Child

President, Thomas Jefferson said I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves. And if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power.

Rick Green

Welcome to the Intersection of Faith and Culture. It's WallBuilders. We're taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. You can find out more at wallbuilders.show. That's wallbuilders.show. That's got links to all of our most recent radio programs, and then wallbuilders.com, for the whole organization. Lots of great materials there for you. Check it out, get plugged in, get your family educated, get the folks in your church educated. Wallbuilders.com I'm Rick Green, here with David and Tim Barton. It's Foundations of Freedom Thursday, and normally we spend the whole show going to your questions that you can send in to radio at wallbuilders.com. But, guys, we got to hit the elephant in the room. I don't know, no, it's a donkey in the room. It's the donkey in the room.

The VP choice from Kamala Harris has been announced earlier this week and I got to admit I was really surprised. I was expecting, you know, I don't know Mark Kelly from Arizona or Josh Shapiro from Pennsylvania, and they chose this guy that was one of the worst COVID tyrants, apparently for childhood utilization, apparently for BLM I mean, I don't know. The list is pretty crazy, which, of course. What's not to like for a leftist? This guy fits everything they want, but winning a national election. This is wild man. I mean Minnesota's Tim Waltz is their choice.

Tim Barton

Yeah, Kamala Harris definitely didn't pick somebody who leans to the middle, which some of the irony right now is that the news media is saying, hey, Kamala Harris, she's just as moderate, which is the same thing we were told about Joe Biden, even though his policies are some of the most extreme leftists we've seen in the history of our nation when it comes to the border, when it comes to foreign engagement and involvement and funding, and I mean just you can kind of go down the list of where the Biden administration has been incredibly left and woke. But Kamala Harris was identified as being the most liberal senator in the US Senate before she was chosen to be vice president, even though she is being positioned by the media as being this normal, moderate person. Well, now Tim Walz is being positioned to be this normal I mean just kind of, you know this mid-state governor, normal guy. And obviously we have seen I assume at this point, many Americans have noticed that the terminology the liberals, the media, the left is using is they're saying that Republicans are weird, or JD Vance, he's just weird, and the fact that you are positioning him being weird with Tim Waltz and Tim Waltz record, which we could even back up part of him before he is governor, but we'll stay with governor for a minute.

And Rick, you mentioned that the COVID tyranny. There's levels of irony in this because in the midst of some of the COVID things that were already happening, Minnesota experienced some of the worst riots anywhere in the nation. And at the time in Minneapolis, when the mayor was calling for help and calling for the National Guard to come in, and Tim Walz, who'd been part of the National Guard, retires after a 20-plus year career from the Army National Guard, when she's asking for soldiers for the Army National Guard to come and help put an end to these riots, to protect families and businesses, Tim Walz tells her that hey, you're asking for this well-trained military, but really the National Guard is like a bunch of 19-year-old cooks. These aren't really trained military professionals. He's disparaging the own military that he was part of in the National Guard where he came from. But where there's levels of irony is he's the way.

Rick Green

So you're saying, Tim, that he disparaged the very institution he was a part of, maybe like the way he disparages America, the very institution he's a part of?

Tim Barton

Sorry, right. And then the irony that he's teaming up with his co-conspirator in this. He's the one that allows this nonsense to go on. When the police finally start arresting people for what happened in Minneapolis, Kamala Harris is the one who goes on social media encouraging people to donate and fund the bail for those who were literally destroying and burning down the city. Those are the two people teaming up to run for president and vice president, and we can go much further.

I just want to point out that this is the most leftist, extremist ticket, the most pro-communism, pro-Marxist ticket we've ever seen in our nation's history. So when the media is portraying this as, hey, they're the normal ones and it's Trump and Vance, they're the weird ones, it is the ultimate of media propaganda. It's the 1984, the George Orwell. We're changing the definition of words. Or going back to the animal farm hey, all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. This is that kind of nonsense we are seeing happen in real life, right in front of us, as Tim Walz and Kamala Harris are being portrayed as the normal, the sane, the middle of the road people, and JD Vance, the guy who, who believes that we need more marriages and families and kids and that's a good thing. Well, that's just weird. This is the craziness of the upside down world we live in.

Rick Green

Four legs good, two legs bad. For you Animal farm people out there that know what we're talking about. It literally is turning, I mean changing our very concept of what's good and what's weird and what's normal, which, of course, they've been trying to do for a long time. But now, man, this is just in your face.

David Barton

Well, it's a crazy pick because of the philosophy of the candidates being so extreme now, but it's also, I think, a crazy political pick. When I was looking at this, if the political strategist for the Republicans could have said hey, of all of her potential VP choices, whether it's Kelly Josh Shapiro, whether it's Tim Walz or whether it's Roy Cooper, of all these choices, if Republicans could have looked at all the possibilities she had, republicans would have said hey, the one that's going to help us the most in the election is if she picks Tim Walz, and that's who she picked. I mean, the one she picked is the one that Republicans probably did not expect, because it's the one that would help the most. Because if you consider the fact that you know, with all the elections that are going to happen, it boils down usually to eight battleground states, this election, probably seven battleground states, and some of those states have kind of changed over recent years, this cycle, it's likely that Arizona is not going to be as big of a battleground state as it was four years ago. It's already kind of moved some to the right and you're seeing that with North Carolina. North Carolina was voting Democrat here two, three, four years ago. Now it looks like it's moving to Republican. So had she picked somebody like a Roy Cooper, a very popular Democrat governor in North Carolina, that would have made North Carolina a genuine battleground state where it looks like right now Republicans are going to take North Carolina. But if they'd gone for Roy Cooper man that gives Republicans a problem and people turn out for Cooper and you're going to see, maybe those electoral votes go in the Democrat column. Or Josh Shapiro up in Pennsylvania. He is a young Jewish man, he's a very liberal guy but he's a very likable guy and so that would have really put Pennsylvania back into the strong battleground column. And particularly if she'd chosen Kelly out of Arizona. Arizona is much more leaning Republican than it is battleground right now, but pulling Kelly in that would have pulled it back in the battleground side and so all of those would have helped her in the overall election from a political standpoint. But taking Minnesota, that was a Democrat state and has been a Democrat state for a lot of years. Some people have said we hope it becomes a battleground state again, but that was not one the Republicans were counting on, and so to pick someone from Minnesota doesn't help the overall national objective they have of getting electoral votes and it just seems like a really strange pick. I hope it's a very good pick for us, but it seems like a strange pick politically. 

Tim Barton

Well, it's also interesting. They call Minnesota Little Somalia because of so much of the immigration population that's gone up there. So much of the Muslim population is there. But also, you know, when you have, was it the mayor out in Pennsylvania I don't remember where she was, at One of the big cities, Philadelphia. I don't remember who it was, but the mayor who put out a post saying that we know that Shapiro.

Rick Green

Oh yeah, yeah, we thought that's right. That's right. That leaked like Sunday, yeah.

Tim Barton

What's interesting about that is there was so much backlash from.

David Barton

Hang on back up I don't know about that. What is it? What post? What happened?

Rick Green

It was the mayor of Philly, I think, wasn't it?

Tim Barton

It was the mayor of one of the major cities and I couldn't remember if it was Philly or Pittsburgh. I think it was Philadelphia, but the mayor of Philadelphia sent out a early congratulatory post about Kamala Harris picking Josh Shapiro as vice president, which hadn't been announced yet and it was supposed to be announced in a couple of days, so it was like three days early. So she's getting roasted for releasing this information and she has privileged information.

What's interesting is I think it's absolutely possible that Kamala had picked Shapiro, but there was so much backlash from the left because of the Jewish connection of Shapiro that a lot of people are saying that it was the anti-Semitic move in the Democratic Party, that the anti-Israel contingent is, what led them to say that no, we cannot have this guy. Maybe Tim Walz was always going to be the pick, but I heard a couple people talking about it this week that they wonder if it's maybe some of that anti-Israel, anti-semitic contingent of the Democrat Party, which certainly does exist, which certainly is there. When you look at the pro-Palestinian movement, that's not a Republican movement, that's a Democrat movement, and it could be that Kamala Harris recognized of the options that maybe I do need to go with this guy because of the millions and millions and millions of illegal immigrants who have now entered the nation. I don't want it to look like I'm picking a guy who is a Jewish connection, pro-israel, whatever else. So there could have been a move from some of this fallout Now, some of that, who knows?

I don't know if we're ever going to fully find out, but let's go back to Tim Waltz and how crazy and woke this guy is, because I think a lot of people don't know and again he's being painted as, like this, moderate guy. Well, let's just remind everybody listening he is the guy that, not all that long ago determined that every boy's bathroom in public schools, for example in Minnesota, we're going to have tampon dispensers, because it's not just girls that have periods and right, boys might need tampons too and like that. That that's a crazy thought. That's not coming from someone who's this moderate, middle of the road down to earth person.

David Barton

I object. That is not a crazy thought, that's a stupid thought, that is a really dumb thought. It's not a crazy thought. Well, it's crazy if that gets you thrown in a mental institution, because that's the kind of crazy that is. That is beyond the pale of even logical stupidity.

Tim Barton

And it was just a week or two ago where he says that part of how you love your neighbors yourself is, like you should be pro-socialism because you know that that's part of how we love our neighbor and so this is, this is a normal thing. You should be pro-socialism, he's. He's also the guy who signed early on one of the the transgender surgery bills approving children to have these operations. Now I just take medicine operations and when he did this he had children, a boy standing beside him. He goes on to give a speech, give this lecture, where he says that if you do not support these surgeries for these minors, then you're a bad person, because these transgender children go through enough already.And if we don't support them in wanting to have their surgeries which, just to be clear, we're talking about removing the genitals, right? I mean, we're talking about doing some significant life altering, never going back things for children and instead of adults being the adults in the room and saying, hey, you know, maybe, maybe let's just wait until we go through puberty, let's just wait till you're a little older and we can have some other conversations, let's see what else happens, maybe instead of looking at some data and doing a little research and realizing that actually there's higher depression rates, there's higher suicide rates after going through these processes, so this hasn't solved any problems. Statistically, this is only making things worse for children. But he's the guy that signs that in his governor and then accuses people of being bad people. If you are not fully supportive of this and I'm saying this again just to clarify that this is not a moderate guy, this is not a middle of the road guy this is the most extreme we have ever seen. And we haven't even gotten into the fact that Kamala and Tim Walz are very pro-communist and pro Marxist. We haven't even gotten there yet.

Rick Green

Yeah, I mean, even just the crazy stuff is off the top of the head. But then when you get down to even just their core principles of what kind of society they want to have, what kind of principles in terms of economics and political structure and who has the power and who makes decisions and you know those are the things you normally look at in in any race for elective office. So quick break, guys. There's so much more to get to here. Hopefully we'll still get to get to some questions. If not, we'll just the entire foundations. Today we'll be talking about the foundations of the candidates running for office. We'll be right back. You're listening to the WallBuilders Show.

Break

Rick Grenn

Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show Foundations of Freedom Thursday today and just got an announcement a couple of days ago for the pick of the Democrat presidential ticket. So Kamala Harris picks Tim Walz of Minnesota. We're talking about just how radically left these two people are and instead of shoring up the ticket by picking somebody at least a little more moderate, which is what you'd normally do in this situation maybe that's why they picked him which is what you'd normally do in this situation, maybe that's why they picked him by contrast, she will look a little more moderate. I don't know, this is so crazy, but I have to ask you guys, when it gets this bad, I mean, when we start having normalizing the things, Tim, that you were talking about before the break I mean, is it possible God's using this to wake up more people and be so bad that, okay, well, okay, if that's who the Democrats are for, we need to start getting away from the Democrats.

Tim Barton

Well, I think it's totally true that it should be an awakening time for most Americans. But where I also think is it should be an awakening time for the church, and I have been in several churches over the last several weekends and over the last several weeks, talked with a lot of pastors, and even some of the churches I've been in They've invited us to come speak. We talk about the Christian heritage of our nation and the foundation, and I've closed most of my presentations over the last couple of months with some challenging thoughts, like from George Washington's farewell address, that religion and morality are the indispensable supports connecting to political prosperity. That you cannot politically succeed without religion and morality, George Washington says in vain, would you even claim patriotism if you oppose religion and morality. Well, the following year, when John Adams becomes president, he then writes that famous letter to the militia of Massachusetts where he says that our constitution was made only for immoral and religious people. It's wholly inadequate at the government of any other. And I try to help people connect the dots that if we don't restore religion and morality, our constitution, our political structure, our political system, our nation will not continue to function going forward without a restoration of religion and morality and politicians are not the ones who ultimately restore religion and morality. Now, politicians can have righteous policies or ungodly policies. Policies make a difference and God can bless or curse a nation based on the policies they take. That is true. But when it comes to people understanding right and wrong, politicians are not supposed to be the ones teaching people right and wrong. That's supposed to be the church.

And this is where the challenge, I think, ultimately is for pastors and where we've seen so many pastors failing in this regard that if we would just go, for example, to our Bibles and go to the Gospel of John, chapter 10, where Jesus talks about the fact that he is the good shepherd, and the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep and he speaks and the sheep, they know his voice.

But then he talks about the hireling. He says the hireling sees the wolf coming and the hireling will run away because the hireling doesn't want the wolf to get him and the hireling leaves the sheep to be eaten by the wolf. And Jesus makes a contrast because he says that I'm the good shepherd and I laid down my life for the sheep, but the hireling, they see the wolf and they run away. And I think right now, what we are seeing is such clarity when it comes to a moral position that if, if right now, if churches, if parents, if pastors are not recognizing that there is a wolf coming for for our sheep and specifically like for our kids, okay, they're like, this shouldn't be complicated when you have one side, which we didn't even get to the fact that Tim waltz, as governor, signed a law that says if there's a botched abortion, that you can just leave the baby there until the baby dies.

Rick Green

Oh, that's right if, yeah if we do not see and there's been instances of that, right, I think it's like eight, yeah, yeah yep.

Tim Barton 

And if, if we don't see that there is a wolf coming for the sheep, a wolf coming for the kids, and if pastors at this point do not have the moral clarity to say hey guys, let's. Let's just be clear on this issue. The Bible says God made male and female. Right, God? God made two genders. In fact, God is the one at the very beginning Genesis one, 26 and 27, that that he made them in his image, male and female. He created them. So God is the author and giver of life. We go to Psalm 139 that God formed us in our mother's womb. God is the one that does that. And then God made them male and female. So we've clarified this unborn life issue. That's something as Christians we recognize. God's the one who made that. So we need to protect unborn life. And God made them male and female. We need to protect that. And God, after making Adam, makes Eve, and God puts them together and makes a marriage out of a man and a woman, and then that man and woman, they have a family, and so God showed what family looks like. These are things that should not be confusing for pastors, and yet most pastors are not teaching with moral clarity, as if either they don't recognize there's a wolf coming, which means their head is in the sand for whatever reason and this is where we could also point to other verses about the watchman on the wall that if the watchman on the wall, if an enemy's coming and the watchman does not sound the alarm, if they don't blow that trumpet, if they don't alert the people in the city that there's danger coming, then they are held responsible for the deaths inside the city as much as the people that are coming to kill those inside the city because they didn't sound the alarm.

Well, if pastors are not going to sound the alarm and offer moral clarity, then this is, to me, it's not just that the American people should be waking up and recognizing guys. This is crazy what we are seeing people promoting right now. It really is the responsibility of pastors, I think, more than anybody else, because they're the ones that are supposed to be the shepherd for the flock. To some extent, right, I mean, jesus is a good shepherd, we look to him, right. But pastors are supposed to shepherd their flock and if they can't see the wolf that is coming, if they can't offer moral clarity, if they can't start helping reintroduce basic rights and wrongs, which the fact that so many Christians are confused to me again indicates that pastors are not speaking these issues. I am pointing to pastors more than anybody else as much as we want different political leaders, we want to solve those political problems. If we don't have pastors, start standing up to restore religion and morality. The founding father said this American experiment won't work going forward without religion and morality.

David Barton

Well, let me jump on the pastor part for a minute. Do you guys remember, 15 years ago, a pastor named Jeremiah Wright? Does that bring back?

Tim Barton

Oh yeah, Obama's pastor.

David Barton

Yeah, and you remember, he has this, this sermon, where go say god bless America, say god from america.

and he just went, oh he does you know, and it was that's a pastor all right, you're going to hear another pastor, reverend Amos brown, who is pastor third baptist church of san francisco. He is the pastor where kamala harris attends and she meets with him and consults with him, and so with Amos Brown. Interestingly enough, his views are so radical that when he was talking about 9-11, and 9-11, he's talking about really 9-11 was America's fault. We brought it on ourself.

It was so bad that Pelosi condemned the speech, the Democrat governor of California walked out on the speech and even Dianne Feinstein walked out on that pastor speaking. There's a pastor speaking out. That's not biblical pastors speaking out. Tim, what you're talking about is we have to get back to that biblical stuff, because she's going to say, hey, I'm a churchgoer, I got my pastor, I got the support of my pastor. We need to know what that pastor believes, just like we need to line things up with the Bible, and it's going to have to be Bible-believing pastors that are going to have to speak out on this and then Bible-believing parishioners that stand up and say no, no, no. Here's the line and we're not going to cross this line.

Tim Barton

Well, and dad, to your point right, it's not just what the pastor believes, it's what the pastor is teaching and is it biblical? Yeah, and on some level I mean I don't want to be overly critical because we don't know the whole story about Kamala and going to church. I'm just skeptical how often she actually goes to church, because I think it's a little bit like when President Biden says, hey, I'm a faithful Catholic and I support abortion and I think marriage can be between whoever. Well then you're not really a faithful Catholic, because that's something that for faithful Catholics, they actually believe in the sanctity of life, they believe in the sanctity and the covenant of marriage. He's actually part of the reparations board arguing that black people should be paid reparations because of the evils of slavery, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So there is a lot back there going on.

But, guys, where we are seeing right now with Kamala, Tim Walz and even Trump and JD Vance, none of these four individuals are without their baggage, but that shouldn't be surprising either. The Bible tells us that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, that there is none righteous no, not one. So none of them are perfect candidates and yet some of them are promoting far more evil ideas than the other side, where some of them are actually promoting ideas that, as Christians, make a little more sense of protecting certain institutions, etc. So none of them are perfect, but I would argue two of them are not quite as crazy as the others and it's not the two that are being called crazy.

Rick Green

What levels of crazy and what is weird. We're going to learn a lot about the definition of words for the next few months, I think, folks. Well, thanks for listening. Listen. We didn't get to your questions, but we'd love to do that next week, so please send them in Radio at wallbuilders.com, radio at wallbuilders.com, and be sure to tune in tomorrow. We got a lot of good news to share on Good News Friday. You've been listening to the WallBuilder Show