Rick Green: 0:07
Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. It's the WallBuilders Show. We're taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. And here we are at the beginning of the year. Yesterday I talked a little bit about those three things biblical, historical, constitutional perspective sort of setting the tone for 2024. But I kind of also, just as I was coming out of my mouth there saying the intersection of faith and the culture, as I was saying that, I was thinking you know, man, I hear a lot of programs say that. Now I just want to say we've been doing that here at the WallBuilders Show for almost two decades. I mean a decade and a half, a little bit more than a decade and a half. And I remember a young man actually recommending that tagline to me back when we first started doing the show and the first time we ever did the show I mean it was you know, nobody was listening at the time when we were kicking this thing off and we were trying different things and that tagline that was recommended, just I loved it. I loved it and we became that the intersection of faith and the culture. And we used to say actually, right at the beginning we said intersection of faith and politics, and then we started saying you know, that's limited, too much. This is really worldview. This is WallBuilders is about rebuilding the foundations, rebuilding the culture itself and reinserting a biblical perspective to everything that we do. And so it became more than just faith and politics. It became faith and the culture, the whole culture, every area of the culture, and, of course, politics is just how you treat your neighbor. I mean that's really what we mean when we say politics today, when people say, oh, we don't want politics in the pulpit or we only preach the gospel, I mean that is so missing what politics actually is. Politics is just how do you treat your neighbor. And wouldn't we love it if all of our neighbors, if everyone in our nation, bought back into the biblical idea that you treat your neighbor the way you want to be treated. I mean that's all we're saying. That's what the biblical perspective is all about. You treat your neighbors the way you want to be treated. What a great nation that produces and did produce here in America, the greatest nation in the history of mankind, is because we treated our neighbors the way we wanted to be treated. Do we get it right? Do we get it perfect? Of course not. A lot of people didn't treat their neighbors the way they want to be treated. A lot of people early in America's history, just like all over the world, treated some people as if they weren't neighbors. Right, I mean? We're not saying that America's history was perfect, Absolutely not. We're saying, compared to the rest of the world, we did better than any other nation in the history of the world because we moved more and more towards a biblical application of citizenship than any nation had ever done. And we still don't get it all right. In fact, we've really regressed. We've gone backwards in the last few decades instead of progressing more and more towards a biblical worldview and therefore becoming an even greater nation. We regressed and we allowed the biblical perspective to be pushed out of our culture, which allowed for us to become less of a great nation. And now we're trying to turn that tide. So back to the kind of you know, first part of the year here, our first week of the year programming. I'm just kind of setting up each show with a reminder of why we do what we do here at WallBuilders, why, why we say first of all WallBuilders I talked about that yesterday why we say you know, biblical, historical, constitutional perspective, why we say those things. I talked about that yesterday. You can go back and listen to that in the archives, but today just hits me faith and culture, the intersection of faith and culture. Why do we say that? And it's the importance of taking our faith and having it inform everything we do in the culture, no matter what area of the culture that we're in. So just a good reminder for us here at the beginning of the year. By the way, my name is Rick Green. I'm a former Texas legislator and America's Constitution Coach and honored to be here with David and Tim Barton. David is America's premier historian and our founder at WallBuilders. Tim's a national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders, and I believe I can say this, I guess because I didn't help start WallBuilders. I wasn't around when WallBuilders started, though I've been with David for more than two decades. I believe that what David Barton, what David and Cheryl Barton did when they started WallBuilders was it was a shot across the bow of the enemy. It was one of the most important things that happened in the last few decades to restore that biblical perspective, to keep the walls from crumbling completely and to start rebuilding the walls, to start picking up those pieces of rubble, rebuilding and making America strong again. So I think what David and Cheryl when they made that decision 30 years ago to say that we're going to do this and we're going to invest our lives into restoring America's foundations I think it was one of the most important things that's happened in the last few decades. And if you look around and you think America's in bad shape, I wish you could just imagine what it would be like if they had not chosen to do that. And not only did they begin WallBuilders well and do an incredible job of rebuilding the walls and bringing back the Constitution and bringing back a respect for jurisdictions and all of those things, they've done an incredibly good job of passing the torch to the next generation. That's why Tim Barton, as the president of WallBuilders, has done an amazing job. I was talking about this the other day on a show I do for American Family Association in the afternoon with Walker Wildman and how, with the passing of Don Wildman last week, that, and going to the funeral last Saturday, I got to witness that passing of the torch done incredibly well. The Wildman family is just a great example of that Don Wildman beginning American Family Association, Tim Wildman running it now and even now Walker and Wesley and the other Wildman stepping up in that third generation of doing this. It's just awesome. It's just awesome to watch. Not many ministries do that well. WallBuilders has done that well. David Barton, David and Cheryl have passed that torch incredibly well to Tim and I just love seeing the strength of WallBuilders growing. And you see that evidence in the programs, not only the programming here on the WallBuilders Show but the Pro Family Legislators Conference and how much this year we just had the biggest one we've ever had and how it's even better than it's ever been. I just love seeing that growth in the next generation leading the way on it. So just really cool to watch. And so, speaking of the Pro Family Legislators Conference, I've talked for too long here at the opening of the program. We're going to get back into where we left off yesterday. So we're bringing you right now a presentation from the Pro Family Legislators Conference. So yesterday, today and tomorrow, that's what you'll be hearing. Rather than David and Tim and me commenting on whatever the issue is in the culture, we're going to jump right back into the presentation we shared with you yesterday the beginning of the presentation we shared with you yesterday from Congressman Barry Laudermilk. He's a Congressman from Georgia, great friend of the program, and he's speaking on legislating as a constitutional conservative in a culture of populism and how to balance that and how to lead correctly in this thing. So we're going to jump right back in where we left off yesterday. Here's Congressman Laudermilk at the Pro Family Legislators Conference.

Barry Loudermilk: 7:00
Okay, every populist movement is us versus them, the people versus elites. Now, who those are changes right Now when they use the people they're not talking about we, the people, but it doesn't even have to be the majority of the people. What they're referring to is that base often is a small base of very vocal people that and I even was texting with one of my colleagues, this person often I'll hear them say the people of my district, all of them, this is what they want. That isn't all the people in their district, right? But another aspect of populism is everything is black and white. There is no pluralism. We see that there are different ideas, different thoughts of people we represent and even though we don't agree with it, we're willing to listen to them right and try to bring them over to our side. In the populist, either you're with us or you're not, and the elites or the establishment is defined on who is not agreeing with them at the moment. They always build a moral division too. So the people, that group of people, are always inherently good and they're always right. Now we know that to be differently right, we take a different approach on that, and the elites are always inherently bad, immoral and corrupt. So there's always going to be a moral division. And the final thing, which I think is the most dangerous, is the view of the people is supreme. It's whatever the people want, that's what we have to do, and nothing should stand in the way of the will of the people. So those are the three tenets and if we compare those to what I believe all of us believe is the constitutional conservatives is, first of all, is the ideology. Populism has a very thin ideology and what I mean by that is the ideology is based off public opinion and current events. So whatever they believe shifts with the tide. I've got one colleague who is definitely from the populist movement and I worked very closely. I'm friends with some of these folks, but the biggest issue that this person had from after January 6th, right after they got into Congress, were the people who were imprisoned in DC jails. That was the number one issue and I am working with defense attorneys who are making videos available to them. In fact, if you follow the blaze, I just released some video to the blaze yesterday a big story that's coming out today about potential law enforcement officers that lied under oath regarding January 6th and that may help some of those. But all the time back home I'm asked what are you doing about these folks? Well, it's under my committee's jurisdiction. That's outside our jurisdiction. That's actually the oversight committee, and I point back to this one person. This is the person that's really been leading, heading that up, but as I talk to them now, they hardly mention it at all Because there's other things that have now brought in, and so that, because it's a thin ideology, well, I need to focus all of my energy over here, and so you'll. You see that, with thin ideology and again it's what they perceive is what the people want, and again it's not all the people, it's a select group that, and in some congressional districts that's a large group and others it's a small group. But it's who we're selecting to listen to at the time.

Rick Green: 10:40
Hey, quick break. Everybody, stay with us.

David Barton: 10:42
We're going to talk about the leaders this is David Barton, with another moment from America's history. Although education has remained an emphasis in America for nearly 200 years, what has changed the most over that period of time is the philosophy of education, for example. While religion finds no place of refuge in our schools today, such was not the case at the time of our founding fathers. In fact, when the Delaware Indian chiefs brought their youths to be trained in America's schools on June the 12th 1779, George Washington told them you do well to wish to learn our arts and our way of life and, above all, the religion of Jesus Christ. These will make you a greater and happier people than you are. Congress will do everything they can to assist you in this wise intention. According to George Washington, what students learned above all in American education at the time of the founding fathers was the religion of Jesus Christ.

Rick Green: 11:52
Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. Let's jump right back in with Congressman Loudermilk at the ProFamily Legislators Conference.

Barry Loudermilk: 11:58
In traditional conservatism or constitutional conservatism. Our ideology is based on a set of core principles. Right, we have a biblical worldview. We believe in the privacy of man. Right, we know that if government gets power, it's going to seek more power. Our tenets are of constitutional conservatism, of limited government, personal freedom, rule of law. This is where our principles come from, our founding documents as well as the original intent of the Constitution. Those are the core principles of constitutional conservatism. They're not thin, they're deep and they're solid. Also, populism the desires of the people are paramount, whatever the people want. That is the most important aspect to a populist. Even. They're even willing to extend or grow the power of government to achieve whatever it is that they perceive that the people want and this is very important, because we see both of these even in the Republican populist movement, which we'll talk about in just a second is a willingness to use the power of government to achieve their, or even extend the power of government to achieve their goals, or retribution. Retribution happens all the time. If you don't, if you don't agree with what I'm doing 100%, I'm coming after you, or I may do something just to seek retribution on something that happened before, and so this is a core tenet is retribution. Conservatives, however, defending the Constitution is paramount. That is the most important aspect of being a constitutional conservative. Our system is government is inefficient and it was designed that way on purpose. As you guys know at the state legislature how hard it is to get a bill done, increase that by a hundredfold in Congress. It's because our founders wanted it to be that way, because they knew and the depravity of man is, jeremiah 17.9 says that the heart is deceitfully wicked. We don't need to be passing laws which laws are restriction on liberty. We don't need to be passing laws in a reaction to current events or emotional responses. They knew that was very dangerous, so they wanted to make it almost impossible for the legislature to get anything done. That's why you have committees and subcommittees and votes on the House floor and then, once you get that done, it goes to the Senate, it goes through the same process, it goes to the White House and there's vetoes. I mean when you look at, I mean some of the most simple bills that I have passed that nobody disagreed with, took me six years to get them done and it was a simple little things that there was no opposition from either side. That's the way the system was designed, and we believe that that system the Constitution asserts the will of the majority, because our Constitution is to protect us against ourselves, right Our emotions. It's to set a set of laws that you don't violate these, regardless of what you're feeling at the time. Republican populism what we're seeing is it originated from a good. It was to resolve a problem that many of us have been working on for a long time, and it's corruption within our government. Government is made up of people. People are inherently going to be corrupt, so, therefore, you're going to have corruption in government, but we have to be able to restrain that. So some of us have been working on long term solutions to do this, and we had this really cool theme of drain the swamp and I'm not pointing this at any person or any candidate, but this is the theme that we've all been agreeing with. Yeah, we need to do this. We need to drain the swamp. We need to get rid of the corruption in government. However, the Republican populists that are coming in have defined the establishment as anybody who has been there before, either in the government or in the Republican Party, you're part of the problem.

Rick Green: 16:10
Got to take another break. Folks, stay with us. We'll be right back on WallBuilders.

Tim Barton: 16:51
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 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, WallBuilders.com. The American story.

Rick Green: 17:23
Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show, jumping right back in with Congressman Barry Loudermilk. He's speaking at the ProFamily Legislators conference.

Barry Loudermilk: 17:30
It doesn't matter if you have been 40 years activist within the Republican Party. You've never missed a meeting. You've never missed a convention. You've been through Constitution alive. You've hosted Constitution classes in your home. It doesn't matter if you were there. You're part of the problem. This is one of the issues that we have to address. I mean, well, and the reason that they think you're part of the problem is you may not be bad, but you hadn't got the job done. You didn't get the job done, so we're going to have to do it now. Now, a lot of this is just ignorance and fear. They don't understand it isn't easy to move mountains right. It sometimes takes years and years, and years. But they're coming into this not understanding basic civics and basically the way the government works. So they're frustrated, they're angry, they're scared, and so if you're not part of their solution, you're part of the problem. So we're going to eliminate you. And we're seeing that. I don't know about you, but in Georgia we're seeing that happen in every county party across Georgia. We've got this new group of folks coming in that are really passionate. When we sit down and we talk about issues, we're on the same page of a lot of issues, but when it comes to the solutions. They want it like this and they've literally come in and taken over, and it isn't that. We've seen movements Tea Party movement in the past that brought in a lot of new warriors to come into the parties. They came in, they wanted to have influence, but they came in and they joined into the fight. What we're seeing now from the populist movement is coming in, taking over and they don't want you to have any part of it. We're even seeing in Georgia, alternate Republican groups of constitutional conservatives are starting alternate Republican groups because of the populist movement coming in and basically saying well, you don't have anything to do with you. As I said, they're intolerant of anyone who's not 100% in agreement. Reagan's 80% rule if you're 80% am I, you agree with me? Then you're not 20% enemy right? That's out the window. It's 100% or nothing and they'll remove or destroy anyone that's not perceived to be 100% in support. Again, reagan's 11th commandment don't say anything negative about a federal Republican. That's out the window. Bring it out the window for a while. But the biggest thing is I talked to them about why are you taking approaches which we'll talk about in a minute. Why are you taking approaches to these issues that you're taking. They say it's because we have to fight fire with fire. How many have heard that we got to fight fire with fire? Do we have any firemen in here? What do you guys use when you roll up to a house fire? Foam water, right. If you show up with a blow torch, what you're going to do? Burn the whole place down, right. The only time we fight fire with fire is when you have an out of control wildfire and you want to destroy the source of fuel before the fire gets to a town. Right, so it's all about destruction. I'm like no, you fight fire with water. The Constitution is our water against the fire of passion. Right, the Constitution is the water. They really don't like it when I say that. So, real quick, let's look at the challenges of populism. Part of the challenge that we have and I'm talking about dealing with populism either from an elected official standpoint, who is a populist candidate or an elected official or, more importantly, the populist-driven constituency that we're having to communicate and deal with is we're in a culture of instant gratification. We do not have patience anymore and, on top of that, people are driven by fear. As Rick was saying, fear drove us to really to what happened on January 6th. People are genuinely concerned that they're losing their country. One because they don't have any faith in their institutions because of the populist movement has driven into us that anything in government is bad, every person in government is bad, and there's no one there standing up for the little people Like you got to have more faith in our founders than that. Alright. Everybody got to have one more break for today.

Rick Green: 21:45
Stay with us. You're listening to the WallBuilders Show. Hey, this is Tim Barton with.

Tim Barton: 21:51
WallBuilders and, as you've had the opportunity to listen to WallBuilders Live, you've probably heard the wealth of information about our nation, about our spiritual heritage, about the religious liberties, about all the things that makes America exceptional, and you might be thinking, as incredible as this information is, I wish there was a way that I could get one of the WallBuilders guys to come to my area and share with my group whether it be a church, whether it be a Christian school or public school or some political event or activity. If you're interested in having a WallBuilders speaker come to your area, you can get on our website at www.WallBuilders.com and there's a tab for scheduling and if you'll click on that tab, you'll notice there's a list of information from speakers bios to events that are already being discussed, and there's a section where you can request an event to bring this information about who we are, where we came from, our religious liberties and freedoms. Go to the WallBuilders website and bring a speaker to your area.

David Barton: 22:53
This is David Barton with another moment from America's history. America has a history of great patriots who loved and sacrificed much for their country. One of these was John Witherspoon, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. While President and Princeton, he personally trained many who became important leaders in American government, including James Madison. How could John Witherspoon tell if someone really loved America? He explained he is the best friend to American liberty, who is most sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion and who sits himself with the greatest firmness to bear down profanity and immorality of every kind. Whoever is an avowed enemy of God, I hesitate not to call him an enemy to his country Founding father. John Witherspoon believed that a true American patriot opposed profanity and immorality and promoted true and undefiled religion.

More Information: 23:44
For more information on God's hand in American history, contact WallBuilders at 1-800-8-REBILD.

Rick Green: 23:58
We're back on the Wall. Builders Show Congressman Barry Loudermilk sharing at the Pro Family Legislators' Conference. Let's jump back in with Congressman Loudermilk.

Barry Loudermilk: 24:04
David and Cheryl and Tim came up and helped with a group of Republican women that I hosted in Washington DC From my district a couple of weeks ago, and this was in the middle of our debacle, trying to get a new speaker, and I had. I was supposed to have lunch with them. I had to go to the floor and vote for a speaker, and this was the third time Jim Jordan failed to become speaker. So as soon as that vote was over, I ran over to the Library of Congress where they were having lunch and I walked in and they're like, well, I'm like nope, sorry we didn't get there again, and it was just they were all down and as I got a chance to introduce David, I told them I said you got to have more faith in our system. You see, what you're seeing take place is exactly what the founders intended for us to take time, be methodical and because if we can't come together and agree on who our leader is, we're never going to come together and agree on a solution. God's still in control, we still have a constitution and this whole system was set up to be inefficient and ugly and hard. So, in an aspect, this is our system at work and several come up and said you know, he actually made me feel better about that. It didn't make it any easier. But doing what's right is always right. It's not always popular and it's rarely easy, but it's always the right thing to do. The other thing is, in the populist movement, political achievement is measured on volume, not on success. Think about that. It's measured by volume. How loud of a voice you have matters more to us than what you're actually getting done. And the reason is because they're angry and they just want to know that you're angry. And as long as you act angry, okay, well, we don't care that there's nothing being done, but as long as you're angry about it, that only lasts for so long. There's one thing about populist movements they don't last for an extended amount of time, and so we have to be persistent. But if you think about the most popular folks in the state legislatures, in the federal government, it's those that are the loudest.

Rick Green: 26:20
Okay, folks, we're out of time for today. This is part two of a three-part series hearing Congressman Barry Loudermilk's presentation at the ProFamily Legislatures Conference. So if you missed yesterday, it's at our website. Today you can get that at wallbuilders.com. And if you're going to miss tomorrow then make sure over the weekend you go back to the website and get all three parts of this powerful presentation from Congressman Loudermilk. Look forward to being back with you tomorrow. You've been listening to the WallBuilders Show.