Rick Green: 0:07
Welcome to WallBuilders. This is the intersection of faith and the culture and, by the way, we've been saying that for 15, 18, I don't know how many years a long long time. I noticed a lot of people have added that to their moniker, their byline, whatever you want to call it. Anyway, I just want to say we were, I think, first. I don't know. Anyway, I don't think anybody else was doing it when we started it, but it is the intersection of faith and the culture. Why is that important? What does that phrase actually mean? It means that our faith informs everything that we do, including how we form our societies, our neighborhoods, how we vote, what our government looks like, how we build our businesses, how we treat our employees or how we treat our employer, how we treat our family. Faith is involved in everything. If you're truly a person of faith, if you're saying that this faith that I believe in changed my life, if you are saying that Christ is king in my life, then we are to obey everything he commands, and that's why it's so important to make sure that faith is also influencing our culture. So here at WallBuilders Live the intersection of faith and the culture. And also, if you're wondering. WallBuilders. That comes from the scripture in Nehemiah that says arise and rebuild the walls that we may no longer be a reproach. We are working to rebuild the foundations in America and we are thankful that you're a part of that. My name is Rick Green. I'm a former Texas legislator and America's Constitution coach, and it is my honor to be here with David and Tim Barton. Tim's a national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders. David is basically America's premier historian. No, basically to it. I mean, there is nobody on the planet that can quote the founding fathers like him that knows as much about the founding fathers and the founding of our country. He is absolutely America's premier historian and we're thankful to be here with him. He's also the founder of WallBuilders, so if you want to know more about all three of us, you can check out our website today at WallBuildersLive.com. Alright, guys, time to dive into Good News and just a reminder if you didn't watch or listen, I'm sorry to yesterday's program. We had good news on Foundations of Freedom Thursday, that good news being that we're pushing back in Washington DC, where they said no to basic advertising about George Washington, and so make sure you listen to that program. You'll be excited to know what's happening with our WallBuilders advertising lawsuit. Against what is it guys? Washington area, wamata it's the easiest way to remember it. Wamata that sounds, I don't know, just weird. Well, mata. Anyway, they're the transit authority there that didn't want George Washington on the sides of their buses. So that's going to be some good stuff. Anyway, make sure you listen to yesterday's program. You can get that on our website today WallBuilders.com. And David, where do you want to go with the good?

David Barton: 2:35
news? Well, the good news is that there is we've always talked about being on offense how you want to be on offense, proverbs 2221,. A wise man attacks the city of the mighty and that's the thing you need to do is be on offense. So literally in this case we have gone on offense. If WallBuilders and our good friends over at First Liberty, they're part of the co-counsel in this case. This is a federal case. It's in federal court in Washington DC and being in Washington DC and not in any of the states, that really puts it in a kind of a different pathway. It doesn't have to go through a state and then a federal state court and that sounds oxymoronic to say a federal state court but a federal court in a state. It's a federal court in the jurisdiction of District of Columbia, which means, if it ever goes on appeal, it's one step closer to the Supreme Court by starting in Washington DC. But co-counsel was First Liberty, but that's part of the other story. The other part of the co-counsel on this is the ACLU, if you can imagine that. So the ACLU. So often we talk about them being, you know, secular, liberal on the other side of things.

Rick Green: 3:38
David, I think you might have your acronyms messed up. You said that the ACLU is representing WallBuilders, so something must be wrong with your notes there. We might need to fix that.

David Barton: 3:49
Well, these guys are kind of making me have to change my acronyms, because for a long time I've been able to say ACLU stands for the Anti-Christian Litigation Unit, because that's what they've always done it's been on the wrong side. And here now the ACLU, with some of their local attorneys in Washington DC, said hey, we want to get on this. I don't know, maybe they're looking for more wins, you know, maybe they're looking for low hanging. Who knows why? Who cares why? It doesn't matter why. The point is that they are a co-counsel with Liberty Council, which is really a significant statement to make, and we're happy to partner with people who want to move the ball down the court constitutionally.

Tim Barton: 4:26
And Dad, let me jump in too and point out that that is two of the three that are representing us. There is First Liberty, the ACLU, and then the law firm of Steptoe LLP, and they were actually one of the big guns in the case. We were very happy with Steptoe and First Liberty to represent us. And the ACLU saw and said, hey, we would love to sign on with this because we recognize what is happening in Washington DC. That is a total abuse of the First Amendment and we want to stand with you on this. And we said, okay, right, Like we're not looking for the ACLU to partner with us, but like that's pretty impressive that they want to be a part of this and it does give some credibility that this is not a right wing, left wing issue. This is really a First Amendment issue that is clearly being violated in the midst of this. But I did want to point out that the ACLU even though right now they're kind of putting their names in the front like, hey, we're the ones doing this Well, they're one of three that is doing this and Steptoe was really the big ones from that area of Washington DC that were going to represent us. But when the ACLU saw the case and they wanted to sign on, we said absolutely we had to approve it. The council recommended they thought it would be good for the case, because now it looks like it's not just a right wing kind of issue, that this is literally a First Amendment free speech, freedom of religion issue, which it absolutely is. What's also interesting is we well nope, I better not disclose some of that we're going to have to wait for the attorney. At some point we're going to have the attorney, jeremy Dice, joined us and we can talk about it. I want to make sure I don't say things I'm not supposed to say and get myself in trouble. But the bottom line this is a First Amendment issue. It's very clear and when the ACLU, when even the ACLU recognizes that you were done wrong, whoever's on the other side, they better recognize pretty quickly they messed up on this one.

Rick Green: 6:18
You know, Tim, it's really hard for me to have restraint here and not go jube into saying something, because you know I like the sound of you being in trouble. It's just fun. I don't know. I just, you know I love it, but I won't do it. I won't do it. I'm going to have restraint and we're going to go to other good news.

David Barton: 6:34
No, no, no, we're not going to have the good news, yet I still got more to go. So more good news on this. Go ahead, man. I'm going to stay with ACLU for a minute because, while it's amazing thing that they're representing a very openly Christian organization like WallBuilders and they're doing it on a First Amendment case, I've got a headline here that says ACLU represents the NRA in a case before the Supreme Court. So how do you get the ACLU with the NRA? That's about as unlikely as getting the ACLU with WallBuilders. But you know, maybe that speaks to something going on in the country that that even the left is finding out they don't like not having a constitution. I don't know what the motive is, I don't care what it is, but nonetheless here's the ACLU on two cases that you would just normally not think that they're there on, and part of what happened with WallBuilders, and we covered this a little bit yesterday and I just pointed out it was just a historical picture, I mean a traditional historical picture associated with capital, with founding fathers, etc. And it had a QR code. A QR code would literally take you to just a page of history. Just just look at historical quotes and other things. And so, with that in mind, here's a third story that goes with this and it was when Mike Johnson became Speaker. Right after he became Speaker. This is now a couple weeks back. Right after he became Speaker, cnbc anchor got him on there and really went after him for his faith. And hey, you know, when you were made the Speaker you prayed there on the floor and don't you recognize kind of that that violates the separation church estate and you shouldn't be praying in public and etc. And it just watching the clip and you can do a search on this and look up Speaker Johnson, cnbc host. He just takes down the host by just going to history. He said well, and he just quoted history. And he quoted history in such a way that it was clear that the CNBC host had not heard that history. And I want to just read a little bit of what Mike said. He said faith, our deep religious heritage and tradition, is a big part of what it means to be an American. When the founders set the system up, they wanted a vibrant expression of faith in the public square because they believed that a general moral consensus and virtue is necessary to maintain this grand experiment self government that we created a government of by and for the people. We don't have a king in charge, so we've got to keep morality among us so that we can have accountability. Now that statement in itself is the essence of what we would like people to understand if they go to the website and see the historical quotes. It goes back to Washington's farewell address that the whole indispensable basis of our constitutional system is religion and morality. Those are the two things that really hold the Constitution up, and Mike Johnson got that, and it looks like that maybe even the ACLU has got at least part of that, because they at least want to be part of the case defending that very notion. So there's three quick good news stories all in a row, right to open up Rick.

Rick Green: 9:38
I love it and I think you're right Good sign. And we are seeing more and more of this across the country, as usually it's liberals, not leftist, but that see liberty being really eroded and they're starting to be very concerned and say man, I got to team up with you. I don't remember if I told you guys about the guy that walked into one of our Biblical Citizenship classes up in Connecticut. Pastor friend of ours told me about this and said you know, I'm not a Christian, I don't believe in God at all, but the Left hates you guys at church and I hate the Left. So I think I want to team up with you. And so he started coming to the class, gave his life to Christ in the fourth week, got baptized in the fifth week. So you just never know A lot of good teaming up for anybody that loves liberty. Alright, Tim, your first piece of good news today.

Tim Barton: 10:22
This one's coming from Michigan and I feel like we've had several articles very similar to this over the last couple of months. This one says 62 Michigan churches leave UMC, which is United Methodist Church, amid schism over homosexuality. And one of the things that we have talked about periodically, more internally probably than on radio, is about some of these denominations that have embraced so much secularism, so much really anti-biblical doctrine, that when we look at denominations as a whole, some denominations have done a much better job of aligning them themselves to the truth of the Word of God and staying consistent to that truth. And obviously a church is going to be led by pastors, by the elders write some deacons, and so it's much more about the leadership of the church than it is necessarily the denomination, although certain denominations tend to have much better leaders and their doctrine of theology is much better. With the UMC, the United Methodist Church has been a denomination that has really historically, the last several decades, been going the wrong direction. They've embraced a lot of vokism, and what's been really remarkable to me is how many pastors and leaders, how many churches in this denomination, have begun pushing back and saying we're not okay with this, we're not okay with this direction and in most cases it's not the majority of the churches in that denomination in those various states, but the fact that we're having 30 or 40% in some cases, of churches of the United Methodist Church in these states that are saying we're not okay with this, with the kind of woke, cultural, moral decay that's being embraced and even promoted inside of the church, where, in this specific case, when you have the United Methodist Church, that is, is now changing the biblical position of homosexuality and saying generally that hey, we think it's okay for homosexuality, for even lesbians to be pastors, leaders for lesbian bishops, we think all this is acceptable from a biblical perspective, which of course contradicts some very clear verses in scripture, but this is a position they've taken. And so to me it's just such good news to realize that even inside of these very left liberal, woke, embracing denominations, that there have been churches that remained in there, that did not swallow that wokeism, that didn't embrace that wokeism, and that are now coming out acknowledging that they are not okay with this and therefore they're leaving that denomination because of the unbiblical policy. So just really good news to me seeing that happen in Michigan again, we talked about this a lot over the last couple of weeks with churches in various states that were leaving some of these woke denominations. But this is just one more example and to me it's really good news that, as we're seeing a culture embrace wokeism, that even in some of these really leftist denominations, that not everybody's embracing this wokeism, and that's really good news.

Rick Green: 13:24
Yeah, Tim, I'll just add to that before we go to break. You know, I just talked to someone from a UMC church just a few days ago that said their church voted and by two votes they voted to stay in, but then half the church left, right. So there's the even, even beyond the numbers of churches that are actually leaving. Over this issue, there's also a lot of people within the churches that stayed that are saying, no, I'm going to go to a biblical church, I can't deal with this anymore. So maybe you know, lord willing, there's going to be a massive influx into biblical churches and a massive number of churches that become more biblical that had been strained away from that. So very, very good news for the culture on all of those fronts. Quick break, guys. We'll be right back. It's Good News. Friday folks, stay with us. You're listening to WallBuilders.

Tim Barton: 14:13
Hey guys, we want to let you know about a new resource we have at WallBuilders 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? Well, 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. WallBuilderscom the American Story.

Rick Green: 15:18
We're back on WallBuilders. It's Good News Friday. Diving into more of those good news stories. David's up next, David.

David Barton: 15:23
Well, this goes back to a story. Since Mike Johnson has been speaker, there's been a number of interesting votes in the House of Representatives, and so one of these votes actually is, as they're making these negotiations, trying to break the law jam and the funding in DC, the Senate, in control of the Democrats, has taken pretty liberal positions and the House is really taking pretty conservative positions, and Mike thus far has been able to stand pretty strong with some of those positions, not to yield on them, whether it be some of the Ukraine funding or whatever, but some of the funding they dealt with over on the House side. They said you know what, we are not going to allow any funding for Iran period at all. And the administration has been resurrecting these kinds of funds that have been set aside. And they had sequestered the funds and said they can't go to Iran. But then the Biden administration started putting funds into Iran and we saw that, particularly before the attack on Israel by Hamas, that the administration released a lot of the funds to Iran, and so we knew Iran was using those funds in the North. They're using them over in the Yemen area and out of Syria as well and out of Lebanon. So there was just a thing in the House that said we're just not going to do this. Well, what was really good news is it was not a partisan vote. There were actually 90 Democrats that joined with the Republicans that said, yeah, we should not be giving any money to Iran at all. And so Steve Scalise, who is the majority leader in the House, he actually produced a really good graph just from the last few years showing the number of atrocities committed by Iran and why we should not be funding them at all. And I was really surprised by some of this. I had not recognized that Iran is executing about three of its own citizens every day. They're just butchering their own citizens. They even had a protest in Iran over water shortage and they just absolutely butchered the protesters. And so he's got this long list of all these atrocities that Iran has committed against its own people. And here DC is helping prop up that regime and this is a completely appropriate word with this country. Iran, it is a regime, and it was just really good to see 90 Democrats join with the Republicans and say, yep, Iran should not get a single dime from the United States.

Tim Barton: 17:42
Well, it might be worth clarifying too. I don't know if it was all of DC as much as it was the Biden administration, when Joe Biden was really unilaterally freeing up funds and saying we're giving those funds but not to take away from the fact, that's amazing news when you were having that many Democrats break with the president, who is part of their own party, to say this is crazy, we should not be doing this, which, of course, is true, but you don't often see that many individuals from one party going against the leader, the president from their own party, so that is that's really good news.

David Barton: 18:14
Yeah, and Tim, you're totally right. If I said DC, I definitely meant Biden, because it was a Biden administration thing that he's done, where he's unfreezed those funds. So my bad if I said DC, because it definitely is and, as you said, it is 90 Democrat members of the House going against the leader of their own party at the national level, going against the president. That takes a lot of courage to do that, but I was glad to see that much conviction. And it is literally bipartisan now, and a lot of times they use the word bipartisan and then get to from the other party to vote with them, with all their folks is bipartisan. You pick this. This is not one or two, this is 90. That's like nearly half the Democrat caucus going in. Now that would be a discussion for another day. Why is half the Democrat caucus voting to fund Iran and not one of the cutoff funds to Iran? It should be 100% of Americans and maybe that's the issue. Maybe they're not true Americans. Our friend Chad Codley likes to say that a lot. They're so liberal and so progressive and so globalist. They're really not Americans, even though they live here. But nonetheless, if I said DC, totally wrong. Good correction, tim. Thanks.

Rick Green: 19:17
Well, and it also tells you just how far out there the president is on this and those that other half, as you said, of the other Democrats that we could do a whole nother program on that, but, Tim, let's stick with good news. What's, what's your next piece of good news?

Tim Barton: 19:30
Well, guys, we have talked Much throughout this year at various times about that, what we think is probably a great awakening happening in America and we talked about. If you look historically at the first and second great awakening, they were not times of the unity, they were times of moral clarity In those times. When you look at the 30 and 40 years leading up to the American Revolution, when the first great awakening was happening, you look at 1800, 1860, when the second great awakening is happening and America is becoming increasingly divided and polarized over the issue of slavery, church denominations are splitting over the issue of slavery. It was not a unifying time in America, but truth and morality were being debated and what is also unquestionable is that people's eyes were being opened and and so many people were coming to God. They were coming to Christ. Charles Finney, a major leader from the second great awakening. He it's estimated that more than a hundred thousand people came to Christ under his leadership. So his leadership is responsible for so much and really a lot of fun stories from his life we get into. But but the point I want to make is we really think that that God is on the move and and when? We're seeing that for sure in America. But what I think is also interesting is, as we're seeing the the the challenges and difficulties in America, we can look now at the rest of the world and see that a lot of the rest of the world is Also being put in a place where they're having to confront the reality of some really bad leftist liberal policies, whether it be immigration and inflation, and we can kind of go down the list and in a lot of places People are waking up and and as much as we talk about a great awakening happening in America, it is very clear and evident if you start doing a little research that God is on the move all over the world. This is an article relating to that. The headline says Daddy Yankee quits Regatone will devote life to Christ, and I think it's regatone Maybe he's out, that's pronounced but one of the the biggest stars internationally speaking. He is done Not songs, and probably any of us know well listen to. Although Despacito was a song, I'd heard of that one before that I recognized. It's not one that I sing a lot, right, but I knew what it was. He was in front of a crowd of 18,000 people in Puerto Rico and Did he consider this is farewell tour and he told them at the end of the concert. I mean actually starts crying as he's telling him. He says that I, I've, I have been looking in my life. I said I want to share with you Living a life of success is not the same as living a life of purpose. Despite all the accolades, awards and global Adoration, a part of me felt unfulfilled for a long time. I have to confess that those days are over. Someone was able to fill that emptiness. And he goes on to talk about his conversion, christianity. He quotes the verse what good will it be for a man to gain the whole world and yet forfeit his soul, he told them. He said that's why tonight I recognize I'm not ashamed to tell the whole world that Jesus lives in me and I will live for him. He said he's giving up his music career. He's going to dedicate the rest of his life for for the kingdom of God, for living his life for Jesus, and he wants to lead people on that journey. And what's interesting is his article highlights that he's not the only one of a major international musical talent that have recently, recent years, decided that they were going to give up their careers to be proclaimers of the gospel to that right. They went through a conversion experience, they got saved, and now they want to share that and so they are using their platform to make a difference. And this is really encouraging to me because so often we can get overwhelmed, feeling like there's so much negative, there's, there's so many problems, and I think sometimes we forget that that God is still on the move and God is doing things and God is reaching people and all kinds of places. And this is just a really fun example to me. When you're looking at at Daddy Yankee again, probably not someone that, at least for the three of us, right, he's not an abnormal playlist for us, but he is a internationally recognized Musical talent and for him to come out boldly and openly and say that he's changing his whole life and he's going to live the rest of his life for Jesus and trying to lead people to Jesus, that is really encouraging.

Rick Green: 23:53
Alright, folks, I know we can do good news all day and there's a lot more out there, and you probably enjoy hearing the good news as much as we enjoy sharing it, but we are out of time for today, so make sure you hit our website, WallBuildersLive.com, click in the archive section and you can get all the good news you want. We've got all the Friday programs from the previous weeks and months in there so you can listen to some of that good news you might have missed on those previous programs. There's also a lot you can do to take action right there in your community. The biggest thing that's happening right now that we see across the country is that citizens are getting involved that never got involved before Now. You may have been an active citizen for years and maybe right now you're looking at what's going on in the country and saying I need to do more. Or you may be someone that hasn't been involved before. Maybe you've just listened to some of these things, but you've never actually taken the steps to be an activist in your community. When I say activist, I mean simply engaging with your fellow citizens at church or in your neighborhood, or even in your own family in your home, and maybe now you're saying, hey, times are serious enough that I've got to do something. In fact, I was just giving a talk in Arizona and I talked about the fact that we don't have to despair when we see the bad policies and the bad results in America. We know what's causing that. We look at the root cause and the bad principles that are being implemented are, of course, going to produce bad policy. So you've got bad leaders doing bad principles and it results because of the bad policies they put in place. It gives us bad results. Well, we don't have to look at that and despair. We look at that and go, okay, we know what's causing it. We need to change the cause to get a different effect. And so, instead of having despair or checking out of the system, we might have to change our focus. We might have to say, hey, I need to spend more time, more money, more effort on my nation, on freedom. I'm going to shift some of my priorities so that I can spend more time teaching Constitution classes or doing voter guides or encouraging other people to get involved, maybe hosting an event in my community. I'm going to shift my priorities and spend more money in the area of freedom, by supporting WallBuilders, by supporting Patriot Academy, by supporting candidates in my community. Those are all things that every single one of us can do. We can shift some of our focus, some of our finances, into the fight for freedom, and I'm going to challenge you to do that. There's a lot of ways to do that, but the easiest thing the thing that is exploding like crazy across the country is people are hosting Biblical Citizenship classes in their homes, at their churches, at the local library, wherever you can get people together. You don't have to have any experience or any expertise. We bring all that to the table. You'll learn from David Barton, Tim Barton, kirk Cameron, congressman Barry Loudomick, rabbi Daniel Lappin, bob McEwen, charlie Kirk all these people. You're going to learn from them how to be a biblical citizen and you'll be helping your friends and family and neighbors to do the same. Earlier this week we actually played here on WallBuilders Live Week 2 of that eight-week series called Biblical Citizenship. You can get the entire course today at BiblicalCitizens.com A lot of ways for you to get plugged in. Find out more at our website today at WallBuildersLive.com. Thanks so much for listening to WallBuilders.