Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to Intersection of Faith and Culture. This is the WallBuilders Show where we're taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. Continuing today, the celebration this week of the inauguration of Donald J. Trump for a second term and already significant executive actions. And just a lot of good stuff, folks. Believe it or not, it was snowing in Fredericksburg, Texas. I've been given David and Tim a hard time for having a freeze in Washington, DC. Now I have to freeze in Fredericksburg because I made fun of them. Yes, Yes. God is just and he delivered that justice to me this morning when I when I woke up. But, David, Tim, I know you all have had a great time getting to see a lot of congressmen and and friends that that that are doing great things for us, for the country. And, man, there's so much to talk about that we didn't get to cover the day after the inauguration. We'll try to get to as much of it as we can today, but y'all just catch us up, man. What else are y'all seeing in Washington, DC on your trip out there? 

David Barton [00:00:58] Well, there's definitely a lot of enthusiasm, no question about that. As a matter of fact, as we're doing things, Congress is meeting in session. They have their 100 days. They want to try to get all the stuff turned out by 100 days. But they're working hard and they're having lots of votes. And to their credit, as Trump had done, he came in with a lot of stuff already laid out and plan. The House party and the Senate already had a lot of measures laid out and plan for what they wanted to get done. Of course, they'd been in session a couple of weeks longer than Trump has, so they've been able to get some things already passed that they're ready to start moving forward and working on various amendments like think things in committee. So the House and Senate both have been working very hard. They're still working hard. They're working late hours. But that really goes well with all the stuff that Trump has done. They've all come in, to their credit, very well prepared to move forward and move move a different American agenda forward, which is great news for all of us. 

Rick Green [00:01:55] Yeah. In fact, you guys got to give a tour last night to for Congressman Webster and folks there, something that y'all used to do a whole lot more and now probably do a lot more now that we have both the House and the Senate. And a lot of folks wanted to come out to Washington, DC because it's no longer you know, for a while there felt like when I'd go to DC, it just, it just felt like a dark cloud over everything. And I think people didn't want to go. I think now after this amazing week, a lot of people are going to want to go visit and we want to encourage pastors to do that. And I think you guys are even offering a couple of opportunities this year for that. 

Tim Barton [00:02:27] Yeah, we have a pastors briefing in April and September. We are inviting pastors to come. Charge They have to get themselves there. So there are expenses, but nothing from the Waldo there side. You find out more about that at wallbuilders.com look for the pastors briefing. But Rick, to your point, you know the Capitol was shut down for a couple of years. When you go back after January 6th, 2021. And Nancy Pelosi was like, we're not let anybody around D.C. it's not safe or whatever. When Republicans won the midterm election, specifically when they won the House back then, they opened it up and allowed people to start coming back to see the people's house, where where Americans never should have been excluded from the first place. But as you're mentioning, even though people were allowed to go back, there were still some level of hesitation and reticence and there were still some of the, you know, Covid hoops and whatnot that were going on and things that you had to navigate. Now, it is a totally different feel. And certainly we are are very excited to tell people go back to D.C. tour and it doesn't mean there's not wokeism still here. But when you have a commander in chief with really following the direction the American people largely endorsed, we want to get rid of this Wokeness Let's let's go back to as as we talked about from even his inaugural address, putting God first and putting America first as priorities again. And I think that definitely will open up a lot of people to come. You know, guys, even I'm thinking now from his speech about putting God first, it's crazy that Tuesday when they went to the presidential prayer service over at the National Cathedral that what it's called, that there were so many things. I watch most of it on TV. I was getting ready for a Newsmax interview I had. And so I was kind of watching, but then kind of looking to see you breaking news and trying to stay up to date on what was going on and to see, first of all, that they were going to a church. But they had they had people of multiple different faiths that were praying, which already in my mind, I thought this this seems to contradict some basic Bible where Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the father except for me. John 14 six. He makes a claim of exclusivity, which means he's the way to the father. So already having a a church service. This is a church, right? This this wasn't like, for example, some kind of political gathering where you're trying to have this really, you know, broad doors on your tent and everybody's welcome kind of scenario. No, no, this was a church service. And then there's church service there, including lots of different ideas and thoughts and prayers and the like. The opening prayer was to the great spirit of the universe. And we ask you to hear us. And like just so many things, I'm on the inside just cringing as it's happening. But then when you get to this, this lady bishop who gets up and starts lecturing, really pleading with, but basically lecturing, making a political speech from the pulpit of President Trump. You know, there's all these people that are in fear for their life, these transgender children from the Democrat, Republican, independents, they all of them fear for their life. Please have mercy on them. I mean, just the wokeism was almost more than you can handle. There's a lot of great memes that were going around yesterday of J.D. Vance, who by and large, Right. That the presidential party, they were all very composed. They endured it. But enduring is the correct word. But J.D. Vance, at one point, just kind of you see the groan in his face, in his eyes. It's not quite an eye roll, but it almost is. And it's just so relatable because everybody there was going, this is like the worst thing ever, instead of a moment where we could say, let's come together, let's work together as individuals who are all made in the image of God, and there's one God over us. And instead of something that could have been incredibly unifying, it was again, someone using a Democrat, using a pulpit as a political lectern to lecture the president. 

David Barton [00:06:47] You know, it was ironic that yesterday that the day before at the Capitol for the inauguration, you had the five prayers as they were really God center biblical prayers. And you go to church and get the is worst part of it. There was a lot more sound doctrine outside of the church and inside. And I actually was texting with one of the members of Congress who actually just got up out of the church and left. They said there were about 30 members there and they looked at each other and did the eye roll. That's are you kidding us? This is this is the prayer service. And so he just couldn't take it. And he got up and left. And he was talking afterwards with some of the other members who talked the president and and President Trump made the comment to all of them and said this is why the church in America is not doing well. And they said, sir, sir, sir, this this is not the typical church in America. Well, maybe it is. You know, probably statistically speaking, it's the typical church. But he was he clearly was. I thought it was very inappropriate what happened in the service. And it's just ironic to me. We had a lot more sound God at that non church service than we had a church service. 

Rick Green [00:07:59] Yeah, it was. I was thinking that. I was thinking that right before you said that. Okay, so wait, the church service is actually the political event. And the political event was where we got church. 

Tim Barton [00:08:09] Well, and again, looking at this from a political vein, it's interesting that the Republican run event was far more God centered then was this Democrat church event. And this is not to just paint Republicans and Democrats, Republicans or pro God and Democrats or, you know, even Republicans are pro Bible and Democrats aren't. No, of course, there are definitely some Republicans that are not God centered, Bible centered, and there are definitely Democrats that probably do love and care about God. Now, I would question how you could be a Democrat supporting some of those Democrat policies that are so unbiblical and ungodly and then say, you love God. Right? That's that's a different conversation. And certainly some questions I would have surrounding that. But I think there's no doubt of the two parties that there is one moving directly toward more biblical values. When President Trump says, hey, we're going back to one man and one woman, and then you have this female bishop, Episcopal bishop, who's saying, well, you know, there's all these different gendered kids that fill endangered and threatened now and please have mercy on them. But there's a sharp distinction in contrast between what President Trump said. And it's there's a level of irony, guys, that President Trump is holding a more biblical position on many of these areas than are some of these so-called pastors or bishops. And especially when you go down the list. She talked about immigration. She talked about human sexuality and marriage. And you start looking at some of these things and realize what she's advocating for is in direct contradiction, where the Bible holds up very clear sexual boundaries and standards. She says, please, you know, have mercy on the LGBTQ people. And it goes on this little rant about them. Well, the Bible is pretty clear on sexual standards. And by the way, pretending like President Trump is anti the LGBT community is also very intellectually dishonest. He's never been the most solid conservative. Having the Christian perspective when it comes to traditional values to this extent in this sexual community kind of conversation. However, the fact that even he had the audacity to say that male and female was enough to trigger them, But when you have a, quote unquote, Pastor Bishop advocating for a president to continue to recognize or defend the things that are directly unbiblical, and you're doing this from the pulpit, it is a pretty egregious abuse and misuse of what God's called you to be as a shepherd. And really, it reminds me a bit of John in where Jesus talks about the distinction of the Good Shepherd. He said, There's a good shepherd and then there's the hireling. This is maybe one of those examples. When you look for somebody advocating for so many unbiblical positions, this seems certainly like someone that falls more in that hireling category. 

David Barton [00:10:57] And it it's interesting that this particular denomination, there was kind of lead in the service at this is one of those that's going through a global split over biblical orthodoxy. The eternal church for a long time had been biblically orthodox. And in know, that's where people like George Washington and others went to church. Numerous founding fathers were part of that, that church. And so they're splitting over biblical orthodoxy. The United Methodist Church is spliting. And yet the Methodist Church founded by people like George Whitfield and Wesley, and they're having the same split. Now you have the Global Methodist. That's a conservative side of that. So it's interesting that Christian denominations are literally splitting over what the Bible says or doesn't say. And this church yesterday where they had the inaugural prayer service is is one of those churches right in the middle of that biblical orthodoxy split. And they certainly came down on the wrong side of the Bible, which, you know, I have to say, I think it's very healthy to have a split when the split is over, whether what the Bible says is true or not. And so I'm glad to see the Global Methodist splitting off from the United Methodist. I'm not encouraging church divisions and my courage in biblical orthodoxy in holding to the Bible. And if you're going to have a church that says it's a church and won't hold the Bible, find one that does. And this Episcopal Church, they're right in the middle of the national split, a global split, actually, over whether the Bible actually means what it says. 

Rick Green [00:12:26] Yeah. In fact, we we always hear unify, unify. We need to be unified. Well, depends on what we're unifying around. Right. So absolutely. There is a time to say I'm sorry if you're going to be that anti biblical, I cannot unify with you. Hey, guys, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. David a Tim Barton in Washington, D.C. for the inauguration and so many other things happening right now. We want to get you updated on. We'll be right back. You're listening to the  WallBuilders Show

Rick Green [00:13:55] Welcome back to the Barbershop. Thanks for staying with us. Be sure and share this with your friends and family. WallBuilders Dot show for the radio program and then wallbuilders.com for everything else we're doing, including that pastor's briefing that Tim was talking about in the first segment that can. You can go to the website wallbuilders.com. Look at the events on the upper tap sorry and and then look at April or in the fall and if you're not a pastor and you're listening how about sin and your pastor help cover some of those travel expenses. We've seen this over and over and over again over the years. It is a life changing event. They come back on fire and honestly, they start preaching fire. It's a really cool experience. 

Tim Barton [00:14:30] And also to add to that, this is all something church staff can come to. And so if there's a pastor come and he wants to bring his youth pastor, associate pastor, maybe a couple of the elders or deacons, we would encourage the church to catch the vision. A part of what we want to do is is help connect pastors with the truth of American history. Number one, we do that with a capital tour, but then also the reality that when the next day we have congressmen and senators that will come in and will share with the pastors, there are so many people that are in Congress because they prayed about it, felt God was calling in to run. And some of these congressmen, they still teach Sunday School on the weekends and their home church. Some of them have been ordained. Some of them were former pastors. These are there there are absolutely men and women of God who are up in D.C. And a lot of the pastors have never heard that. They they've never seen. And and unfortunately, many of these seminaries are such a disconnect between what the Bible says and how it engages in the role of government. So in their thought, there's like a strict separation of church and state. So even though God created the institution of government, even though God laid out, like for Moses, that the proper role and foundation for how government should operate in protecting and defending people, there's a lot of pastors that have a disconnect. And so letting them be able to hear from congressmen and senators that come from the same place these pastors come from, it's really encouraging. And again, we would love for even church staff to to be able to get all on the same page and have a similar vision about this, that the Word of God speaks to every issue. And when you look at the basic institutions that there is the individual and there's the family and there's the government and there's the church, the word of God gives guidance, direction and advice in all of those categories. So it's not just that the Bible tells us how we should function as a family or what we should do as a church. And what's the role of the church. The Bible also gives the function and role of government and what should happen inside of government. And that's part of the connection that when pastors are up here in D.C., they get really kind of a firsthand experience and walk away impacted. So definitely would invite not just the senior pastors but spouses and then other other staff members are welcome as well. So go to the website. WallBuilders.com Pastors briefing is what you're looking for and sign up for either April or September. 

David Barton [00:16:48] And I would add to that that just as we have so many solid senators and reps up here, part of the reason they're solid is that so many of them do have solid staff members. And that's the other thing I would point to is kind of the small and the the final. We need good people coming in to support these guys and the staff. If you remember the biblical story of Jezebel and Ahab, two of the worst kings in the Bible, and how they were persecuting God's prophets and destroying his people, and yet there was a guy named Obadiah who ended up being the chief of staff for for Jezebel. And when he talked to Elijah later, he said, Don't you understand that I've been able to save a hundred of God's prophets from being murdered by her being able to protect them. And so they're in the middle of a really wicked administration. You had some good people trying to do God's stuff, and that's what a lot that's a lot of what happens up here on the Hill. I know of two specific instances where I've seen congressmen who voted 100% pro-abortion changed their vote and became pro-life because they got different staff members who gave them different information to be pro-life staff, who went to work in pro-abortion offices, but they were able to change those votes. So something else, Rick, you get Patriot Academy, do so much training there. And the same way with WallBuilders, we have Summer Institute where we take a week at a time and take these kids through the kind of things that will help them become an influence wherever they land in society. And a number of them have have literally ended up here in Washington DC and in Washington, DC. There's a number of the kids up here, including some very high offices that have significant places to influence. So if you can get your pastor to come do so. But if you've got kids or neighbors or kids in the church that seem to have an interest toward toward political things or things in the social arena policy arena, you got Patriot Academy, you've got the Summer Institute that we do. Those are things that are really, really good for getting that next generation grounded in change. And by the way, even going back to the service we were talking about and the National Cathedral, problem is you've got a form of really. But you don't have a foundation under it. And so that even that bishop that was chiding Trump and lecturing him, look, she's got all the religious garb, she's done all the religious stuff. She has no foundation under her that supports biblically anything she's doing. And that's why you need staff members and that's why you need congressmen who have that foundation. And that's part of what we can help give them. 

Tim Barton [00:19:17] Now that I would I would say she would argue that what she's doing is biblical, because she talked about, hey, the Bible says that that you were immigrants and just like you wanted to be treated like you need to treat them well, we're supposed to treat other people only treated and and we're supposed to be known by love. So she would say, right, well, I am doing what the Bible says. The problem is when you are just picking and choosing the verses you like and applying them in ways that you like, sometimes you can miss the context of of what it's saying. Because the Bible was written to specific people at a specific time for a specific reason, and we all can benefit from it. And there can be application for all of us in our daily life. But the application is not taking it and saying, Well, this was written for me in this moment. No, that was written for somebody else in a different moment. But we can learn from the lesson. And part of the lessons that are being drawn are very incorrect lessons, even though there might be some some argument discussion. When I was on Newsmax yesterday, there was it was a panel show. There were five of us, and one of the individuals was the Democrat, and the Democrat had some very, very, very different positions and the rest of the panel did. And it's not because it wasn't an intelligent person. He is a professor at a university. I think it might be historically black university. And he was actually a nice guy. I genuinely, after our conversation, said, Hey, I really appreciate the fact that you, you know, didn't didn't show yourself being flustered and you were composed. You know, you didn't get upset. I really appreciated that about him. But some of the perspective was from a very, very different position. And I think that now, going back to like this bishop, I think she would say, Well, hi, I'm upholding the biblical position, even though that's not what the Bible actually says. And the way you're applying it is not what the Bible actually meant when it said that, which that's your point is why it matters that you have the right people around you to help make sure that we're doing what's right and what's consistent. Not taking something and twisting it, whether it be the Constitution or whatever else might be for these congressmen twisting it to it to fit our agenda, that that's not what the role is, that's not what they should be doing. But but we don't need to digress too much more on this, although we certainly could. There's a lot we could talk about with what happened at the cathedral. But when we go back to so much of the positive stuff that's been happening the last couple of days up in Washington, D.C., we saw a Marco Rubio was the first person to be approved through the Senate. You saw J.D. Vance swearing him in. So you already see some of Trump's cabinet coming through the Senate. You already see things happening. You see people already being fired and removed with the commander over the Coast Guard. And I've seen liberals, you know, just unfortunately, the hotel was stagnant. They didn't have a whole lot of channel options. And so I got very tired of some of the people on Fox News. During one of the shows, I switched over to CNN just to see what they were saying and the biggest complaint they had against Trump removing this commander of the Coast Guard is that this was the first female that was in that position. And and he fired the first female she's the first one to ever have a position like this. And she was a female. And this was their whole argument. It was it that she's done an incredible job, that she's right. Being unfairly judged because she's not being judged by the content of the character. She's not being judged by how well she does a job, know their argument with a different direction. It wasn't that she was doing a good job as that she was a woman. And so it it really is refreshing that we are moving back to the place that we're not judging people by the color of their skin or their gender or their sexual preference, but we're judging them by their competence, by the content of their character. And so even with some of this removal we're already seeing happen up here in Washington, DC, it is very encouraging that we now are prioritizing competence over some pronouns and somebodies bios or somebody's self-identity. 

David Barton [00:23:30] You know, I would add to that, I was just going through some of the many things that's happened the last couple of days. And let me just summarize some. Tim, You hit the stuff, ODI, that was one of the executive orders is as all D-I appointments in the federal government, you have to have merit to be there, not be a particular race or color or size or anything else. Same thing with saying everything's going to be based on. Male and female were recognized in two genders. What I love is all the stuff that's been done with federal workers. Federal workers now are going to be hired based on merit. You can't do DIY with hiring. It's easier to hire poor performance. And that's something I've talked about for a number of years as you just can't fire federal employees, you can now you can get rid of federal employees. 

Tim Barton [00:24:17] Well, and they are one of the they set out to on that is as I think part of the reason they can do that is because he had an executive order to reclassify some of those federal workers and because they were reclassified it put them in a category where they could be held accountable. And if they didn't perform, they could be fired or removed for their poor performance. But it's because they were reclassified, because one of the things you've lamented for a long time is how hard it is to fire some of these federal employees because of the way they've been protected. But Trump, again, very, very smart. He is underrated for how smart he is. So often he was able, through executive order, to reclassify them, which puts them in a place where they can be held accountable. 

David Barton [00:24:57] Yeah. And it's now meritocracy. You move forward on meritocracy and you remain a meritocracy. And he issued an order that if you're an executive official in the federal government, you will follow the directives given by the president. So you can't say, well, you can't fire me, so I can continue DEA or whatever. Now he can hold you accountable. So he has done so many executive orders to get the whole federal bureaucracy cognizant again, that is, to serve the people, not their own agenda. What he's done on immigration, border stuff. He has issued so many orders dealing with that. Same with energy and the environment. He has turned that around. We've already seen just in two days decline in gas prices just in the last two days as a result of what he's done with the environment, what he's done to the military and national security. He has he's he said in the military, everything's going to be based on merit. You're going to get promoted on merit. It's not going to be. And this is all such new stuff. And there's just so many different changes this has. So there's a ton of stuff that has come out, has been too much for the news to cover. But those are a few of the things that we've seen in the last couple of days up here in DC. 

Rick Green [00:26:04] And of course, we'll continue to cover them and bring that to you, our audience. Be sure and check out WallBuilders Dot Show to catch up on programs. Share it with your friends and family and don't miss Tomorrow, Foundations Freedom, Thursday, tomorrow and then Friday, of course, good news Friday and we'll have a ton to try to get in on Friday. That I got a feeling we're going to just have a lot of good news days for the next couple of weeks. And then, of course, the work begins in your community. We've won the battle for restoring patriotism. Now it's time to actually rebuild the walls, lay those bricks, actually bring back the foundation of the country. And we got to do that locally. So make sure you're thinking about what you can do in 2025. Stay tuned into WallBuilders. We'll be talking about all kinds of ways you can make a difference in your community. Thanks for listening today to theWallBuilders Show