Rick Green
Welcome to Wall Builders. Thanks for joining me today. Be sure to visit our website at wallbuilders.show if you want to catch up on some of the programs you might have missed over the last few weeks. Wallbuilders.show I'm Ray Green, America's Constitution Coach, serving here with David and Tim Barton, David's, America's premier historian and our founder at Wall Builders. If you've never heard or seen David Barton speak, you are missing out. You need to go to wallbuilders.com today.
Wallbuilders.show for radio. Wallbuilders.com for the presentations, for the books, for all the tools, for all the resources, the swag, all of it. And that's the place to make your one-time or monthly contribution as well to help us restore this country. Anyway, you've got to get David or Tim in to speak at your church, or you need to send your pastor to our pastor's briefing in DC in September and let them spend a couple of days with David or Tim. They'll get to do a tour of the US Capitol. It's absolutely amazing the spiritual history that is just literally etched in stone around that Capitol, the statues of people of faith that influence this country in such an incredible way, and the new statue, now Billy Graham, latest statue, added to the Capitol. There's only a little more than 100 statues in the Capitol. Every state gets to send two, and then Congress has commissioned a few extras beyond that. But it's a phenomenal, phenomenal opportunity to go do this tour. So be sure to check that out today, wallbuilders.com, click on the pastor's briefings and send your pastor. Or if you're a pastor listening today, you definitely want to go to that. All right, guys, let's jump into the good news. David's got the first piece of good news. Go ahead, brother.
David Barton
Okay, guys, something really, really, really cool happened last week, at least. I'm loving this. One of the things that Tim, you and I are able to do and we have a lot of fun doing is being able to take people through the US Capitol and we do pastor's briefings, we take pastors through, we are asked by congressmen to take groups through for them, et cetera, and as we go through the Capitol we stop at the artwork and say, hey, here's what this is all about, and we happen to be carrying some original artifacts from that artwork and we show people that. And we can stop at various rooms, we can stop at locations and tell them all about it. But one of the things we also do is we stop and tell the stories of various statues and, going back to 1864, congress allowed each state to take two of its state heroes and display them in the US Capitol. So essentially, you've got about 100 of these designated statues from the states. Every state has two and no surprise, Texas. We have Stephen F Austin and Sam Houston as our two founders of Texas. So every state gets two and you can change them out as you want to. Any state can pull one and put another one in to replace it, but they've got to keep it at two.
Well, North Carolina last week put a new statue in the Capitol for one of its heroes, one of its what they call favorite sons, one of its really cool citizens from North what they call favorite sons one of its really cool citizens from North Carolina and that is Billy Graham. Billy Graham, who died just a few years ago. It's estimated that he probably led a million people to the Lord. Amazing ministry he had from presidents, from Harry Truman all the way through Barack Obama. He was considered a counselor to presidents, it didn't matter what party they were. He gave them good Godly counsel and would help them and advise them and was able to call them and talk to them and give them directions, and sometimes they listened, sometimes they didn't, but he had that position as really being kind of a spiritual influence, a spiritual catalyst, if you would, in the nation. And so North Carolina, back in 2012 and 2013,. As Billy Graham had retired from doing crusades in ministry, they said look, and it was a unanimous vote by the legislature that we need to put a statue of Billy Graham in the US Capitol. He needs to be one of our two guys from here in North Carolina and so this last week they put the statue up. You had Governor Roy Cooper, who's the governor of North Carolina, now it's a Democrat governor was a Republican governor when they did. It doesn't make any difference because all the Republicans, all the Democrats it was a unanimous vote in the legislature. Billy Graham is our guy, he's a favorite son of North Carolina and Mike Johnson was there as well and they placed the statue of Billy Graham in a very significant location, just as you're walking into the Hall of the House of Representatives. It is right there as you're walking in. So everybody goes by this statue. If you're a member of Congress, that's how you get in Congress passing Billy Graham. And it's a cool statue. Billy Graham is there. He's seven foot tall, he's in his left hand he has an open Bible and with his right hand he's pointing to a verse in the Bible. And the verse he's pointing to is Galatians 6: 14, which really probably very well, very accurately, describes his ministry. And the verse says may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. And that was Billy Graham. He didn't talk about himself. He talked about Christ. That was his mission in life was to help people know Jesus. But what's also cool is on the base of the statue there are two additional Bible verses that are placed there on the statue, and one of them is John 3:16. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. So there's a great verse there pointing a spiritual direction for folks to be able to make heaven, make Jesus Christ the savior of their life. And the other verse there is John 14: 6. And John 14: 6 says and Jesus answered and said I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. So that's really pretty clear gospel messaging there on that statue and everyone going in the House of Representatives is going to be looking at that as they go by. So I love the fact that there's a new statue for us to talk about in the Capitol. I also love the fact that they very, very boldly made sure his faith was out front. There's no attempt to hide his faith in any way shape, fashion or form and good for North Carolina for doing that.
Tim Barton
Well, I also love the fact that you know if Billy Graham could have chosen some of the verses that would have been used. I mean, that is the epitome of what Billy Graham would have wanted people to know, right, that all of us need a savior. Jesus is the savior. He's the only way to the father. I also appreciated what Franklin Graham commented, that his dad would not have really been happy with it because the ceremony was about how great Billy was and Billy really wanted people to know how great Jesus was and, of course, I think exactly who he was and dad, one of the things that, as we've done these tours, I'm kind of mentioned and alluded to as we get to tell some of the stories of who these people are, so often we can look at some of these forgotten names and faces and, because we don't know who they are and don't know their stories, so many of the statues people don't recognize. They were ministers of the gospel, they were involved in Christian ministry, they were very involved in Christian apologetics and part of what their significant contribution was, was a significant faith component and this is one of those guys that you look at and years from now people might not know the name Billy Graham.
But what is so different about this statue as opposed to, maybe, a John Peter Gabriel Mullinberg, the pastor from back in the American Revolution era?
An incredible story. But you look at him he's wearing a military uniform and he's got this like cloak over his arm and you really don't know the story just by looking at the statue with Billy Graham. It's hard to confuse this when he has an open Bible. There's actually verses there and maybe, to go even further, one of the things I love is he's replacing a former Democrat governor of North Carolina and one of many reasons the Democrat governor has fallen out of favor as far as his statue being there is because he ran campaigns promoting white supremacy in the KKK and just all kinds of really, negative things that certainly should not be supported and appreciated. But overall, incredible to add one more minister to the slew of incredible ministers, leaders, pastors that are already honored and recognized the Capitol building and certainly as somebody that we are grateful that what God did through him in America and certainly, dad, as you mentioned, we will be excited to tell his stories as we do more tours up in the Capitol building.
Rick Green
All right, Tim, you're up next. What's your first piece of good news today?
Tim Barton
All right. Well, I'm going to jump in with a story from Ohio and this one. The title says Ohio orders purge of ineligible voters from state roll after finding 137 non-citizens registered to vote. As you can see in the article, it highlights the Ohio Secretary of State, Frank LaRose, and he had his office do an investigation just on the voter rolls and what they found in their investigation so not extensive statewide, not a deep dive through everybody registered to vote, but in their investigation they found 137 individuals registered to vote who are not US citizens. And one of the things Ohio did and we've talked about this, guys many programs.
There have been a lot of states that have worked to heighten and tighten up their election integrity laws and apparently Ohio wasn't one I had on my radar. But this is really good news coming from Ohio. They passed a law that only US citizens should be eligible to vote and that doesn't seem like that should have been a complicated thing at all. And yet what we're seeing is that, because of the way censuses operate, that a lot of the blue states whether it be a California, new York states like that they're encouraging illegal immigrants to come in because they think the immigrants are going to be counted in the census and then, based on the census, the apportionment of representation for the US Congress is divided based on where population is and because the US Supreme well, actually, because of the Constitution, even though the intention is clear, the wording is a little vague and this has not yet been appealed all the way to the Supreme Court to get really good clarity on this. And then you have states like California and I think even Arizona I saw this where they allow people to register to vote using a social security number and you can get a social security number as a non-citizen. There's a great potential for a lot of impact in the upcoming election from illegal immigrants if states are not being proactive and taking decisions. And so the good news here is Ohio again a state not on my radar for doing this. Ohio was very proactive in saying that we're only going to allow US citizens to vote in the elections in Ohio. And so on May 14th LaRose, again, the Secretary of State in Ohio he ordered 88 county boards of elections to launch a confirmation and removal process of ineligible individuals from the state voters registration roll.
The article goes on, it gets into detail a little bit more, but, guys, to me this is really great news that we, in the midst of some of the questions, some of the uncertainty that we have with the election looming, and we've encouraged so many people and we will continue to encourage them right, our responsibility is to show up and do the right thing when it comes to elections, because there's people saying, wait, should we vote? Can we trust elections? Right? Isn't it rigged? Does it even really matter?
There's skepticism and then maybe there's voter fatigue because maybe people look at President Biden and President Trump and there's some people that would feel like man, we don't like either one of these guys, both of them. I don't want to vote for anybody. And just to also be really clear, there's some people looking at RFK Jr and, if you're not aware, he recently did an interview where he thought that and he says in the interview he thinks that a woman should be able to have third trimester abortions up to the moment of delivery, thinks that's okay. So for people that think RFK Jr doesn't have extreme positions or he's just happy moderate in the middle, he's not. He's not crazy on every issue, but he's certainly not a moderate, he's certainly not a conservative.
Anyway, all that being said, a lot of people might look at the options and go. I don't want to vote for anybody, and we would encourage everybody that we need to have a probably more grounded approach, both biblically, both constitutionally, strategically, and we have responsibility in the nation we live in, the constitutional Republic that we need to show up, have a voice in elections and, with all of this being said, one of the things that we do have confidence in is when we see states that are taking proactive steps to make sure that there are levels of security and integrity with their elections, and that's what Ohio is doing right now. So kudos to the Secretary of State in Ohio and really their legislature for passing this, getting it done. Just really, to me, very good news coming out of Ohio.
David Barton
And you know, one of the things that really struck me about that article, Tim, was he made a big issue out of this, made a press conference out of it over 137 votes. Now that's a state with millions and millions and millions of voters. 137 probably is only the corner of one precinct in Cleveland. I mean, there's no reason to make an issue out of this except he's committed to making sure every single vote is legal, and that is a huge commitment. I was super impressed. A lot of times you can tell a lot about people by the little things they do, not just the big things. I think this is a big thing, but I think he took a little thing and made it into a big thing, which is why I think it's even more impressive. He's committed to absolutely getting this right, and that's the right way to do it.
Tim Barton
Well, and you know, saying it potentially is a little thing. As far as the number, that's right. But also the article didn't highlight for me. I don't know what his sample size was right, because 137 is not a lot unless they only looked at 1,000 registered voters, then 137, that's a significant percentage. So I don't know how deep their research was right, I don't know how extensive this was, but let's say they looked at 20,000, 30,000, and within 137 is not a lot percentage-wise in that grand total. So whatever that might have been, dad, to your point, no matter how big or little this is, either way it's good news that you have somebody that says it, says we care enough about what should be the proper understanding of the Constitution and what is the best way to protect our citizens, to protect their voice, to make sure their voice actually matters and counts, and that's what they're doing in Ohio. And so again, just kudos to the political leadership right now in Ohio on this decision, really good job.
Rick Green
Okay, guys, I know we've got more good news to get to. Got to take a quick break, folks. We will be right back. You're listening to the WallBuilder Show.
Break
Rick Green
Welcome back to the WallBuilder Show with David Barton and Tim Barton and I'm Rick Green. We're getting the good news today. As much of it as we can get squeezed in.
David Barton
Okay, Rick, the one I've got, I'm going to start with. June is coming, and June is coming kind of means different things to different people. If you happen to be in the LGBTQIA + community, that means Pride Month, and one thing that happened last year in Pride Month was Americans started telling companies that they're really not as woke as the companies thought they were. And you had the thing with Bud Light and Dylan happened and there was such a backlash and man did Bud Light take a pounding, lost money. They're still losing money. They're trying to recover. Saw the same thing happen with Disney.
Disney took another pounding over the stuff that they were doing at Pride Month last year, and Target as well. Target came out with all these children's kind of pride stuff even the tuck swimsuit for children and it's like people said, absolutely no way. Now there's good news in that some of these guys, even though they're still woke in their philosophy, money does mean something to them, and so Target has come out announcing that, okay, we may still be woke, but we're not going to offer all that pride stuff this year in all of our stores. About half of our stores are not going to be offering any pride stuff at all in June, and that's a real concession, considering their worldview. I mean, that's a big deal to say, but that means they are listening to the people, which is good news.
Tim Barton
I wonder how they chose what stores yeah, exactly promote.
Maybe they look like a color map and they're like all right, if you're in a blue state, then you get to have these, if you're in a red state, you don't like. I just I wonder, like how strategic and thorough their, marketing review was, because it seems like this would not be complicated now. Now, if you live again like San Francisco, they're probably going to have the talkable swimsuit available for kids. That's probably not going to be available and let's say, like Fort Worth or Little Rock, right, it's probably not going to be available up in Oklahoma, et cetera.
Uh, so I mean, dad, as I'm hearing this, like it's levels of irony to me, because it's people that are still, they're playing some level of games, but at least there is good news to know that they're learning that certain places are not going to tolerate and accept certain behaviors and certain things being promoted and sold, and so overall, to me again, still good news, and there might be even more to what you're saying, but I do think there's a level of irony that they're not walking totally away from this. They just recognize that, as you pointed out, not all of the country is quite as woke as they might've imagined.
David Barton
And I'm going to use you as an excuse to double up, because you did mention San Francisco, and so that was one other story I'm going to cover real quick. San Francisco had two ballot initiatives, and the San Francisco Chronicle, which may be one of the most left newspapers in America, has announced that San Francisco is no longer no longer can it be called a progressive city. Because the ballot initiatives that they had, one of them dealt with the fact that if you're on welfare and if you're getting city assistance, we want you to take a drug test before you get any welfare assistance in San Francisco. Now I thought drugs were wide open in San Francisco, et cetera, and the people were saying we've had it. And that was a 63% ballot initiative. 63% of San Francisco said we're tired of giving away money, we want people to have to qualify and if you're on drugs you don't qualify. That's a big deal in San Francisco.
Tim Barton
Well, and we might need to look this up, but it seems like my recollection is wasn't San Francisco the place that, just a week or so ago, said they're going to start giving out free alcohol to the homeless?
I feel, like that was San Francisco. So I mean, you know, maybe two steps forward, one step back, if that's where this was happening. Uh, so I mean, I'm actually surprised it's coming from San Francisco, considering, right, that they're trying to provide all these free needles, you know, clean needles, because we don't want people taking drugs with a dirty needle. Uh, I'm surprised that they're wanting to blood test before this, although it makes total sense and everybody should be doing that. Right, we shouldn't be enabling people to damage their lives, disrupt their lives, even at a higher level, as we're funding that happening. But that does surprise me, coming from San Francisco.
David Barton
Well, the other ballot initiative got 58%, and it's that they want the police to step up and do more enforcement, be more aggressive in their enforcement. They want the police to stop the crime and they want crime going down, which is not a progressive city. And so what happened is the San Francisco Chronicle looked at all the results on the election and they said that just a couple of years ago I guess four years ago it was literally a complete sweep of the county seats for progressives. Only two that were, that were progressives lost. And this time it's flipped the other way. They're called a moderate people rather than progressives. But anyway, the radical left is pretty much getting thrown out of power in San Francisco. Now they're just back to liberals again, which probably is a big improvement for San Francisco. So I don't know, Tim, maybe they're not even going to do Pride Day in San Francisco, given the results of these two elections they just had.
Tim Barton
Well, that might be a bridge too far to say they're not going to. You know, because also, I mean, go back, san Francisco is one of the places that and I would have to go back and look this up to confirm it but I feel I'm saying this now with just about a 90 something percent certainty, just knowing San Francisco I would be willing to bet a lot of money that they would be one of the places that voted to defund the police right, that they would have promoted that idea. And again, I've looked this up I just feel like that's probably a logical conclusion based on their general politics. But if that was the case, and now, four years later or whatever, it is right. Four years, three years, six years later, however long it took them to learn this lesson, for them to go, you know, we actually could use some police and they do something good. It might not be that they're not progressive, it's just that maybe they're learning from some of the consequences of their decisions, which not everybody does, not every city has done right. There's a lot of cities that have gone from being incredible cities to nearly bankrupt cities and all kinds of homeless issues and all kinds of crime issues, and they don't seem to learn that so often. It's some of these Democrat philosophical ideas, some of this philosophy that has led them to these issues, but if San Francisco has learned that, I would give them more credit than maybe I would have thought they would have been able to accomplish a couple of years ago. So, either way, it's really great to see that on some of those ballot initiatives, that the people there do have some level of common sense, although the fact that only 50 something percent thought that police should actually do their job and enforce the law does tell me that they're not quite as awakened to truth as maybe they should be.
Rick Green
All right, very good news. Let's go over to Tim. What's your last piece of good news, brother?
Tim Barton
All right, guys, with just a little bit of time, we have left something that happened, man, was this last week now, I guess, when the House passed a bill to block Biden from withholding military aid to Israel. It's something in the midst of so much of the craziness going on, what we've seen at college campuses and now at different Democrat events and rallies, or even pro-Israel rallies where these pro-Hamas, pro-Palestinian protesters show up, and just the chaos they're causing, the things we've seen on college campuses in so many places around the nation. We've seen a lot of craziness going on and Biden has said, hey, we're not going to help Israel have the military aid and equipment they might need because we think they're doing bad things and they're not being held accountable on genocide and blah, blah, blah, whatever it is. And not that we have to get into this a lot, although maybe at some point we can have a guest on to give a few more details about this but one of the arguments that we hear against Israel is that innocent people have died. And if anybody would read any history book about any war, the reality is, in any war there's going to be innocent casualties. It's why you never want war. It's why the description that war is hell has often been connected to that, because there's so many negative things that happen and yet to pretend like Israel's a bad guy so we don't want to help Israel in the midst of this, you have to not be paying attention to a lot of what's going on or just being misled by the media.
All that to say, come back to the House has decided that they're not going to stand by the Biden decision to not fund Israel in the midst of this.
So on May 16th yes, this is last week it says there's a House bill passed May 16th that would prohibit the Biden administration from withholding military assistance or services from Israel. The vote passed was the Israel Security Assistance Support Act introduced by Rep. Ken Calvert, a Republican from California. It passed in the House 224 in favor, 187 against and there were 208 Republicans that voted for it and 224 total voted for it. That means 16 Democrats voted in favor of it, 184 Democrats voted against it and also three Republicans voted against it, and my article it doesn't tell me what three Republicans. I would love to know that. I'm going to look that up after the show's over. I want to know who didn't support this. But overall, it is really good news that, in the midst of the Biden administration not supporting our incredible ally Israel, that there were leaders in the House stepping up saying that they're going to make sure that Israel gets some of the assistance they need in the midst of this. That's really good news.
Rick Green
Lots of great news, guys. Thanks so much. Hey, everybody, if you want more good news, be sure to visit our website today at wallbuilders.show. That's the radio site, and you can scroll back to some previous Friday programs and then, of course, go to wallbuilders.com for all of our other materials available to you there. And the other good news on that, Tim, too, is that the Israel issue is going to be an issue in November. It's very clear which party actually supports Israel and which party is undermining Israel. I think we'll see a lot of Democrats that will come over to the Republicans specifically for that particular issue. So anyway, a lot of good news. Thank you guys. Thanks everybody. Be sure and check it out today at wallbuilders.com. You've been listening to the Wallbuilder.show .
