Rick Green: 0:11

Welcome to the intersection of faith in the culture. It's WallBuilders, where we talk about today's hottest topics on policy, faith and culture. We always do that from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. Now I say that on every program every day, the reason we do that is because that biblical perspective, we give you the right answer on any question. God's instruction manual is phenomenal. It's not only right, God's word is not only right, it works best, you're going to get the best results when you follow what he tells us in the Bible on how to treat our spouses on how to treat our employees or our employer, or how to conduct business or how to be a government official, or how to be a good citizen or any of these things. The Bible has all the best answers. The reason we do a historical perspective is because it's important to where we came from, it's important to look back and see what's worked, what didn't work, what did work, what were the results, let's look at the good, the bad and the ugly, and learn from it. That's the historical perspective. And then the constitutional perspective, what are the rules of our society, if you're going to be a good citizen, if you're going to be a biblical citizen in today's culture, you have to know what the rules are, you got to know how that particular society or community or in our case, our nation, how does it work? What are the rules? And how do we best fulfill our role as a free citizen, and live out that biblical citizenship? So biblical, historical, constitutional perspective, that's why you hear me say that, at the beginning of every program, you can find out more about our program at our website, WallBuildersLive.com. There are three of us typically hosting this program, David Barton, America's premier historian, and our founder of WallBuilders, Tim Barton, national speaker, and pastor, and President of WallBuilders. And my name is Rick Green. I'm a former Texas legislator. More information about all three of us at WallBuildersLive.com. And then also with the website, you can get the archives of the previous few weeks of programs. And you can even make that donation. Yes, that contribute button is very important there on the WallBuildersLive website, because that's how we do this. We're a listener supported program. So when you make those donations, those contributions, were a 501c3, therefore, we are nonprofit, that means you can do that as a tax deductible donation. And then we are able to spread the good news, we're able to educate people on the Constitution, on the founding of America and on the principles that work every time they're tried. Become a part of it right there at our website. WallBuildersLive.com. All right, David, and Tim, our good friend, Bob McEwen will be with us later in the program, we're going to be talking about some of the crazy stuff in California. I know that sounds repetitive and all that crazy in California, but you know, it's just one of those times where we look at the culture, we go, how are we getting these bad results, it's not complicated, you put bad stuff in, you get bad stuff out.

David Barton: 2:41

You know, California is one of those places, but we're seeing it everywhere. I mean, even if you take a red state like Texas, we're still seeing stupid stuff like in big cities like Houston, and you can have a really sound state that's got its act together. But there's a lot of these crazy school districts and, you know, woke is not limited to just certain states, it's limited to a philosophy. And the more I've looked at this, the more has come through to me something that came from Dennis Prager. And you know, Dennis Prager did the rational Bible and the Bible study through Exodus, etc. And it was something I was really questioning and asking about at the time. And it's like, Man, where did... Where's all the common sense, gone? Because we don't have common sense anymore. We used to think about consequences cause and results, ideas have consequences. But now we're just throwing out things. We need socialism. What's the consequence of that? We've got 5800 years of history, what's it been? Nobody's looking at consequences. And so where's all the common sense gone? And I thought it was really significant. And I was playing around with this, but in Proverbs, it says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And the fear of the Lord is beginning of knowledge. And when Dennis Prager broke that down, he said, Look, that's common sense, when you have wisdom and when you have knowledge, that's the ability to take knowledge and apply it and make it work. That's what common sense is, and I thought, you know, that's a great way of saying it. Because if you'll look, and if you see something really stupid, the question to ask yourself is, hey, the person doing that, do they have any fear of God? Is there any fear of God there? And, you know, quite frankly, there's a lot of professing people who have no fear of God. And, you know, forgive me if this sounds judgmental, because that's not what it's designed to do. I judge a tree by its fruits. That's what Jesus said we should do. But if I look at both Pelosi and Biden, they will openly tell you that they are religious, that they are Catholics, that they are Christians. They're very bold about that. But they've made Christianity and the Bible look like what they believe. They don't have a fear of God where it changes them to be more godlike or more Christ like to conformed to His image. They've made Him into their image. And, you know, as the scripture says, hey, you believe in God, big deal. Even the demons believe in God. So that's not big. So the question becomes, do you have a fear of God? If you believe in God, if you fear of God, if you believe that you're going to personally stand before Him, and that you're going to answer for what you said, and what you've thought and what you've done, your thinking and your behavior's really, really different. And so I think the way I'm seeing it is, the more secular an area is, the more secular a city is, the less it fears God, the crazier it is. And that's what we're seeing on campuses, the more woke they are, the less fear of God they have, they're more secular. So generally, the more secular it becomes, the crazier it becomes. And the less you fear God, the more stupid it becomes. And we saw an article not long ago about something going on in California, not that there's not a lot going on there. But this was in San Francisco. And in San Francisco, the city council has come up with this new plan, that if you're transgender, and you live in San Francisco, the city is now going to pay you $1,200 A month because you're transgender. Now, on what planet does that make any sense at all? You know, I can...

Rick Green: 6:13

Can I just identify as transgender for the day, get the check, and then change my mind tomorrow? Like what, how does that work?

David Barton: 6:19

And see that's the question you should be asking. Well, how do we know if you're really transgender? What if everybody in the city says they're transgender just to get$1,200? You know, they haven't thought through this policy. And what do you do when you run out of money? And where are you going to get the money when you run out of it? And how can you verify who is transgender and who isn't? It's just, it is so stupid on so many levels. It defies common sense, but then we are talking San Francisco. And so one guy who is really grounded in common sense is Bob McEwen. Congressman Bob McEwen, former congressman, this is where he just really kind of cut to the chase on stuff. And we thought it'd really be good to get somebody like Bob McEwen on to kind of look at what San Francisco's doing.

Rick Green: 6:58

Congressman Bob McEwen, our special guest. Stay with us, folks, we'll be right back on WallBuilders.

Tim Barton: 7:13

This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. As the American War for Independence began, the president of Yale was the Reverend Naphtali Daggett. When New Haven, the home of Yale came under attack, about 100 citizens rushed out to meet the British. The Reverend Daggett galloped by them on horseback, his clerical robes flowing behind him in the wind, and he took up a solitary position atop a hill, the 2500 British soon put the townsfolk to flight. But the Reverend Daggett continued to stand alone, firing down on the advancing troops. A British officer confronted him. What are you doing there, you old fool? If I let you go, will you ever fire again on the troops of His Majesty? Nothing more likely, was the preachers reply. America's early pastors personally confronted danger and courageously led their communities. For more information on pasture Daggett and other colonial patriots, go to WallBuilders.com.

Rick Green: 8:11

Welcome back, thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders. Always great to have Bob McEwen, with us, former congressman from Ohio and great friend to WallBuilders. Congressman, thanks so much for your time today, brother.

Bob McEwen: 8:19

Rick, you know, the honor is mine. Thank you so much for your call.

Rick Green: 8:22

Well appreciate just all that you do and your ability to teach on some of these crazy subjects that... and bring it down to terms people can understand and right now I'm trying to understand San Francisco, literally paying$1,200 a month in taxpayer funded cash for transgender citizens. So I guess it's discrimination as it... I don't know what this is, I don't even know how to process this information. But it's just one other example of the culture falling apart because we stopped putting in good principles. And David said, man, let's get Bob on and see what he thinks.

Bob McEwen: 8:54

That's true. That's where you have to start; you have to start in the garden. And there is a choice and the choice is either I am God, that's all, The Babel, the all of it... whether or not I'm going to put the... the blood on the doorpost, or the lintel when the death angel passes over, just on and on and on, right up to the very today is I'm God, I'll do it my way, I'll determine what is right and wrong. I'll determine what is life, I am God or He is God. Now that's the only question. And the scripture says repeatedly that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So if you don't listen to God, if you don't follow the Lord, then you have to listen to each other and these people are crazy. Man, left his own devices, can't figure out anything. And so that's why America was founded on godly principles every college has a chapel. The day began with a chapel service, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. So before we go to class, we immediately have to remind ourselves as to who God is. Now, that's why when the effort was made to, to close the chapels at Yale, and Harvard and Princeton and all these places, it was a way over, they really didn't mind as long as they go to church, why do I care, they don't understand what happens. When you take God off of the wall. When you take off the wall, Thou shalt not kill, then you're going to have to put magnetometers up and have policemen out front of all the schools, which they've never had, of course, when you and I were growing up, when you have Thou shalt not steal, when you take that off to the wall, now you're going to have to have locks on all the lockers, you're going to have bicycle locks on all the bicycles, you're going to have to... all of these things, that the culture begins to disintegrate, even to the point, even to the point, of not being able to tell if it's a boy or a girl, because where does that come from, Rick? It all comes from Genesis. In the beginning God. And that's the fight. So if you don't want God, then it's me. And what'd He do? He created male and female. Created, he, them. Didn't create 30, 40, 50, 100. He created... So if you do away with God, then who is to say how many genders there are. You could get every left wing liberal leftist, running for office saying there's 12, 15... Why? Because they don't recognize God as the standard. That's why our founders put In God We Trust, and the symbol, the motto in the state of Ohio is, with God, all things are possible. We understand there's a starting point. Once you float away from that, then there's utter chaos. So for example, even the churches, they want to put the LGBT flags. Now let's just walk through that. What is LG... What does B stands for? When you put that flag up there, it says bisexual. How do you... You cannot be bisexual, and be celibate or to be, as the Bible says, Thou shalt not commit adultery. You had that on the wall. Now when the church replaces Thou shalt not commit adultery with the LGBT flag, then it supplants God with man's idea. And man's idea always ends up in death- physical death, spiritual death, emotional death, marital death, financial death, and as we say, physical death as well. So that's... So now when we elect people to office, as you remember, in the Old Testament, it said the first thing that wanted those that fear God, that was the number

one: 12:38

fear God. Because once you do away with God, then these people would be crazy. And they would do crazy things such as the idea of taking money, if you know, if you tax something, you get less of that thing. If you tax savings, investment, productivity, growth. If you subsidize something, if you pay people to do it, they'll do more of it. And so here are these folks in San Francisco, we're going to pay people, not people that are working, not people are providing for their family, not people [that] are coming home every night for their family, and marriage and mothers and fathers. We're going to support those people who say that they're Napoleon. Now used to be when a man said he was Napoleon, we would put him in the insane asylum or we felt sorry for him. But now when people say I am this, or I am that, I am a woman today, or I'm a fat woman, or I'm a short woman, or I'm a tall man, or I'm a short... These people are mentally... It shouldn't be rewarded. And yet, in San Francisco, they want to give them money. If they claim that they're... they don't know what they are.

Rick Green: 13:44

It's hard to imagine that we're here. Everything that you've said makes so much... everything in terms of good results or bad results came from decisions that we... this is not by accident, we had the choice to make these decisions you pointed out for our nation, from the beginning, it was decisions to infuse the Word of God, infuse these principles, have them on the wall, teach them and then we get good outcomes. We change that garbage in, now we're getting garbage out. But when we say they did this, or you do or say this, who is that now today, like who is making that decision to allow us to go to this place and what can we do to influence that decision?

Bob McEwen: 14:18

Rick, that's an excellent question. Because the There's so many people in the church today that say, Well, answer is the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party... First of all, as I said, you do away with God. Once they did away with God, then they go to God who gave us life. He give us liberty. So now they go after life. So you cannot... you and I remember when there were Democrats that supported life. When I first came to Congress, at least a third of the pro life votes came from Democrat Catholics in the Northeast. Now there isn't a single Democrat in the Congress that's permitted to vote pro life. They have one on the border there in Texas, is don't... Now, Bob, you're getting political. We just we can't be political. And now they are, you know, as you said, the only one that comes and goes. But other than that replacing God's Word with these things that the Democrat Party is pushing. What do you say to pastors and the church and the flock out there about how party matters, and politics matters, they're... no one can survive in that party unless they have a and it impacts their church and impacts their life. And they got to stop pretending that God's Word doesn't apply to those things. man's definition of marriage, that you can marry anyone and And that's the whole thing. Either it does, or it doesn't. Either, this is all a big show. It's a country club. And it's nice, where we get together and we feel good, or it anything... in or out of or down as many as you want, or not actually is the bedrock foundations of a marriage and of a family. And there's lots of preachers that are in it, because they think they're the country club president this God's definition of marriage, or taking innocent life. Those are year. And they don't want to take the stand. There's a book that's just been written by Eric Metaxas, in which he compares those preachers in the 1930s. And they put the Nazi flag up on the two things required. So in answer to your question, who are the wall, because they said, we want you to understand, we're not into politics, we don't care. We'll put your flag up, these people in San Francisco, in Sacramento, in Austin, we'll put somebody else's flag up, because we don't want to get involved in that. Well, that was a supplanting of God's standard they're doing these things. They are members of the Democrat in the Lutheran church. And from that, we saw the disintegration that took place. Now, exactly the same steps are being taken in America. And that is we don't want to get involved in party that is committed to undoing the bedrock foundations political, therefore, we won't say that it's a man and a... We won't be as definitive as God was in His scriptures. We want of this, the greatest nation on Earth But there's a thing called to put that aside, we're going to go with the modern day situation, where if... And I just passed a church not more Leadership leadership is ethereal, you can't buy a pound than two hours ago, where it had all the rainbow colors, because that what it was saying was, we don't care what the Bible says, of it. And different people at different times exert our... whatever you feel is good, that's what we're going to use as our standard. And that's quite frankly, Rick, that's only themselves. And quite frankly, at the starting of this session, been the fight since the Garden of Eden. It's the same as always and it always will be. That's why I appreciate people like you that stand up for righteousness. there were a handful of folks that said, we're not going to do

Rick Green: 17:31

Alright, last question, brother. It's a process question. You know the, of course, Republicans took the house and maybe in 2024, they take the Senate and the White House back. Last time, they had all three and investigated some like, like happened in the last few months of last year. We're of this damage done by Democrats and frankly, corruption and crime that's been done. You know, there was just stonewalling and not much cooperation, and nothing seemed going to stand up. And if the speaker wants to be speaker, he to happen. Do you think that we'll be different this time? Are they more motivated, even with the house hearings that are has to do these things. And so I think we're seeing... but it's now beginning, as a former member of the House, they can they do an actual draining of the swamp? Can they prosecute some of these horrific things that have happened? always a fight. Leadership is always a fight. And if anyone is disappointed in it, than I have an answer to that brother, one person in three and America runs for office, at some time in their lifetime, serves in public trust. You and anyone listening to our voices should do that at the City Council or at the school board or anywhere else. Amen, that is the answer. We've got to step up in that way. And we are seeing great results to local level and lots of good stuff happening out there. And you just mentioned it. I mean, even the way those 20 stood at the beginning of the session, I think gave people a lot of hope that it's not business as usual anymore. And that there there is an awakening.

Bob McEwen: 19:10

Rick, we're out of time. But quickly, let me just say that the reason most of this is taking place is because of the collapse of the educational system in America. That's been in freefall for 40 years. And we are now seeing for the first time, Americans are beginning to care who's on their school boards. State legislators are coming and putting the money to... giving the money back to the parents and not to the teachers unions. We are on the cusp of a tremendous, tremendous breakthrough that we worked for and prayed about for 30 to 40 years.

Rick Green: 19:39

Amen! Oh, I'm so glad you said that. Because that's exactly how I feel. That's exactly right. So good. Congressman, God bless you, brother. Thanks so much for the time today.

Bob McEwen: 19:47

Rick, thank you, brother. All the best.

Rick Green: 19:49

Stay with us folks. We'll be right back with David and Tim Barton. Have you noticed the vacuum of leadership in America? We're looking around for leaders of principle to step up and too often, no one is there. God is raising up a generation of young leaders with a passion for impacting the world around them. They're crying out for the mentorship and leadership training they need. Patriot Academy was created to meet that need. Patriot Academy graduates now serve in state capitals around America, in the halls of Congress, in business, in the film industry, in the pulpit and every area of the culture. They're leading effectively and impacting the world around them. Patriot Academy is now expanding across the nation and now's your chance to experience this life changing week that trains champions to change the world, visit PatriotAcademy.com for dates and locations. Our core program is still for young leaders 16 to 25 years old, but we also now have a citizen track for adults. So visit the website today to learn more. Help us fill the void of leadership in America. Join us in Training Champions to change the world at PatriotAcademy.com. We're back here on WallBuilders. Thanks for staying with us. Special thanks to Congressman Bob McEwan for joining us. Tim at the break you were talking about this clip by John Bevere about the fear of God. And David I remember, man, in fact, I got convicted and I've honestly been praying about this ever since, asking God to instill more fear of God in me. What, five, six months ago you and I were together in, I don't even remember where we were. No, we were in Florida. We were in Florida at the COS Summit, and we were talking to the kids. Do you remember that? We were talking to the interns, and one of them asked you, how do you stay humble with all the stuff that's going on? How do you do this? How do you do that? And your answer was fear of the Lord. I fear... I have a healthy fear of God. And man, I just sat there going wow, that is... nobody says that in our culture anymore. I don't say that. And I need more of that. And then Tim, for you to say that on the break and mention this clip from John Bevere. Just it really is a response to what Bob was talking about and where the culture is gone without a fear of God. So real quick, if you guys don't mind before we go to your comments on Bob's interview, let's listen to John Bevere recently in one of his sermons.

John Bevere: 22:09

My assistant gets a call in 1994. Jim Baker, he was on CNN, he committed mail fraud had the largest ministry in the world. And he was sentenced to 45 years. It was reduced to five years and the fourth year of a sentence, he called his assistant. He read the first book that I wrote, and he said to the assistant, can you call this man and see if he'll come visit me? I said sure. I'll go visit him. So I go in. I remember, I'm in the penitentiary. Jim comes in. He's got his prison garb on. He looks at me, grabs my shoulder and said, young man, did you write this book? I said, yes sir, I did. He sits down. He looks at me. You know what the first thing he says to me is? John, this prison wasn't God's judgment on my life. It was his mercy. He said, John, if I would have kept living the way I was living, I would have ended up in hell forever and ever. I'm so grateful to God. 20 minutes into it. I look at Jim and I said, Jim, when did you fall out of love with Jesus? And he's so serious when he it, he said, I didn't. And I said, Jim, you committed adultery. You were arrested and prosecuted in 1990. You telling me those seven years you didn't love Jesus? He said, I loved him all the way through it, John. And he sees confusion on my face. And he looks at me says, I didn't fear God. He said, I loved Jesus, I didn't fear God. He said, There's millions of American Christians just like me, they love Jesus, they don't fear God.

Rick Green: 23:14

Okay, good stuff. Tim, thanks for finding that, man. That's powerful. And it really is at the heart of why the culture is crumbling.

Tim Barton: 23:22

It is. And I thought, you know, as we were listening to Congressman McEwen explain, the basic philosophical difference of what we are seeing from people that have rejected God, right, where he said, it's all the starting point. Either there is a God or there isn't a god. And if there is a God, you live life differently. If there's not a God, then you embrace all kinds of nonsense that nobody would embrace if they believe there was a God. You know, Rick, as you asked the question, even as we're looking right now, the political parties have become so polarized even in regards to some of the basic biblical values issue. You know, I think, as John Bevere pointed out with this conversation with Jim Baker, right? Jim Baker said, man, I loved, I loved Jesus the whole time I just didn't fear God. I genuinely do. I think there's probably a lot of people that identify as Democrats who really love Jesus. I just have to question how much maybe they fear God, if they are voting Democrat and the Democrats are the ones who are pro abortion, right? The Democrats they think abortion should always be there. Well, how can you fear God and be okay with murdering unborn children that were a gift from God, made in the image of God. Or how can you love God and support that there are multiple genders, right? That male and female aren't a thing? Or that maybe we can come in and surgically castrate children and do these sex change operations. That's people... Again, maybe some of these people love Jesus. They don't fear God. And I think that's part of what Bob was getting to with this worldview, philosophical perspective. We have to recognize that we... There is truth and there is a foundation and because there is a God, then there are God's ways. And God's ways do work, but also the rejection of God's ways bring negative consequences. And, you know Dad, even as you were talking at the beginning of the program with the notion of common sense and asking the question, where's common sense gone? One of the things that we've heard Dennis Prager and other people talk about that I think really summarize it so well is because common sense is rooted in reality, well, reality is expressed and explained in the Bible. And so if you don't believe in the Bible, you don't understand reality. And therefore you won't have common sense. This is what we are battling. And this is why you see those crazy policies happening out in California. That is not sustainable. You... They don't have a printing press, and the government does, and that's why we have inflation. But California does have a printing press; they can't afford this, but they're doing illogical things because they're not rooted in reality. And it's because it's a rejection of those biblical principles and biblical values.

Rick Green: 25:53

Get educated on these things. It's, you know, it'd be great one for you to have conversations with people about and then actually have some good strong data and some strong examples to back up the fact that the founders were breathing that atmosphere of Christianity, that it did permeate the founding era and that it was the source of our strength and the source of our declaration, and our Constitution. You can learn more about all of those things WallBuilders.com and WallBuildersLive.com , our two websites, and at either one of those websites, encourage you to click on that donate button and make that contribution that helps us continue this great work of teaching inspiring and equipping Americans to restore America's Constitutional Republic. We sure appreciate your listening today. You've been listening to WallBuilders