back on concepts like cultural diversity. They're not really interested in that. They want everybody to have opportunities, yes, but making special allowances for particular groups, not into that. Eliminating hierarchies. They interpret that as meaning let's get rid of law and order, let's get rid of structures and organizations that have held law and order in place. Economic equality now they want people to get what they earn. Strong government they believe that means tyranny. So these are concepts they're not going to go for. Liberals, progressives, non-Christians despise the ideas of patriotism and private enterprise, and so, once again, we just have to know what landmine we're walking into, where we're going to speak to a group of people, where we're going to propose legislation, a language we're going to use, how it's going to be interpreted, and so forth.

George Barna: 19:35

So, toward that end let me wind up with this, and there are six things I think it is that we discovered in terms of messaging that seemed to resonate pretty well with uh enough of the groups of people that we want to reach, not all just conservative Christians, but even looking at uh independence, looking at moderates, looking at these kind of people, uh, whose votes we're going to need to win, what types of things are they interested in? And so we found, when you talk to them and give them a message related, say, about personal independence, one way of talking about it is you do not need or want the government to make choices for you. That's part of your job as a free human being, and so the government needs to get out of your way to do it. That resonates, uh, talking about who you are in opposition to, or juxtaposition to other people who are holding office these days, talking about electing officials who will protect our freedoms by applying Constitutional principles. That still sells. Now I've seen several media polls that say, oh, my gosh, don't talk about the Constitution. Of course they don't want you to talk about the Constitution. People people who actually cast a vote, don't have a cast for them, but but people who are casting a vote, they, they understand what that means. That resonates.

George Barna: 21:04

We found that when you talk about candidates who don't make a vow, a pledge, some kind of promise to the people that they can be held accountable for in terms of upholding our laws, without prejudice saying those people should not hold office. I'm open, you know, you can always check me out, very vulnerable to you coming in and looking at everything that I voted for, everything I've said, that works. People want that kind of ability. The right to believe, as giving people the right to believe if they choose and to practice their faith. Increasingly, people are recognizing how important this is, and so for a lot of the people I mean look at the fact that half of all independence say that's really important. By the way, what they're responding to when we're giving them, We gave them about 27 different messages to react to, and these were people who said this would make a big difference in whether or not I vote for that candidate, and so these are the kinds of messages that even move independence.

Rick Green: 22:18

Last interruption of the day. Folks, we'll be right back. You're listening to The WallBuilders Show.

David Barton: 22:26

This is David Barton, with another moment from America's history. How should we respond if confronted with frustration and conflict? The proper response was given over 200 years ago in a lengthy speech, when Benjamin Franklin told the delegates at the constitutional convention and this situation of this assembly groping, as it were, in the dark to find political truth how has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lives to illuminate our understanding? Have we now forgotten that powerful friend, or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance? God governs in the affairs of men. I therefore move that henceforth, prayers employing the assistance of heaven and its blessings on our deliberations be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business. Benjamin Franklin knew that prayer was the proper response.

Announcement: 23:17

For more information on God's hand in American history. Contact wall builders at 1-800-8-REBUILD.

Rick Green: 23:23

Welcome back to The WallBuilders Show. It's time for the conclusion of George Barna's presentation at the ProFamil legislators conference.

George Barna: 23:36

We can look at talking about what do you do with the economy and talk about putting money back in people's pockets by providing tax relief, creating jobs, giving people better salaries and helping small businesses to grow. That's a critical part of this message we found is that because what are most conservatives have? Small businesses, and where do they shop? They shop in small businesses and so this is a vital part for them. They recognize that when we talk about private enterprise, which is a big deal for conservatives, that's a critical element. And then talking about how it's time for the government to act responsibly. Responsibility conservatives like to talk about responsibility. Liberals and progressives hate that. Right, they talk about responsibility. It's time for government to act responsibly. Live like we do within a budget. Have that budget and not be printing, slash, borrowing money all the time. Try to control inflation and to make life affordable. Those are important things.

George Barna: 24:47

The last two things our folks respond very positively, as do independence and moderates, to the idea of deporting gang members, drug dealers and violent criminals who are not American citizens. Now, this doesn't talk about a wall. This doesn't talk about closing the border. This isn't bringing that up. This is saying okay, the ones who shouldn't be here. Let's get them out, because they shouldn't be here, even just based on the laws we still have, and so that's a winning message. Final thing, talking about transgender female athletes who compete and win in female sports have an unfair advantage and take away opportunities from biological females. Now you got to be careful with this one. Look at independence.

George Barna: 25:35

I circled it, and that's because independents aren't so sure about this. They still don't know what to make of this issue. They don't know where to stand on this issue. We can help them figure that out, but recognize that is going to be a task that we're going to need to take on very specifically. So those are some thoughts for you as you're doing your job. I thank you so much for the fact that you are willing to step into that gap and to represent the cause of Christ in government. You've been called to that, you've been gifted for that. We want to support you in that. These two books Helping Millennials Thrive, Raising Spiritual Champions has a ton of data in there about these two groups, families and millennials and I hope it will be useful to you. But God bless you and thank you so much for your service.

Rick Green: 26:27

Alright folks, out of time for today. That was George Barna. If you tuned in in the middle of the program today's program and yesterday's now available at our website, wallbuilderslive. com you can get the archives of all of the programs over the last couple of weeks, so check that out today. Thanks so much for listening to WallBuilders.