Rick Green 0:12

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture . It's WallBuilders . We're taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical , historical and constitutional perspective . My name is Rick Green . I'm a former Texas legislator and America's Constitution coach , working here with David and Tim Barton . David's , America's premier historian and our founder at Wall Builders . Tim Barton , national speaker and pastor and president of Wall Builders . You can find out more about all three of us at our website , WallBuilderscom .

Rick Green 0:34

WallBuilderscom and , of course , that word Wall Builders comes from a scripture in Nehemiah . It says Arise and rebuild the walls that we may no longer be a reproach . Here in America , today , we have to rebuild the foundations . We have to restore the foundational principles that made the country great in the first place , and today we are celebrating the restoration of one of those most important principles, freedom of religion . Joe Kennedy , a coach in Washington state , took a stand and , as a result , here we are nine years later with a tremendous victory , huge victory . It happened last summer at the Supreme Court , but Joe is going back to the football field this week and in fact , this Friday , September 1st is going to be Take a Knee Day , and we're encouraging everyone to participate in this . RFIAorg is the website, that's restoring faith in America RFIAorg . You can go to that website , you can sign up , be part of it , take a knee with Coach Kennedy and fellow patriots across the nation, celebrating our freedom , worshiping God and being thankful for what we have and exercising those constitutional rights .

Rick Green 1:41

So we've got a great program today . We're Going to hear from Kelly Shackelford , who was the attorney for Joe and , of course , has First Liberty . We have Kelly on all the time . Wonderful , wonderful organization over at First Liberty, represent a ton of people and Kelly is going to . . . we're actually gonna play a video that . . . the audio of a video that Kelly made celebrating this victory but also pointing out this is a big , big sea change . This is a shift in the landscape , huge shift in the landscape for religious liberty here in America , and so we want to hear from Kelly first, talking about that , and then we'll take a quick break and we'll come back and have Joe Kennedy himself with us . All right , here's Kelly Shackelford from First Liberty .

Kelly Shackelford 2:18

I've got some great news about religious freedom in America . Hi , I'm Kelly Shackelford , president and CEO of First Liberty Institute . We're the largest legal group in the country that all we do is religious freedom , and there's a lot of bad news . There's a lot of attacks on religious freedom certainly more than we've ever seen but there's some huge news from the Supreme Court . We just had a number of major victories . I'm going to say something that you're even going to be surprised by . Every American right now has more religious freedom than they've ever had in their lifetime .

Kelly Shackelford 2:47

The problem is , most don't know , so that's why I'm trying to get this information along to you . You can spread this to others . Probably the best example of this and to help you understand this is the Coach Kennedy case . Coach was a Coach who just wanted to go to a knee after the football game . He was fired . We went all the way to the Supreme Court . And most people know we won, that Coach Kennedy gets to go after the games to a knee and say a prayer . He's got his coaching job back . When he goes this fall to that first game , there'll be a lot of TV cameras covering this all over the country , but what people don't know is what happened within the decision , and that is there's a major case called the Lemon Case that was reversed .

Kelly Shackelford 3:24

This case has been cited over the last 50 years over 7,000 times , and what it is is we have an establishment clause because the founders didn't want there to be a nationally established church . But this Supreme Court 50 years ago the same court that gave us Roe v . Wade said no , no , we think it means a lot more than that . We think it means strict separation of church and state that wherever government is , religion can't be . We think it means that if you're offended by religion , you can bring a lawsuit . Well , you can't bring lawsuits because you're offended . But that's why , for the last 50 years , we've seen attacks on nativity scenes at Christmas and menorahs at Hanukkah and a 10 Commandments Monument and, you know, a prayer at a school board meeting and over and over, any religion at school , it's like there's a fire at the school . Why ? Because any of these things are a violation of anything in the Constitution ? No , because of the Lemon Case . And so in Kennedy, that was reversed . Over 7,000 citations gone . Everything you've been taught for the last 50 years that you can't do , you can do , now . You know the crosses that went down , they come back up . The 10 Commandments that were pushed into the closet , they can come back out . The prayer that was stopped at the school board meeting , it can't stop . You can't stop it anymore . The prayers after the football game with kids from both teams, if they want invite coaches as well ? All protected under the First Amendment . So this is a really new day .

Kelly Shackelford 4:57

The problem is , for 50 years people have been trained they can't do any of these things , and so this is a matter of people taking back the freedoms that have been gone , and it's just up to you and your own community . It's not complicated , it's just asking for some things , doing some things . But it's essentially , we're always on defense , reacting . This is on offense . We've already won . The land . . . God has taken the land and it's out in front of you if you're willing to walk into it . And you might say well , I don't know what I can do .

Kelly Shackelford 5:27

Well , that's why we have Restoring Faith in America . It's a national campaign for everybody to take back their own community . Simple as saying let's have a school board prayer , let's get together after the game and pray , and it just goes on and on . But it's a matter of restoring faith in America and you can start in your community , and what we're going see happen is, when one community starts, and it's already starting, other communities are going to see that . They're going to do that . They're going to go wow , I can do that now and this is going to catch like a great positive virus that sweeps the country . It could even be the spark that starts revival .

Kelly Shackelford 6:05

So take your part in this , share this with other people . You can go to RFIAorg that's Restoring Faith in America and get some simple things you can do and how you can even share this with others . But this is great news . God is moving in the midst of a really dark time . God is moving in ways we have never seen with regard to expanding religious freedom in America . It's just a matter of you taking what he's given you and make a difference . God bless you . Call us or email us or go to our website at FirstLibertyorg if we can help you in any way . But this is really good news . Be empowered , make a difference . God bless you .

Rick Green 6:45

That was Kelly Shackelford from First Liberty . What a great word . What an encouraging time . I'm excited . We're gonna take a quick break . We'll be right back . Coach Joe Kennedy , our special guest . This guy is a true patriot . He's a Marine , he's a coach in Washington state and he is on the front lines restoring religious liberty in America . I couldn't be more excited . You can hear my voice . I'm a little bit giddy about this one . Here we go , folks , quick break . We'll be right back with Coach Joe Kennedy .

Tim Barton 7:19

This is Tim Barton from Wall Builders , with another moment from American History . After the final victory at Yorktown , the Continental Army awaited the outcome of peace negotiations with the Great Britain . Pastor Israel Evans , a chaplain in the Army , proposed to George Washington that they build a structure where church services could be held during the months of waiting . Washington approved the plan and urged his officers to ensure that the soldiers attended service . Pastor Evans further knew if we were to secure the liberties they had fought for , sound education would be crucial . He declared , every parent and every friend to the freedom of his country ought to be attentive to the improvement of our youth in the principles of freedom and good government , and then the people will stand fast in their liberty for a long time . Our schools today need to return to teaching the principles of freedom and good government in order for America to survive and prosper . For more information about Pastor Israel Evans and other colonial patriots , go to WallBuilderscom .

Rick Green 8:17

Welcome back to Wall Builders . Thanks for staying with us . Great to have with us Coach Joe Kennedy . Coach , God bless you , man . Thanks for coming on and sharing some time with us here at Wall Builders .

Joe Kennedy 8:25

Oh , absolutely . Thank you for having me .

Rick Green 8:27

Well , man , you've become a household name for really good reasons . Every American is benefiting because of your stand . The religious liberty that we have now and the good decision by the Supreme Court , but then the efforts of First Liberty, all of that is fantastic . But it wouldn't have happened if you hadn't been willing to take a stand and basically to push back and say you're going to fight for your rights . So I got to ask , man , at what point did you kind of flip the switch in your head and say you know what ? I can't just lay down and take this or ignore this . It's not just me at stake here .

Joe Kennedy 9:01

Right . It started out when I was talking to the school district and they didn't want me to pray with the kids and I agreed to that . Unfortunate , but you know their school , their rules . But then they said , oh , we just still see you praying . And you know I had to draw the line right there where they said that I couldn't pray out in public just because it was a public school . And you know that was a line that I could not cross , especially after I was sitting there listening to my football team . I kept them abreast of everything that's going on and they said , coach , can't you just go along with what the school says and so you can stay our coach ? And I knew at that exact second I had to do this because it was the right thing to do . I would set a bad example as a coach and as a man if I back down to this .

Rick Green 9:51

Oh man , I love that . So basically the kids were saying you know , just come on , just go along to get along , so that you know we can still play ball together and you knew there was more at stake there than you're , you know , being able to be there and coach them . This was about . . . this was literally about our liberty and freedom .

Joe Kennedy 10:10

Right . You know , as a believer in God , it wasn't that big of a deal because I could pray anywhere . It was the fact that I was a Marine for 20 years and I stood up to defend the Constitution and now , all of a sudden , they say it doesn't apply to me . Well , if they're doing this to me , imagine what they're doing to the rest of the people in America . So I absolutely had to stand up . There was no way on God's green earth was I going to stand by and let them take away the First Amendment from Americans .

Rick Green 10:39

I love that convergence of both your biblical worldview and your faith in God , and then your constitutional foundation . You know your love of country and freedom as a Marine and , knowing what you fought for , it's almost like God prepared you for this man . I mean , it's like your whole life was leading up to this moment . Do you feel like that sometimes ?

Joe Kennedy 10:59

I do , you know , going through it as a kid and being a troubled youth in and out of group homes and foster homes and boys homes, I didn't understand why I was going through everything . I couldn't understand why my life was so difficult and why I was always fighting . And when I joined the Marines it seemed like a good place to go to learn how to fight and direct that kind of anger and get the discipline then turning around and becoming a Christian right after that , having God really just using me , the moment that I surrendered to him , boom , he asked me to do this . So , yeah , what was I going to say ? No ?

Rick Green 11:39

I love it , man . Well , and your whole story , you've got a book out basically telling your life story and why this happened and why you think it's important . Your website , CoachJoeKennedy . com . Is the book out yet or is it about to come out ?

Joe Kennedy 11:52

It's about to come out . It's on pre-sale on Amazon right now . It's releasing in October . It's a print and doing its thing so right . Partway through October should be out .

Rick Green 12:06

Excellent . What do you hope people get from the book ?

Joe Kennedy 12:09

I really hope that everybody just gets inspired . It's really just a true love story . I hate to sound so cheesy and you know , soft and squishy , but it really is a love story , my love of my country , the love of my wife and the love of the school and the Constitution , really standing up for what every American should be blessed and be able to , you know , express . And I just hope it, you know , kind of like the Rocky movie . You walk out and you feel inspired , like you could take on the world , because if a guy like me can do this , imagine what everybody could do together .

Rick Green 12:45

I think of all the great things we're talking about today with you . The thing I'm going to remember is the Marine football coach saying I hate being so soft and squishy .

Joe Kennedy 12:55

Yeah, I'm not that guy usually .

Rick Green 12:58

I love it , man , but God softens our heart . You're what I call a tender warrior . You know Stu Weber had that great book . I gave it to all the guys at my wedding 30 years ago . You know , it's that tender warrior . It's what John Lovell calls a warrior poet . You know you've got that toughness and ability to defend your family and your country but at the same time , God has softened your heart to serve your family and serve your country and serve those boys you're coaching on the football field . So I think it's , man , it's what we need more of,

Rick Green 13:24

Joe , I'm telling you this lack of godly manhood is a big part of why we're in the mess we're in . So that's why we love championing your story , you know , partly just for the cultural impact that you represent . But , man , you talk about a huge impact on America and religious liberty . I can't imagine what you felt like when the Supreme Court decision came down . Did you feel surreal like you're in a movie ? Like what am I doing at the United States Supreme Court building here , having a press conference with Kelly Shackelford before talking about how we just changed 50 years of legal decisions ? That's huge man .

Joe Kennedy 13:59

Right , and it's not me , you know , it's absolutely God wanted every American to stand up , and I really really believe in prayer . And if it wasn't for every American . . . because we know that God could do anything , but it was because of all the Americans that were praying and backing me up on this is the reason why God heard our prayers and it absolutely worked out . And surreal is not even the right word . I don't know what that word is , but if a high school football coach from Bremerton Washington can change the United States , imagine what we could do with the rest of the world . Imagine what we could do for our country just right now and all the turmoil that we're in . We need men to be men and if they don't understand what it means to be a man , tell them to come over and meet me . I'll help coach them to be a better man .

Rick Green 14:51

Oh, I love it . Ah, I love it . Joe , God bless you . This is so good . Okay , I want to give out your website at CoachJoeKennedycom and , folks , if you get on there , you can follow Joe on Facebook and keep up with what he's doing speaking engagements , all that good stuff but also be ready when the book comes out in October .

Rick Green 15:06

And , joe , for those that don't know this story , I feel like everybody in our audience probably knows it , but people driving and channel changing , they get to the show and they may not . Just back up for a second and remind us . I mean , this was not , it wasn't like you as a coach , and this is how the left is trying to portray you is, ah this guy's making his kids pray and they don't get playin' time if they don't pray , and all that kind of stuff . You were literally praying by yourself after the game , right ? If I understand it right , and then over time , some of the boys started joining you . But what , just , if you don't mind , just kind of walk us back through what happened and and how it ended up being such a big deal .

Joe Kennedy 15:42

Right . It started out , I was watching Facing the Giants one night over the weekend after I was offered the job and I made my commitment right there to God . God , I'm in . I will give the glory after every game win or lose , right there in the battlefield . And that's the way it started . Like you said , it was me praying by myself .

Joe Kennedy 15:59

A couple of my guys came out I don't know , maybe six months into the season and asked what I was doing and I said , just thanking God for what you guys did out there in the football field and letting me be part of it . They want to know if they could come out and I said this is a free country . You guys could do whatever you want to do . They started coming out . It was hit and miss . If you win by a lot of points , you know people are so excited they forget what, you know, to give thanks to . And also , same thing if you lose , you end up , I don't want to celebrate and I definitely don't want to be thankful for a loss , but I was steadfast in my commitment with God . It went on for eight years and the school district learned of what we're doing because of a compliment from another school district, thought what our football program was doing was awesome , so this . . .

Rick Green 16:50

Hey Joe, I got to interrupt you . I had missed that fact that you just said it went on for eight Years . So it wasn't like this started , you know , at the beginning of the football season and all of a sudden , a couple months later , a big brouhaha . Everybody in the community was, I mean , they knew this was going on . Eight years , this was going on . I had missed that . All this stuff I've seen about your story, wow .

Joe Kennedy 17:10

Yeah , and it's a small community . We're not a huge town , it's a small , close-knit town . Everybody knows everybody . I grew up with these guys parents . It was nothing new , it was nothing that was required . And that was the thing , I asked everybody, if you think that I was forcing kids to do this or they felt pressured to do this , find one , just find one kid and I threw that out on national news . Find one kid that ever felt pressured , because it was never like that . It wasn't even close to being like that , and they couldn't come up with anybody . And the school district admitted there was no one that came forward and said that they felt compelled to pray . But yes, I ended up being released halfway through the football season . . .

Rick Green 17:53

Wow . And I don't want to miss what you had started to say . Sorry , I'm going to jump in here again . You had started to say somebody . . . there was a compliment of some kind, or somebody, it was kind of random . I want to get back to that . So tell us that again . So you're you doing this for eight years, and then somebody, there's some random compliment that brings it to the attention of somebody . Tell us that part .

Joe Kennedy 18:19

Right . The school district, one of the . . . we were at a football game and one of the educators from another school district was out watching the football game and they saw what we were doing after, coming together with both teams and having a moment of peace and sportsmanship and giving thanks , so they felt compelled to call the principal of Bremerton high school and compliment him on how awesome the football program is doing and what they are doing . And , of course , with every kind of compliment , they started investigation . The school district lawyers got involved and it spun way out of control from that moment on , as soon as the lawyers got involved .

Rick Green 19:02

So a compliment from an educator at another school ends up sparking this whole thing . Okay , and then you were about to tell us they bring you in . And I guess what was their demand initially , from the school ?

Joe Kennedy 19:10

They gave me three demand letters . It was a letter of direction . The first one said I could pray as long as it didn't interfere with my job duties . Well , that wasn't a problem . Then they gave me another letter , said everything will be fine if you just stop praying with the kids . And I complied with that . And then they said you need to stop praying or you will be on suspension until you comply with the school district's policies or their direction . And that's where I had to draw the line and I said no , I will not comply with that . There is no way I'm going to be able to do that . And their lawyers were steadfast . They wanted to meet with our lawyers . And it became this big fight over something so simple as a 30 second prayer by myself on a 50 yard line .

Rick Green 19:57

Man , the things God uses to have such a big impact , because that 30 second prayer now has opened the door for religious liberty in so many different areas , and you had great counsel and Kelly Shackelford , that whole team over at First Liberty , tell us about this Take a knee . This is going to be on Friday , September 1 . And it's basically a way for people all over the country to participate in both a celebration of religious liberty but really educating people about what our religious liberty is . What's Take a Knee all about ?

Joe Kennedy 20:28

You absolutely nailed it . That's what the plan is, is we're inviting every American to be so thankful for living in this country , for the freedoms that we have , and to take a knee on Friday after a football game or Friday evening . I just ask every American , just take a moment of pause and take a knee , say a prayer, thank God , thank your parents , thank your neighbors , thank whoever is in your life that you would like to be thankful for , and be able to just express their first amendment right in anywhere they're at, doesn't matter if you're at your home out in the front yard , you're at a football game , but let's kick off the football season , the 2023 football season , with being grateful for what we have .

Rick Green 21:13

Man, that heart of gratitude , so incredibly important . All right folks, remember this phrase, Restoring Faith in America . If you remember that you'll be able to go straight to the website . It's just those first four letters R-F-I-A , RestoringFaithInAmericaorg . And when you go to that page you can take the challenge and you can sign up and you can get involved and get the resources from them . But the easy thing is get with people

Rick Green 21:35

on Friday night , take a knee with Coach Kennedy . He's going to be doing it there in Washington . We're going to have people all over the country praying with Coach , with other Americans . And , as you said , Joe , just and I want to emphasize that just that heart of gratitude that we live in a free nation , that God's given us the ability to express these things and to worship him and to serve him . Oh , we miss that heart of gratitude in America . No good, man . So many different things, the godly manhood , the gratitude , the religious liberty . I just think God's put you at the forefront of what it's going to take to turn this country around . So bless you , man . Thank you for being willing to take a stand .

Joe Kennedy 22:10

Oh , absolutely . It was the toughest thing in the world taking that long and dragging my family through everything but absolutely worth it . I'd do it again in a second . I hope I never have to and I hope no other American will have to go through this , but I want . . . If you don't exercise your rights , you're just going to end up losing them , so the fight was definitely worth every single bit of misery that I had .

Rick Green 22:36

And I forgot to mention that or even ask you about it , but it was not an overnight thing . This was how long ? Seven or eight years in the legal battles ?

Joe Kennedy 22:43

Well , this will be the ninth football season . It was in 2015 . So I'll be . . . I'm stepping on the field here nine football seasons later , so eight full years it took for me to get back here .

Rick Green 22:54

Wow , all right . The book is called Average Joe , the inspirational true story of Coach Joe Kennedy , one Man's Faith and the Fight to Change a Nation . Our friend Kelly Shackelford does the forward on it . Joe Kennedy , you are an American patriot . God bless you , man . Appreciate you so much for your time today .

Joe Kennedy 23:10

Awesome . Thank you , brother . God bless you .

Rick Green 23:14

Stay with us folks, we'll be right back on Wall Builders .

Tim Barton 23:22

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

Tim Barton 24:01

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 a 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 . WallBuilderscom , The American story .

Rick Green 24:25

We're back here on WallBuilders . Thanks for staying with us . Wow , wow , wow . What a great , great interview today . What a great story . We're just thankful for Coach Kennedy and his stand and the result . You know , we're thankful to Donald Trump for the appointments on the Supreme Court that got us this decision and just the hard work of Kelly Shackelford and people that have been on the front lines for so long .

Rick Green 24:45

You know , if David Barton . . . I truly believe this, If David Barton had not written the school prayer book America to Pray or Not to Pray, 30 years ago , and then original intent and all of the things that WallBuilders has done to dispel this myth of the separation of church and state and the way it's been applied in America , we wouldn't be sitting here today , folks . So this is fruit from years and years and years ago and a lot of people pouring in and working to get us to this point . So celebrate your liberty , enjoy your liberty , live out your liberty , be a part of restoring faith in America RFIAorg the website . Take the challenge and take a knee on September 1st and I always throw a little bit too much at you , but I'm going to do that today, because you know we're on the heels of getting close to Constitution Day , September 17th . So don't forget that opportunity to come celebrate Constitution Day with us in Fredericksburg , Texas .

Rick Green 25:38

We're going to have an incredible celebration with Kirk Cameron and Brad Stine and myself and just a big crowd . We're going to be out there doing Comedy , Constitution and Revival . We're going to be encouraging people to start Constitution classes right after Constitution Day . Hope that you'll do that . Whether you can come in and physically join us or not on September 17th , you can absolutely get started as a Constitution Coach by going to ConstitutionCoachcom .

Rick Green 26:01

Now, If you do want to come , spend that special day on September 17th with us, and maybe even stay after and do a Constitutional Defense course where you can get your handgun defense course as well , then check that out at PatriotAcademycom and join us for Constitution Day . But first of all , this week coming up right, you know , literally in a few days , on Friday , September 1st , make sure that you're taking a knee and you're a part of this very important celebration of our religious liberty and then , two weeks later , celebrate the Constitution itself and the Bill of Rights and the fact that we have these freedoms here in America . Thanks so much for listening . You've been listening to WallBuilders .