Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. It's The WallBuilders Show and it's Friday, so we're going to jump it into some good news. You can get a lots of good news if you go to our website. We've got two of them, WallBuilders.show. That's all of the radio programing and catch up on the shows you might have missed over the last few weeks. Some interviews, some commentary on the inauguration, the foundations, freedom Thursday it's all there. Go to WallBuilders.show for the radio program and then wallbuilders.com is where you can get information on all the upcoming events the pastors briefings that are going to happen this year in D.C. all kinds of great materials to check out and the swag you need to be advertising for the Constitution and for the principles of liberty by getting you some good swag right there at wallbuilders.com. I'm Rick Green, Constitution here with David Barton, America's premier historian, and Tim Barton, national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders. And guys, I'm just kind of still in the I don't know, I'm just riding on a high today, just still excited about all the good stuff that's happening. And we're probably going to need, I don't know, ten, 12, 15 years to catch up on good news. Friday's with just what happened in the first 24 hours of the Trump administration. So I don't know what y'all are going to start with because we still had stacks to catch up with before the inauguration. So here we go. David, what are you what the world are you going to choose first? 

David Barton [00:01:17] Well, actually, I want to start off with something going back to what we're talking about yesterday and we were talking about just the excessive number of pardons issued by Biden, over 8000 think 8084. He now holds the record well, the one closest to him had been Andrew Johnson is because Andrew Johnson essentially pardoned everyone who had taken up arms against the United States in the Civil war, just trying to put the whole thing behind him. And at that point, we were talking about preemptive pardons like Biden did. So here is kind of a factoid correction from yesterday, because at that time I said, I don't think you can do preemptive pardons. It turns out that that is historically something already been addressed and it progressed in those cases with Andrew Johnson went to the Supreme Court. I think this was Ex parte McCardle. But the question was, can these guys have been through the process that you're you're pardoning Confederate soldiers that haven't been convicted of anything. Can you even do that? And the court said, yes, you can do that. You can have preemptive pardons for things that might occur, things that you think are going to occur, etc.. And so I have to change what I said yesterday based on what we have at least that precedent. Back with Andrew Johnson. You can't have a preemptive pardon. So I said Biden apparently was the first to do that. He's not. It goes back to Andrew Johnson. So before the good news, get that one out of the way. 

Rick Green [00:02:41] David, if I if I'm hearing you right, you're not even taking a position on it. You're not saying it should be allowed or not be allowed. You're just saying, hey, it has happened before it happened. And I guess that wasn't that kind of I'll try to remember if if Ford's pardon of Nixon, were there any actual charges against Nixon? Could you call that also a preemptive pardon? 

David Barton [00:03:00] Yeah, I was definitely in the works and it looked like it was definitely going to occur. And they thought that was really going to hurt the presidency and trust in America, everything else. So they were trying to save the office, the institution, from all the discredit it was likely to have, because they had already had some of the folks had confessed to doing crimes and, you know, Chuck Colson and others. And of course, that was a turning point for Chuck Colson. That's right. With all that stuff. And that's where he became a Christian and got prison fellowship going after that got so big in the biblical worldview, but it looked like it was definitely going to topple. And that's why Ford stepped in and said, Hey, let's put this behind us. Let's move on. Nixon is now resigned. He's gone. Let's let's move on. So that there was what appeared to be pretty imminent chance of something happening. 

Rick Green [00:03:50] Yeah, I did have a little fun going down the rabbit hole last night watching videos of Biden saying how terrible it was that Trump was considering that in 2020. Right. Just the idea that he was even considering it. And there's all these videos of Biden and all these Democrats saying you should never do that. Where would it stop? And then, of course, here we are four years later, and Biden does however many thousands of them. Whatever for whatever that's worth. All right, David, let's get some good news. 

David Barton [00:04:16] So what all this started leading up to inauguration the House and Senate went in a couple of weeks before President Trump was re took the how do you want to say that? Retook the oath, took the oath or whatever it is. Anyway, he was president already. So now he's president again. 

Tim Barton [00:04:32] But when he went through his second inauguration. 

David Barton [00:04:35] Yeah, I guess so. 

Rick Green [00:04:36] I was I was trying to think of a gaming term for you, you know. Are you you're I was. 

David Barton [00:04:42] I was trying to think of something that would fit whatever it was. And a couple of weeks leading up to the inauguration, the House and Senate had been sworn in and they started working on passing bills. And they've done a really good job of trying to move things through. They just got the Laken Riley Act passed going through the Senate. And so they're trying to get this stuff put together and have the president signed it as quickly as possible, get a bunch of good stuff. And one of the one of the bills that they did last week was the House passed that the you know, as the bill that 27 states have done and it deals with Title nine and it deals with protecting women's sports. So we're not going to let biological males compete in women's sports. And so that's going through as a federal law. And as that was going through, you've got all the same kind of objections from the usual culprits. You know, it's like when Trump was at that that service where the bishop challenged him and took him on about LGBTQ. I mean, she clearly was. And sure, she thinks he's mean. It's the same dividing lines on this. And so after this was over, Mike Johnson the press was pushing him on it about, you know, the discrimination against people who identify as women, etc., and and dealing with it. And by the way, the vote on this passed in the House, 218 to 206. And so two Democrats joined the Republicans. And both those Democrats out of Texas, both Hispanics, and both were real clear that, hey, there are two genders and we think there should be two genders and we think you should compete on on on your biological gender. And so in doing this, as Mike Johnson  was talking about it afterwards with the press, he made the statement. He said, We know from Scripture and from nature that men are men and women are women and men cannot become women. So Reporter challenged him on that and said. Where did you get tht? That the Scripture says. And so to my credit he just quoted the scriptures. He said, he said, Christian scriptures teach. And that goes back to the first book, Genesis, that male and female, he made them. And so he just went through and quoted the scripture as the answer. And so I was really proud of Mike for doing that. And he didn't, you know, try to resort to science. He used that that clear faith position which he holds. And so this is it's one of the many bills that are getting passed. But I just love the fact that the mike was bold in his faith, did not back down at all on that faith issue and made it really clear that this is not only a biological issue, a nature issue, this is also something really clear in the scriptures. 

Rick Green [00:07:22] Yeah. And even David, as you said, that didn't are exactly how you said it, rely on the science or whatever. But of course we know that the, the Bible backs up science because God is the one that designed that science. So anyway, just for those that might try to take you out of context on that, he wasn't ignoring the science. He was he was making the faith argument in addition to the science. 

David Barton [00:07:41] You know, Rick, one of the things we do in the summer and I'm going to put a little commercial in here, a little plug and the summertime, one of the things we do is the Summer Institute for Young People 18 to 25 to help them really get grounded in a world view before they get into college or post-graduate work or whatever it is. And one of the one of the sessions we do is on science and the Bible. And it is absolutely amazing how that the at least two of the top science figures and all of history, the world where theologians Francis Bacon called the father of modern science and Isaac Newton who went through all the stuff on physics and the laws of motion, laws of gravity, all that stuff came from theologians to theologians. And so when you when you throw and you got bacon, you got Boyle, you got Copernicus, you got all these great Galileo, the greatest names in science. These guys were theologians and they wrote biblically. And it just goes right through, you know, even in Max Planck, a German, what he did with quantum physics, all these guys, it's really clear that they never separated God from science and actually used God's position to help develop the sciences that we use today. So to say this science is secular means you don't have any idea about the history of science and the great innovations done, you know? Harvey and the flow of blood in the veins. Why does it go in veins one way and arteries the other way? He quoted from Leviticus on that when that discovery was made. So it's pretty, pretty fun because even as you said that, Rick, for people who think that quoting the scriptures is not science, that means you have not study the history of science and you don't know who the great heroes of science are. 

Rick Green [00:09:25] Amen and I got to tell you, man, I've had so many of our Patriot Academy graduates and others go through that institute with you guys for that week, and it's phenomenal. Every single one of them. Absolute love it. In fact, I'd love for every one of them to go through it. And in fact, we may take a whole bunch of your slots this summer with with these interns we got for the year because it's just such a good grounding and it's so hands on. I think that's what's cool is they get to go, you know, touch the documents and they get to, you know, be part of the research and they get to hear from all these speakers. They get to spend all the time with you guys. So anyway, definitely time to check out. And the best place I guess just wallbuilders.com and they go to events is that the events tab. 

Tim Barton [00:09:59] Yeah I think it's actually even under the student section it's initiatives and so we have what I said Student It's education. But then under education there's like parents and students. So it's, it's harder for me to explain it than it will be for somebody to find it online, right? Do not be distracted by my lack of clearly communicating to getting out to find it. Yeah. On the WallBuilders website it's summer institution shouldn't be hard to find. It's one of the partnerships we have with Mercury one so it's also available on their website so shouldn't be hard to find and wallbuilder.com is place to go. 

David Barton [00:10:31] Tim and I happen to be at the Capitol on Tuesday night and lead the tours for one of the congressmen and some some other groups got in as well. And it was cool there that one of the folks that helped us was a staffer there on the Hill was in a really significant committee, significant position, and has gone through Summer Institute. And that was one of the things that really turned him around and changed him. And it's just cool to see kids of that caliber that that really have an impact. 

Tim Barton [00:10:58] And just to clarify, I would say, yeah, because case he's listening, I would say that it really helped equip him. He already had the heart, right? He was already doing the right direction, but it helped give him a better foundation for somebody that God had called him to do. 

David Barton [00:11:14] That's that's a better description. Much better description. Yep. 

Rick Green [00:11:17] Good stuff Tim, we got we got time for one more piece of good news before we go to break. What you got? 

Tim Barton [00:11:21] Well, this one at major. We've talked this week about the inauguration and so many good things. And I'm sure the next several weeks, my stack, especially the top of the sack, can be filled with things coming from executive orders and things that has been going on in the nation because of Trump's leadership. But this one's going back to before President Trump was sworn in. This is from West Virginia. The headline says West Virginia governor bans DEI by executive order and it actually goes through. So West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey on his second day in office. And this article came out on January 15th. So we're talking a week before President Trump's inaugurated, his second day in office, he banned diversity, equity and inclusion, all the initiatives at all public institutions in the state through executive action. And he actually had eight executive actions. But he said theories of Dei are contrary to equal protection guarantees. The West Virginia and United States Constitution as he goes on explaining this. Part of his executive order. It also bans requirements for anyone to undergo any DEI training to add support for DEI causes or disclose their preferred pronouns. And this is from all educational institutions. And really a lot of universities that this would be impacted by. The article highlights that state agencies and institutions must also identify if any of their existing policies and positions promote preferential treatment of people based on the theories of DEI, and they must submit a plan within 90 days for how they will eliminate such practices. And they argue even points out this is following some of what we've already seen in some of the states. In 2024, Alabama, Iowa and Utah, all band DEI offices at public colleges. And this was after Florida and Texas had already done that. In addition, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, they all last year prohibited colleges from requiring prospective students and employee candidates to submit so-called diversity statements, which typically asked them to describe how they can contribute to the institution's DEI goals. Which is just a crazy thought to think that part of what you have to do admissions to do a university student is explain how you can help the student be more DEI woke, or if you're going to be applying for a job, you have to explain how you meet the DEI quota. I mean, just crazy. So really good news that there are several states that are taking very specific steps against this. And so before President Trump, even with the executive order, bans DEI from these federal agencies. West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey follow the suit of many other governors who are going that direction. But kudos on his second day in office, he's laying down some pretty basic common sense in West Virginia. So kudos to Governor Patrick Morrissey of West Virginia. 

Rick Green [00:14:12] I got to ask you guys, can you think of any other time in history where an ideology swept the land and was, you know, implemented, you know, throughout the culture and so quickly, the results were so bad that everybody's like, hey, we we need to reverse this. And elections started changing because of it. And then so quickly it started being removed. 

Tim Barton [00:14:35] Well, not to be a Debbie Downer on good news Friday and Dad, you might have a different opinion in the record. Obviously feel free to push back and challenge this, but as we're celebrating some of this good stuff happening, the good stuff we're talking about is mostly from red states. 

Rick Green [00:14:49] So we're not going it's not about the land, it's specific to areas. 

Tim Barton [00:14:53] Yeah, right. But but so when you say is there any comparison of this in my mind, some of this wokeness is not a lot different than even some of the abolition arguments and debates back in the day when some people are like, this is crazy. This violates the laws of nature, which, by the way, the idea that we're going to challenge two genders, it violates the laws of nature. The idea that we're going to say an unborn person has no rights, that that violates the basic inalienable right to life. The founding fathers are very clear on. And so I, I do see in our nation that we are, even though there are people waking up all over the nation, that political leaders all over the nation are not waking up. And I actually see a lot of interesting parallels knowing that when you go back to the time of the Civil War, when Lincoln gets elected, even before he's inaugurated, you already have states that begin seceding South Carolina seeds in December of the same year that Lincoln's elected. And they release their ordinates and their declaration of their secession, where they go through and explain all the reasons that they are separating. And by the way, if people want to go back and read those, there were 11 states seceded, five of them the Declaration of Causes, which is like their version of the Declaration of Independence, where they're explaining why they're separating from the union. And in those declaration of causes, every single one of them highlight the number one issue of why they are leaving is the issue of slavery. Now, the reason I bring it up is because if you look at some of those states, it's not that everybody in those states were embracing that ideology. Some were very much against it, but it was what the political leaders of those states were doing and the state was having to bear the consequences of the decisions the political leaders made. I would say that's true right now with what we're seeing, because right in California, we have so many friends in California who are rock solid Christian leaders, conservative thinkers, and they are standing up so courageously and boldly. And yet the leaders of their state are espousing stuff that is so counterintuitive, that is so anti biology, anti laws of nature, nature's god, anti Bible. I mean, go down the list. And so I see it actually a similar parallel as things we've seen at other times in our nation. And I don't mean they use like the most extreme example historically we make a point to the issue of slavery. But I do see a lot of similarities in some of the patterns where you do have some people in some states that like this is the hill they're going to die on. They will die on the Die Hill because they've so embraced and drank the Marxist Kool-Aid. It's just part of who they are. And there are other people who are going, this is so crazy. This is not good. Why would we do it? And this is where we talk about in this time of respite that God has given us over these next couple of years. One of the things we have to do as Christians and conservatives is start doing a better job at making disciples. And part of making disciples is helping win the the intellectual argument, the moral argument for what's going on, because there's a lot of people that are embracing a bad ideology because they haven't really been disciple or challenge or thought through that process. And that's where I see is lacking now. With that being said, it's still great news that so many states are like, This is crazy. Let's get rid of this. But not to not to keep going on this diatribe. But I don't think as much of the nation as it is people that are waking up in especially certain locations. 

Rick Green [00:18:19] Yeah. And it was a place like California has not been rolled back at all. Right. So and maybe part of it was those states where we're seeing this like West Virginia, the people were still with us on these against being against this the whole time. But you had leaders like Justice was the governor. Right. And now, unfortunately, he's in the Senate. But, you know, he was a guy that was not going to buck the trends. Right. So it does have a lot to do with just even leadership. More say, on the other hand, is is basically like Trump at the state level. And he's going to go in and and make these kind of changes. So so yeah, great point. It is it is in pockets of the country, which gives us the momentum to try to push it throughout the whole nation. All right. I think I let us go way too long. We got a break. We're going to have to come back and David, see how fast you can talk to get us some more good news going into the weekend. Stay with us. You're listening to The WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:20:13] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show good news Friday. And there's more than we could possibly get to. What's your next highlight, I should say, of good news, David? 

David Barton [00:20:20] Well, you know, I am really glad that Elon Musk, as has the position he has the over government efficiency that new department they've created. And by the way, this is a really weird thing. How can you be a conservative and support creating new government departments? You know, I love this department right now. I hope it fades out when Trump's gone, but I think Democrats will probably turn it into a huge agency at some point in time and use it to grow government. Nonetheless, I love what Elon Musk is doing. I love what he did throughout the campaign. And I'll remind you guys that in 2016 he contributed to and voted for Hillary and in 2020, he voted for Joe Biden. So you look you look at him and you say, you know, it was that long ago when he was completely on the other side of the political world from where he is now, very close to Trump. He he maybe as much as anybody in America helped Trump through this campaign with what he did with contributions and and media, etc.. So I think it's really good. That kind of sets up for where I'm headed next. I hope we're seeing the early stages of a similar transformation with Mark Zuckerberg, and I've got three articles here. I'm just going to read titles because I think they show good things. But Zuckerberg, he is says he's finally going to get rid of the fact checkers on Meta. So all the stuff where the progressive get to decide that the conservatives are all wrong. That goes out he's going to do the same kind of thing that the Musk has been doing on X. Then on top of that, he also got rid of DEI. And so that's another big liberal program that has gone, by the way. Then on top of that, he's appointed three new board members and Dana White is one of those is a huge Trump supporter. And so we're seeing we're seeing Zuckerberg starting to say good things about Trump and starting to agree with that. I think in the hearings that he had a few months ago, it kind of woke him up to some things and he took a much more moderate position than he's been taking. So I hope we're seeing something very good and a change that may be happening on Meta. But for for sure, at this point in time, Zuckerberg looks like he's starting to follow the path of Elon Musk and come out of that progressive wilderness and get more into the conservative constitutional camp, which is great news. 

Rick Green [00:22:35] Well, and of all the things that he's he said on a Rogan interview or wherever else. The thing that encouraged me the most, though, is what you mentioned, the fact that he he put Dean on the board because, you know, Dana White's not only a pro-Trump guy, he's very DEI., he's very anti any squelching of speech or being told what you can or can't say, you know, some of those basic things that that we saw Facebook go the wrong direction on. So that's a really, really good move that he's putting him on the board. 

Tim Barton [00:23:01] And guys, it will be interesting to watch how how this all unfolds because even when Elon took over Twitter, now known as X, there are still been a couple of things where there's been some censorship, there has been things happened. And generally speaking, once Elon found out about it, it's like, well, no, we're not doing that. We need to stop that. We need to correct that. And so when you have a lot of the same personnel, just because you're changing the directive, right. It's like when if Pete Hegseth becomes the new secretary of defense and he's over the Pentagon, he can give a new standard. But if you don't remove a lot of those woke minded people in the Pentagon, you're not going to change the standard in policy as much as you want to. So it will be interesting to see if the people of Facebook, certainly the ones you have been swimming in, that woke Kool-Aid, if they are willing to change or if they're going to have to be removed for some of these policies to take effect. But certainly it's good news that they are shifting the direction of free speech. 

David Barton [00:24:00] And let me add one little caveat. When people think about the Pentagon, don't just think military. It is a military institution filled with military leaders, but it is staffed by civilian personnel that are bureaucrats. And so the Pentagon, by and large, is another agency with military leadership up top. But, Tim, as you just pointed out, that leadership position has to filter through all those career bureaucrats over in the Pentagon. So I guess I love the military. We got two kids serving in active military, but I can't give the Pentagon a pass just because I love the military. They're filled with bureaucrats that need to be dealt with in the same way every other agency in the United States needs to be cleaned out. 

Rick Green [00:24:40] Alright Tim we've got time for quick one. If you want to close us out with a piece of good news. 

Tim Barton [00:24:42] Absolutely. As we are celebrating good news Friday, there are some potentially really good things happening up in the U.S. Senate right now. This is an article from a couple of weeks ago. But I was looking and just confirming it looks like it still might be happening today. This says the Senate will hold a vote this month on important legislation to protect babies who survive abortion is known as the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. It was introduced by James Lankford on the 15th. And there is Senator Thune, who is the at this time, he's the head of the Senate. He said that the plan was to vote on it Friday, January 24th, which would be today. They're supposed to vote on it. And that was strategically chosen to coincide with the March for Life, where hundreds of thousands of pro-life Americans are participating marching for the unborn. And so this is something it was actually it was passed in the House a year ago, two years ago. And then the Democrat Senate said, no, we're not touching it. Leave it alone. And so they're having to bring it back. Now something, guys, I mean, it shouldn't be controversial at all. If a baby is born, they should be protected and really they should be protected before they're born. But not that, I guess, on that. It's really good that we now have a House and a Senate and presumably even a president who will work to protect these babies born alive. Abortion Survivor's Protection Act is the title. So you guys can think about it, pray about it today. We'll try to track it and then maybe next Friday will be able to conclude that good news without passing the Senate. 

Rick Green [00:26:14] Very good news, guys. All right. We've got a lot more to share with you folks. We'll have to have a string of good news Fridays to catch up on all the stuff that happened this week. Hope you have a fantastic weekend. Continue to pray for our nation. Do not take your foot off the gas. Now is the time to gain ground in our country. You can feel the momentum going the right way. Take advantage of it in your local community. Stay plugged in, keep meeting with your groups. Keep taking action. Let's take freedom back at the local or state and the federal level. Over the next few years, Thanks so much for listening to the WallBuilders Show