Rick Green 0:11

Welcome to WallBuilders , the intersection of faith and the culture , where we take on hot topics of the day but from a biblical , historical and constitutional perspective , appreciate you joining us today . We're going to have a great time with our Good News Friday . Quick reminder , we talked about it yesterday , but Constitution Day is coming up . Make sure you get signed up as a Constitution Coach at ConstitutionCoach . com . You can get a class started right in the middle of the celebrating of the birthday of our Constitution and you can also take that free curriculum that we give you to your local schools so that they're teaching the Constitution as the law requires . And then also consider joining us on September 17th . That's a Sunday in Fredericksburg , Texas , for a huge celebration with Kurt Cameron , Brad Stine and myself , Comedy , Constitution and Revival . It's going to be a great celebration and you can come in early or stay over and do your Constitutional Defense course at the new Patriot Academy campus . Check it out today at PatriotAcademy . com .

Rick Green 1:04

David and Tim super excited about our Friday Good News . I need this good news every week , just like everybody at home , so we're going to talk about some of the victories out there , looking forward to it . David , what's the first piece of good news ?

David Barton 1:14

Well , we're going to start in Northeast Texas . Now some people call that Arkansas , but if you doubt that it's Northeast Texas , I invite you to go web . . . Look up how Texan sees the United States . You'll get a picture of a map of the United States and essentially the other 49 states are just counties in Texas . So essentially that's what we're going to call Arkansas .

Tim Barton 1:36

Hey , the flaw in that logic is that means that California is a part of Texas , that means that New York is a part of Texas , and so you know , I'm not sure that I want to embrace all of the United States as part of Texas . However , I appreciate some of Arkansas and would definitely embrace some of Arkansas , like Rick . Rick was from Arkansas , we embrace Rick . . .

Rick Green 2:00

Wow, you outed me . You outed me man ! All of my Texas pride was just thrown under the bus . I have to admit , I was born in Arkansas now , but at nine years old , convinced my parents there's no place like Texas . So I'm an American by birth , yes , but I'm a Texan only by the grace of God . So there you go . But actually, I got a daughter living in Arkansas , you know , and so there's still a little bit of Arkansas Red Razorback juice in the family .

David Barton 2:22

Well , I do have to remind you guys that Texas is the one state that literally is building a border wall , and I think that's between us and California , isn't it ?

Rick Green 2:32

That's right . Can we just go ahead and cut off El Paso while we're at it and let New Mexico have El Paso ?

David Barton 2:37

That's the eastern part of the county of California , Is what that is .

David Barton 2:42

So, in Arkansas , the Satanic Temple up in northwest Arkansas has put up Billboards , and I mean, man , Satan is called the father of lies . But this is a billboard and the billboard says abortion saves lives . That's the message on the billboard and it's put up by the Satanic Temple there in Arkansas . So they got this message up that abortion saves lives , which , again , you know Satan is the father of lies , and that's the way . . . I think , if . . . I don't think anybody would sin if they knew the consequences that came from it , at the final end . People sin because it looks good at the time , or Satan's able to convince you that it's going to be okay , or you'll enjoy yourself more , or whatever it is . But eventually , you know , the old saying all the chickens come home to roost . And so this billboard says abortions save lives . And they also send you a web address over in New Mexico . And New Mexico is one of the states that's willing to send abortion drugs all across the United States . So in Arkansas , where they have banned abortions , it's all right , people , if you want to have abortions , here's the address that you can go to , here's the site you can go to in New Mexico and you can get the abortion drugs there and so you can have these drugs and do an abortion here in the state that won't let you do abortions , because abortion saves lives . So that's the message that is out there . I don't know when the last time was that I've been able to say something like this , but I love the fact that a church there in that same area took out a nearby billboard and it says before I formed you in the womb , I knew you, signed God . So it is a pro-life message that is specifically designed to counter the satanic message that is pro-abortion . Now you got a Christian message that's pro-life and I love the fact that it is a direct confrontation . It is not a billboard they put up because that's in the sequence of what they're doing . It is put up in response to what the satanic temple did , and I think this is one of the best things I've seen in a long time , where that we have people willing to speak out and confront . We've talked in previous programs 77% of Christians self-censor because they don't want to get a controversy started , don't want to get a fight started .

David Barton 4:57

Here's somebody standing up and saying no , that's a lie . Here's what the truth is . Let us tell you the truth , and just as I was reading this , I was reminded of the account in Old Testament where that the children of Israel , God's promise , you're going into the promised land . And they're on their way there , and on the way they have this water problem . And so God says well , Moses , go speak to the rock . And he hits the rock and that eventually ends up with Moses, God says you disobeyed me , Moses , you can't go in the promised land . And people say well , it's because of anger he struck the rock . What strikes me is what Moses said .

David Barton 5:33

The scripture says that God says to Moses because you did not sanctify me before the people , and sanctify means to set apart as separate . And so what Moses did was he said must we bring forth water out of the rock ? I think Moses' sin was saying me and God are going to do you guys another favor . We're going to bring forth . . . Moses can't bring forth water out of the rock . It didn't matter whether he struck it once , twice , three times , 43 times .

David Barton 5:57

The scripture says, God says, because you did not sanctify me before the people , I'm not letting you go in the promised land .

David Barton 6:04

And then God turns to Aaron and says and by the way , you're not going in either .

David Barton 6:08

And Aaron goes what did I do ?

David Barton 6:10

I didn't say anything ! And God says, exactly . You did not contradict what was a wrong message from Moses , and because you remained silent , you're not going in the promised land either . And I think that is such a clear biblical message that , if you remain silent , there's an old axiom that used to say silence is complicity , and that if you're being silent when something bad is going down , you're complicit to it because you're not speaking out . And so I think that this is a character trait Christians have to get a hold of again . We have to be willing to stand up and say no , that is not right , this is wrong . Here's what is right . And kudos to that church in Arkansas that's willing to put up a billboard in direct opposition to the Satanic temple message and not let that message go unchallenged . That is really , really good news . Kudos for the courage and the backbone to that church in Northwest Arkansas and may Christians all over the nation get the same kind of courage and backbone , so that we don't have to face what Aaron had to face when he remained silent .

Rick Green 7:08

Yeah , David , I love that perspective on why Aaron , too , was punished , and that's that whole silence in the face of evil is evil itself . And especially when we can do something , we have the tools that we need to speak up . Just imagine if we didn't have any freedom of speech and we didn't have the ability to influence what's going on out there . Then maybe you got an excuse , but we have no excuse for remaining silent . Absolutely . Good stuff . Okay , Tim , I'm guessing we're not staying in Arkansas , it's just a guess, there's 49 other states where you probably found some good news . But now you're probably going to prove me wrong with some good news from Arkansas , or you're going to make up some .

Tim Barton 7:42

Well , I mean , I don't have to make up any . Fortunately I have a big stack and I could selectively choose from the stack and be like no Rick , wherever you choose , I will go somewhere else . However , this time I could stay in Arkansas , but I'll include all the states . This is related to a movie and , as we're talking about people speaking up , this was a film that brought a lot of attention to an issue where people should be speaking up . It's The Sound of Freedom .

Tim Barton 8:04

The Sound of Freedom is the story , part of Tim Ballard's story , obviously , Hollywood did some Hollywood storytelling in it , but , however , it's highlighting what Tim Ballard did years ago starting Operation Underground Railroad and really bringing exposure to the evil of the sex trafficking industry , of child sex trafficking , of the efforts they've done to fight against it . There's a lot of organizations now that are fighting against this evil . We partner with several of them , with WallB uilders , there's organizations that actually we have some partnerships with on different levels , whereas having them come when we work with state legislators , for example , having them come to our state legislators conference and give some ideas to state legislators , of what they can do in their state to help preserve children and stop some of these evils . Anyway , with all that being said , the reason I bring this up is there was a report that came out just a week or two ago that the Sound of Freedom has crossed $175 million , which placed it for the year in front of Indiana Jones and Mission Impossible and Transformers , which , respectively , it has made Sound of Freedom number 10 in the grossing list for the whole year as far as where it ranks in all the movies that have come out . And so number 11 is Indiana Jones at $173 million , number 12 is Mission Impossible at $161 million , number 13 was Transformers at $157 million , and on and on it goes .

Tim Barton 9:36

But to have a film that is , relatively speaking , this independent film that comes out, of course it was picked up by Angel Studios and they're the ones that worked to get this out there .

Tim Barton 9:46

But to have a film obviously with such an important message , but a message not largely supported by Hollywood and not promoted or encouraged by Hollywood , not picked up on one of these major studios , to have a message this important that has resonated so well with so many Americans now to have surpassed $175 million in what they've done in the US is remarkable because , as we can imagine , all of the filmmakers in Hollywood that are thinking I want to have this really successful movie , what can I do ?

Tim Barton 10:18

This actually shows not only the evils of the sex trade or the sex slave industry , but it also shows that there is a market for a conservative Christian perspective and a market for a movie that has a moral compass that can actually go back and say hey , there are some evil things and we want to stand against evil and we want good guys to win and bad guys to lose . And obviously this is again tracking mostly a true story , with Tim Ballard, or at least highlighting the story of a real individual and then the Hollywood-izing a lot of the story as it goes . But , guys , to me it's just so encouraging that this movie has done so well and continues to do well . And when you talk about surpassing Indiana Jones and Mission Impossible and Transformers, some major major names when it comes to Hollywood and movies , this is really encouraging to me .

Rick Green 11:11

Yeah , Tim , not only did Hollywood not support it , remember when it first came out and the media was all trying to dismiss it , saying it was a QAnon movie , even, I mean , they did everything they could to keep this from being successful and to have this level of success , oh man , what an encouragement . And I think you're right the ripple effect where now other people will say , hey , I can make good movies with good values and have success , it'll encourage a lot more of that . Okay , guys , quick break . We've got more good news coming your way , folks . Stay with us . You're listening to WallBuilders . It's Good News Friday .

Tim Barton 11:50

Hey guys , we want to let you know about a new resource we have at WallBuilders called the American Story .

Tim Barton 11:55

For so many years , people have asked us to do a history book to help tell more of the story that's just not known or not told today and , we would say , very providentially , in the midst of all of the new attacks coming out against America , whether it be from things like the 1619 project that say America is evil and everything in America was built off slavery , which is certainly not true or things like even the Black Lives Matter movement , the organization itself , not the statement Black Lives Matter , but the organization that says we're against everything that America was built on and this is part of the Marxist ideology . There's so many things attacking America . Well , is America worth defending ? What is a true story of America ? We actually have written and told that story , starting with Christopher Columbus , going roughly through Abraham Lincoln . We tell the story of America not as the story of a perfect nation or a perfect people , but the story of how God used these imperfect people and did great things through this nation . It's a story you want to check out , WallBuilders . com the American Story .

David Barton 12:59

Rick: We're back here on WallBuilders . Thanks for staying with us on this Good News Friday . Diving right back into the good news, David's up next . David: I'm going back to the summer of 2020 . And during the summer of 2020 is when Black Lives Matter was doing their summer of rage across the United States and burning and defacing and all the violence that was going on with Black Lives Matter . And they did this particularly in a lot of the blue cities , a lot of the urban areas , whether it was up in Milwaukee , whether it was Atlanta , whether it was over in California , whether it was Washington DC , et cetera . So they really targeted areas where that really they could get away with violence and not be arrested . They tried it for a little bit in Dallas , but the Dallas prosecutor , even though he was a Soros guy , did not . . . let it happen one night in Dallas and then it stopped after that . So a lot of places where they didn't shut it down, you know Portland and Seattle and all these places . . . It kept going week after week after week , and one of the places they did not shut it down was in Washington DC , and Washington DC for those three months of May , June and July of 2020 , for all the protests , for all the violence , for all the burnings and all the stuff that was damaged and defaced , there were a total of four arrests of Black Lives Matter protesters . And so there were four arrests over those three months . But in the midst of that . . . and they were arrest for defacing public properties , taking cans of spray paint and spraying monuments and spraying you know whatever else . Well , there were two other arrests that happened during that period of time and it was two pro-life people who went in front of an abortion clinic and they wrote Black pre-born lives matter in chalk on the sidewalk in front of the abortion clinic . So rain takes that away , a little bit of water takes that away , but they wrote it in chalk , not paint , and those two got arrested . So you've got all the other violence going and you have a total of four arrests for three months . And then here come two pro-life protesters who put a message that Black pre-born lives matter and they get arrested . So this goes all the way through the DC Circuit Court of Appeals .

David Barton 15:01

Now , the DC Circuit Court of Appeals , of all the courts in the United States , this is the one directly below the United States Supreme Court . So the way the circuits are laid out , the DC Circuit Court of Appeals is the one directly below the US Supreme Court , even though there's other circuit courts of appeal , they don't hold the same standing because Washington DC is a federal district . It is not a state , it is not an area that's a combination of states . It's a federal area . So when things go to court there , they go to the federal courts . And the DC Federal Court of Appeals said no , no , no , you can't do this . And it was interesting . Here's out of the court decision , it says in the summer of 2020 , thousands of protesters flooded the streets of the district to proclaim Black Lives Matter .

David Barton 15:46

Over several weeks , the protesters covered streets , sidewalks and storefronts with paint and chalk .

David Barton 15:51

The markings were ubiquitous and an open violation of the district's defacement ordinance . Yet none of the protesters were arrested . But during the same time , district police officers arrested two pro-life advocates in a smaller protest for chalking Black pre-born lives matter on a public sidewalk . And the court said you can't do that . You can't have selective enforcement . You got to uphold enforcement for all or free speech for all . However it's going to be . You can't choose the messages you like and punish the messages you don't like , and that is a really , really great decision at a high court level at a point in time where you got all the big media , you know , punishing messages they don't like , even if it's Robert Kennedy , who has been a Democrat all of his life , but he's got a message they don't like against COVID , against vaccinations , against other things , and this DC court , right below the Supreme Court , said you can't do that , you can't pick winners and losers when it comes to messages , and that's a really , really , really good decision out of a very high court .

Rick Green 16:53

Yeah , David , I don't think we can emphasize this enough because you know we've talked a lot about it here on the program the two-tiered justice system , the you know anti-biblical , dishonest weights and measures , when you treat people different based on their money or their skin color or their religion or whatever it might be . So to get a victory like this in the middle of what we have highlighted on the program so many times , whether it's the you know indictments of Trump and nothing going after the Bidens , or it's the you know just the way people have been treated January 6th versus the riots in the streets over the summer , I mean all of this stuff , these just we kind of have a sense of justice in our heart , I think, that God gave us and we see that stuff and we go , that's not right , that's not fair , whatever language you want to use . But there hasn't been a lot of pushback . We haven't seen a lot of victories in the courts to even this out or get back to those constitutional principles and that due process for everyone .

Rick Green 17:41

So I'm with you , man . I think this is a huge good news . I'm so glad you highlighted it today because we need to know that that can work , the system can work . And I can't remember where that verse is I've heard you quote so many times . I've been quoting it myself , but out of Isaiah about having judges is at the beginning , lawyers is at the first . Then you'll be the righteous city . If we don't fix this part and we don't get rid of the two-tiered justice system and come back to biblical justice instead of social justice , we won't be the righteous city . So really great piece of good news there , man .

David Barton 18:07

And , by the way , that's Isaiah 1:26 . It's the Bible verse you're talking about, that when God gives us the right kind of judges and attorneys , you become the city of righteousness , the faithful city .

Rick Green 18:19

And just a little bit more on that , the whole idea of having good judges and good lawyers . First of all , folks , if your kid's saying , hey , they enjoy the law , they want to go into the law , don't discourage them from that . That's a great ministry for them to go into . And then , secondly , you've got to have president and US senators that will approve good judges . And so , remember , a lot of these victories we're having in the court now are because of a lot of hard work by a lot of our friends and people here on trying to change and get good judges into the system . That took decades to get to that point . Sometimes it takes a long time to actually get to see the fruit . So , anyway , good stuff , guys . Okay , Tim , where are we headed next ?

Tim Barton 18:57

Well , guys , this one's going to Florida and speaking of the justice system and maybe a two-tiered justice system , earlier this month , governor DeSantis ended up removing a Soros-supported district prosecutor for not enforcing the law . It's not the first time Governor DeSantis has done this . In fact , I think we've actually talked about maybe some of these other removals on the program , maybe even in the last month or two , I feel like I've had similar stories to this , but this one , specifically , is dealing with the state's attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit , Monique Worrell , and specifically in her tenure , she released 16,243 defendants without prosecution , which made up 43% of the arrests that were under her . So 43% of the people that were arrested she released without any kind of prosecution .

Rick Green 19:48

I bet she's really popular with the police officers there doing all that work and then those cases all get thrown out .

Tim Barton 19:53

Well , no , I mean , she is really popular with some people there , but mostly if you want to commit crime , it's a 50-50 chance of you being prosecuted for that crime . Where it became quite significant, Governor DeSantis , there was a press conference where he covered some of these details and specifically , many of the people that have been released . They were violent felons , meaning this wasn't just a misdemeanor, right , this was something . . . and not just even a felony , a violent felon that were released and so some of the incidents that were highlighted , why this was a major problem , there was one example where there was a 17-year-old who was arrested for criminal possession of a firearm . He was let go without being charged and shortly after he shot and killed his pregnant girlfriend . There was another criminal arrested for sex abuse of a minor and then he shot and killed two police officers after he was released with no prosecution . And there are several examples of this . And so Governor DeSantis came in and just acknowledged, this is ridiculous . There was also the state attorney general came out and spoke about this . So the article I have is several pages covering a lot of what happened in the press conference , a lot of the response , but essentially the thing I want to highlight is the fact that , yet again , governor DeSantis is giving an example of someone who is operating within their constitutional bounds to uphold the rule of law , to uphold the Constitution , to uphold moral standards and values , and this is something that I think we talked about was unique with DeSantis when he was first elected as governor back in 2018 .

Tim Barton 21:25

When he had to go through that debacle of an election that it took nearly five weeks before he was declared the winner because places like Broward County kept finding new ballots , and when he finally was elected , he said this is ridiculous , this should never happen again , and he said he was going to work to change what he could , and in order for him to know what he could do , he ends up reading the Florida State Constitution , among other things . But he does his reading up on legal documents , which he has a background in law . He was a JAG attorney in the military . He was an attorney embedded with a SEAL team , and so he was out with them . As they're doing operations . He's giving them the guidance of what they legally can and can't do , as they're trying to get information and rules of engagement and prisoners of war and whatever else might be happening . Some of that's classified . We don't know what all he did and didn't do . We know he was with that SEAL team in their operations . Anyway , all that to say is he's a guy pretty familiar with the law , but he read the Florida Constitution to try to figure out what his limitations were and weren't . When he realized the power that he had , he used the power he had to remove the election officials over those counties who were not turning in the election results in a timely manner , who kept finding these magic boxes full of ballots in the trunks of people's cars , etc . And when he began enforcing the law, constitutionally speaking , what they found was the elections cleaned up very quickly . And also worth noting that when he began flexing some leadership muscles , his state legislature was very glad to follow his lead and they began passing a lot of laws that , arguably , many of them already wanted to pass . They just needed a strong leader to get these things done and they were passing the things that he was advocating for them to pass . So they do election reform .

Tim Barton 23:04

Florida was thought to be a toss-up state in the 2020 election . People weren't sure if Trump's going to win this . Is Biden going to win this ? But once you had secure elections in Florida , trump won by nearly 700,000 votes . It wasn't even close . In the 2022 election , when Ron DeSantis ran for re-election as governor , he won by nearly 1.3 million votes , I believe is what the margin of difference was . His first term , when he was elected back in 2018 , he won by like 30,000 votes . So he went from probably not secure elections , to say the least , where he won by 30,000 votes , to securing elections where he won by 1.3 million votes .

Tim Barton 23:41

And now he's doing things to remove the two-tier justice system that's been going on in Florida , where , Dad , as you were talking about in some of these situations where they're not going to prosecute people that are out protesting and rioting and destroying and looting , but they are going to charge people who are maybe pro-life individuals , have a different value system and maybe writing with chalk on the sidewalk , as crazy as this is , governor DeSantis has been an example of somebody who has stayed within constitutional bounds , who has flexed really big , strong muscles regarding the Constitution , but upholding moral standards and values and guys ,

Tim Barton 24:16

to me , this is just one more example of why he is a really , really special leader , and we've talked about it before , as Texans sometimes were a little jealous that we have to look to Florida and some of these other states for their strong leadership , their strong conservative leaders , when at times we definitely have not seen that from our state legislature , from our state elected officials, Governor Abbott , among others . Governor DeSantis is showing to be quite an example that other states can follow and what they could do to make a difference . As we look at the nation and we sometimes get perplexed about what Joe Biden is doing or not doing or what Congress is or isn't doing , we sometimes forget the power of a governor and the power of a state , and Ron DeSantis is definitely helping remind people the power of a governor and the power of a state .

Rick Green 24:58

Well , you had me at he reads . So wait , this guy gets elected governor and then he goes and reads the statues himself , does the research himself , instead of just saying , hey , somebody on the staff , go figure this out and bring it back to me . And then we saw that in COVID , same kind of thing , right , he went and studied the data .

Rick Green 25:15

I remember listening to some of the folks that were in the back . . . you know , helping him find the science and finding , and then he would go read all those studies himself . And I thought , man , that's what we need more of , because the swamp is so bad , not just in Washington , but in the States , and if you don't do the homework yourself and do the research yourself , those bureaucrats are going to lead you astray , the staff is going to lead you astray . That's why he's done such a phenomenal job . And , frankly , I know I'm going to get hate mail on this . I hope you guys don't get it as well . But that's why , honestly , Trump messed up COVID , because he wasn't willing to go do the homework himself and he let Fauci and Birx be the experts . And even when his gut told him this is wrong , we shouldn't be doing all this , he didn't have the data himself . So I think you make some really good points about what DeSantis has done there . And I'd love to see more of this .

Rick Green 25:59

I wish Governor Kemp in Georgia would find a way, call in the legislature, if they don't have that same ability that Florida has, which I haven't done the reading , I haven't gone and read those statutes myself ! So I don't know if he can , but if he doesn't , call in the legislature , pass that statute and then fire this crazy prosecutor in Fulton County . Okay , that's enough of my reaction to that one , guys . I think we're out of time for another good news because I got a little bit excited there . But thank y'all for bringing so much good news to us this week and we'll have more next week as well . Hey , folks , lots of good news , we'll have more for you next week . Have a great weekend and thanks so much for listening to WallBuilders .