Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. It's the WallBuilders Show taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical historical and constitutional perspective. You can learn more at wallbuilders.com that's wallbuilders.com. And then you can listen to any radio programs you might've missed by going to wallbuilders .show I'm Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton. You can learn more about all three of us there at that website, wallbuilders.com and guys, just a lot more happening. I mean, every day again, just tough to keep up, but a department of education seems to be the target of the day. to shrink the bureaucracy. We'll see what else happens, but lots of big things happening right now. 

Tim Barton [00:00:41] Yeah, we were texting last night as news was breaking, uh, was sharing, uh, different social media platforms and, and I, what we used to call tweets. I don't know what to call them now. The exes. I, that sounds weird. I don't know. 

Rick Green [00:00:52] I don't know. It's hard to say it. I know, it's like I sit down and X. 

Tim Barton [00:00:55] And we're, is that appropriate? You got rid of an extra. Yeah. You got rid of an extra - But, you know, as information was coming down about Department of Ed being shut today and people being told, take their stuff, go home, and then the reports of, you know, who's going to be laid off, what it's going to look like. So we're definitely going to be tracking that all day. We, for people that listen, know we've been very supportive of removing the Department of Education. We've talked about that for a long time. First of all, it's not Constitutional. The Constitution gives explicit things the federal government can do. what are known as enumerated powers. The 10th Amendment's very clear that whatever's not explicitly given to the federal government belongs to the states. And there's nothing in the Constitution that talks about education. Therefore, it belongs to the states. That's number one. Number two is the Department of Education, their entire job was to help improve academic performance in America. And all that's happened since they took over Department of Ed is we have gotten worse and worse and worse. So, clearly it is not working. and the idea that we want to keep using a broken system. It's like using the broken clock because it might be right twice a day. Well, that's not, that's a terrible reason to say, I want to keep using this clock. No, it's clearly broken. And President Trump said he wanted to dismantle it first because there have been some laws that were passed that the Department of Education is curing out those laws, whether it be reviewing academic performance, a few things we can go down that list. But all of those things that are required by law to be done can be done by other departments. They don't have to go through the Department of Ed, and then you can eliminate some of that bureaucracy. So this is something that we have been very much in favor of, it's backing up why President Trump said he would have to dismantle it before he abolished it to make sure that the laws are still carried out, but you don't need the Department of Ed to do that, take it back and give it back to the states. You know, guys, the things that we had talked about with President Trump that we had glimmers and kind of an optimistic feel for a second term, but as we've talked about almost every day on the program, it has far exceeded so much of what we thought he was going to do, how quickly he's doing it, and now the idea that the Department of Ed might be done away with, and power goes back to the states, really incredible. 

David Barton [00:03:15] And just to kind of elucidate further on the fact that he, he said so much good stuff since he'd been in it in just these few weeks for the last four weeks. Our good news Fridays have been nothing but Trump related news and announcements and actions out of Washington DC. And I've got at least 25 stories ready for this week's good news Friday, all related to Trump. And at some point we're just gonna have to do a non -Trump good news Friday so that people still know that good things are happening across America, outside of DC. but I don't know that we've had, what would that be? 40, 50, 60 stories out of DC and one administration this fast? We haven't had sometimes that in four years of administration. It's been amazing. 

Tim Barton [00:03:59] Well, and I think there has been some good news related to pro -life and states. But some of those were upheld by federal judges that were appointed by Trump in his first term. So even if it's not things from Trump this term, some of the good news that we have highlighted, there have been Trump connections. And so it is absolutely true. The amount of victories we are seeing, Rick, you joke about it a lot. I'm not tired of winning yet. Let's keep winning. We are winning at unprecedented levels. And it's something that is really encouraging. And in the midst of all of the winning, people are beginning to wake up, where I think we talked about it some, after President Trump did the State of the Union address and CBS did their polling. And it was like 75, 76 % of Americans that viewed the State of the Union had a favorable impression of Trump's State of the Union. And that included independents and Democrats in those numbers. It's so interesting as we are seeing the American people wake up more and more. to the reality they've been misled, they've been lied to, and some of what has been used to divide the nation, whether it be some of this wokeism and canceling and whatever else propaganda, it's refreshing that people are recognizing more and more how incorrect some of those positions have been. 

David Barton [00:05:18] You know, and talking about good news, even out of Washington, D .C., outside of that, I saw a story not long ago about a pastor in Chicago, pastor of a black church, and he did something the founding father pastors used to do, and that was take what was going on in the news and relate biblical principles to it. And so outside his church, he just made a sign that talked about the fact that heaven does not have open borders. You actually have to comply with certain standards to get into heaven. And man, just saying heaven doesn't have open borders, it sent people through the roof in that community. It was crazy. Which is biblically correct, by the way. 

Tim Barton [00:05:59] This idea that we take a scriptural truth, and even though it can be very relevant and applicable in culture, you know, this idea that God made them male and female, if you did that today, they're like, oh, you're targeting a community and you're so bigoted and homophobic and etc, etc. And you're like, no, wait, wait, really? This is what the Bible says. It literally says God made them male and female. And at this point, to present basic biblical truth, it really has triggered people. but knowing that some people get triggered, Dad, as you mentioned, for a pastor of the courage to say something biblical, knowing, and especially if you're in Chicago, you know there's gonna be backlash from some of the woke individuals in Chicago, but for a pastor to have the courage to say what is very clearly biblically correct, and this climate is quite refreshing. 

Rick Green [00:06:50] Okay. I just want to make sure everybody knows you heard it here first on a Wednesday that this Friday, David Barton has 25 pieces of good news and will likely be locking Tim out of the studio. So you may not hear Tim's voice Friday because David's just going to lock him out so that David can get all 25 pieces in, in one program. Talk about rapid fire, man. That's going to be fun. Anyway. All right, guys, quick break. We'll be right back. The faster you're talking about Pastor Pittman out of Illinois, that's a great place to have a strong biblical pastor preaching truth. and just triggering some of those leftists out there that didn't like the Bible being spoken of on a particular, what they perceived as a hot topic, but they had the wrong topic in the first place. We'll be back. You're listening to The WallBuilder Show. 

Rick Green [00:08:35] Welcome back to The WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us today. Pastor James Pittman with us from New Hope Community Church up in Illinois. Pastor, thanks for coming on, sir. 

Pastor James Pittman [00:08:43] Thank you for having me. 

Rick Green [00:08:44] Well, just by, uh, you know, quoting scripture and speaking truth, you guys have caused all kinds of a ruckus up there, which we enjoy here at wall builders because that's what truth tends to do. 

Pastor James Pittman [00:08:55] Yeah, you're all in Texas, right? You're based out of Texas? Yes, sir, yes, sir. Yeah, we're behind enemy lines. We're in the Socialist Republic of Illinois, so. 

Rick Green [00:09:03] No kidding man, no kidding so all you all you had on your your what would he call a monitor out there was you know basically heavens got heavens got a wall got a got a gate got all the good stuff and hell's got open 

Pastor James Pittman [00:09:16] borders and folks just took it all wrong huh yeah they took it all wrong but you know what here's the backstory to all of that is that we we have a pro -life ministry at our church and we had a pro -life rallies in November leading up to the election and there was a counter protest of pro -abortionists and I guess the election didn't go the way they like so they were pretty upsetting so we know the group that started this and twisted twisted the trying to say something it didn't say. And so that was the issue, and the proof of that is when they started to quote -unquote protest, our church, the rainbow flags were flying big and wide. So yeah. Um 

Rick Green [00:10:00] Way beyond the immigration issue, absolutely. 

Pastor James Pittman [00:10:02] Way beyond immigration, way beyond immigration. 

Rick Green [00:10:04] I was just texting with a buddy of mine that's a pastor over in Omaha. There was a big hit piece about his church a few days ago. And I said, uh, you know, you're obviously over the target because they're firing at you and, and, and I think what they don't realize, and I was watching some of your clips and I was thinking the same thing, I think the left, you know, the, the stuff used to work, right? They could, they could manipulate the narrative and make us sound like we're bigots and we're all these things. They try. Yeah, and it would scare people away. I don't think it works anymore, man I think it's like a neon sign. They're basically saying to everybody. Hey, this is a church that stands for truth That's the one you need to go visit 

Pastor James Pittman [00:10:39] Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. You know what? We've actually had some good response to that too, and there's several people who are attending our church now who said, you know what? I've lived here for 30 years, didn't know your church was here, didn't know there was a church that's not afraid to speak the truth. And so they've actually helped us out tremendously. To that we say thank you. So they back... 

Rick Green [00:10:57] Pastor Pittman, you need to send him a, yeah, send him a letter and say, do I owe you anything for the free advertising that you gave our church? 

Pastor James Pittman [00:11:05] Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You know, funny thing about it is we actually put this sign, because they were manipulated, we put the sign in chat GPT or GPT, I'm not familiar with one of those things. And the chat GPT spit out, it's a metaphor, dealing with heaven and hell. Heaven is a place where you go when you're right with God, hell is when you are judged. And it had nothing, the chat GPT said nothing, nothing about US immigration policy because it had nothing to do with it, but... 

Rick Green [00:11:31] I'm not sure I feel better pastor, that's an example now that AI is smarter than us. 

Pastor James Pittman [00:11:41] Maybe so. Maybe so, maybe so. 

Rick Green [00:11:43] You know you mentioned right at the beginning behind it. I mean, I always joke like that when I'm going to California to speak or Massachusetts or whatever. Yeah, what's happening right now? I mean with these big shifts around the country and what seems like an appetite for truth and people more hungry for that Jesus. Are you feeling that there in your community and do you see that in Illinois? Are you feeling 

Pastor James Pittman [00:12:05] No. See, it may be because I have the wrong reference point. I'm originally from Louisiana. It may be collo - So, born and raised in Louisiana, I went to D .C. for undergrad, and I've been here for 30 years now. We have a wonderful governor by J .B. Pritzker, I don't know if you've heard of him. Wonderful. 

Rick Green [00:12:22] A wonderful cover - I - I hear no sarcasm dripping! No from my 

Pastor James Pittman [00:12:29] You know what, they have supermajorities in both the House and the Senate, and it seems like the election... has them even going further. 

Rick Green [00:12:39] Diggin' in even more. 

Pastor James Pittman [00:12:41] digging and even more because JB Pritzker I believe is trying to run for president so he's they're going even further that one thing about Illinois as an example they've been really good with homeschoolers they've left homeschoolers along where they're going at the homeschoolers now homeschoolers now have to report to the to the state in ways they've never had to that's a bill that's on on the floor yeah and it looked like it's gonna pass because they're supermajorities like I said in both both chambers. So in Illinois, it seems like they're going even further to the left. 

Rick Green [00:13:11] You guys may be the next cycle, you know, like we saw how far to the left at the federal level we went. You guys made me - And it was just, it finally got to the point where they, because the left never realized, they're like the Romans one, they lack understanding, they profess themselves to be wise, they become fools, and I don't think they realize how, it's kind of like watching the State of the Union the other night, just the crazies on the Democrat side, you see these images of these sourpusses, they're just old, decrepit, angry, bitter, and it's the worst commercial ever. for the Democrats, and they don't even realize it. And federally, nationally, I should say, they finally pushed too far, and so now you've got this massive swing going back the other way, at least at the national level. Maybe for you guys in Illinois, you just hadn't got to that breaking point yet where enough people in Illinois say, we're done with this craziness. 

Pastor James Pittman [00:14:02] You know, there seems to be a crack in the dam in that. I have a cousin, now Palatine is about 30 miles from Chicago, I have a cousin who lives closer, he lives on the south side, he lives closer to the city and he told me that the rebellion on the south side and the west side, they're real. That the African American community has really revolted and you know, it's the African American community on the south side. who was begging Tom Homan to come. Yeah. So that may be the crack. Johnson has the lowest, the governor, I'm sorry, the mayor of Chicago has the lowest approval rating. That's because the West Side and South Side has revolted against him. Wow. It's the black community that has revolted against him. So we'll see where this goes. We'll see if it translates into elections. Elections are gonna be hard in Illinois, as you know. Yeah. Because, just because you don't have a heartbeat doesn't mean you can't vote in Illinois, so. That's going to be challenging. 

Rick Green [00:15:01] If you're dead, you get to vote twice, right? Isn't that how it works? Is that the? 

Pastor James Pittman [00:15:03] works? Is that the? A few times. 

Rick Green [00:15:05] Yeah, and if you're over 200, you get extra Social Security. And if you're over two - Everything else, so you know, I do think like it is there is a groundswell that's happening and whether it's the immigration issue. Alright, you know what? or it's all the LGBTQ craziness going so far. You know, it's finally started to bring people back. Hey, but before I let you go, let's go back to just the truth issue in your church and the stand that you've been taking. What was your, what was kind of your trigger? Or your, you know, have you just always been that way? Was there a point at which you said, I'm not gonna, you know, I'm not gonna try to soft pedal this stuff at all, man, we're just hitting the nail on the head. There's no issue, we're gonna leave out of the pulpit. Were you just always that way or was there a point? Yeah, well, like my pastor, two or three years ago... says the scales came off and he had a major shift to start saying, I'm not gonna avoid any of these issues that people said stay away from. Well, how'd that work for you? 

Pastor James Pittman [00:15:57] I've pretty much always been this way. So I took over a church that has been in the Palatine era since 1959, but I took over in 2014. What happened was it was an older church that was pretty much dying. And so we wanted to see if we could take it over. But myself, I could tell you, the lights went off in 92, 1992 when I voted proudly as an African American from the South of Louisiana, I voted for Bill Clinton. For the first time in 92. black president, right? Well, he was the first black... That's what they told us! That's what they told us. And I went to Bible study at the time at Campus Crusade, and there was an older gentleman there who ripped us as young Christians that we should vote. And so I felt so bad. That was the last time I voted nationally. That was in your 20s. 

Rick Green [00:16:44] That's when you're 20s then 

Pastor James Pittman [00:16:46] Yeah, so you guys 

Rick Green [00:16:46] So you got convicted early. 

Pastor James Pittman [00:16:47] convicted early. Yeah, I got convicted early. So I came to Illinois to do my graduate work for seminary. But I've always been this way. In 2016, we have had some, how can I say, run -ins with local officials because we were one of the first churches in the area to stand up against the transgender issue. So we're in District 211 in Illinois. That's the That's the district. It's the largest high school district in Illinois. That's what Obama chose to start his Title IX offense in our district.  We went to the school board and we said simply this guy created the male and female and for that Local newspaper wrote up articles on us saying we were a hate group Wow And so we've been taking heat for a while in this area for for quite some time and because of that we've been Banned from YouTube banned from this banned from that, but you know what? That's fine 

Rick Green [00:17:46] Badger on or in. 

Pastor James Pittman [00:17:45] badge of honor and so so we've been doing this for for for a while here so we continue to plug away 

Rick Green [00:17:53] I love it. I love it. Well, and your last thing I know keeping you long here, but the the I love it. The president when he, in the first five minutes of his inauguration speech, when he said male and female and went, you know, just, I mean, he just didn't mince any words. I thought, wow, wow, man, maybe we're finally gonna turn the corner on this thing. 

Pastor James Pittman [00:18:12] And you know what, that's a change, because again, we try to call balls in strikes. Trump wasn't as strong - Oh, he was soft. Yeah, he was soft on it. He was very soft on the first issue. Oh, he was soft! Yeah, he was very soft on it. Yeah, and that was one of my hesitations, but he didn't he didn't govern that way Yeah, didn't govern that way in 2016 and now to the point where now he says is the government the federal government male and female I almost fell off my chair. Yeah people in my church were rejoicing because 

Rick Green [00:18:33] Amen. 

Pastor James Pittman [00:18:33] that was an issue he was very soft on that's pretty that's a 180 for him and we celebrate 

Rick Green [00:18:39] Amen. 

Pastor James Pittman [00:18:40] We definitely celebrate that 

Rick Green [00:18:40] Celebrate that man. We enjoy the victories. I love what you said. We just call balls and strikes man They the word of God that change whether they're Republican Democrat or whatever. We're gonna got that change whether they're Republican, Democrat or whatever we're 

Pastor James Pittman [00:18:49] gonna that's right we're equal 

Rick Green [00:18:49] We're equal opportunity critics right when they 

Pastor James Pittman [00:18:53]  There's one man that's perfect we don't criticize, other than him, everybody else is fair game. 

Rick Green [00:18:58] Amen. Amen. What a pleasure, man I'm so glad you came on looking forward to getting to know you better and I mean, what? 

Pastor James Pittman [00:19:03] Yes, yes, sir. Thank you. That's pastor James Pittman. 

Rick Green [00:19:06] We'll be right back with David and Tim Barton

Rick Green [00:20:15] Welcome back to The WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us. Thanks to Pastor Pittman for joining us as well. And of course, anytime a pastor is standing up speaking truth or a church is putting truth on the billboard like that, we love it. And we love highlighting it because courage is contagious. And the more we talk about those victories, the better, which is why, of course, I'll say it again, man. Good News Friday. Tune in this Friday. We're going to have a lot of good news to catch up on. Of course, Tim, you were saying, you know, we're talking about the beginning of the program, the Department of Education stuff. There'll probably be more good news on that as that unfolds. But that's just one department right just one area. You got all these other areas and all these things happening So anytime we can highlight a pastor and get some good news from the states. That's great as well 

David Barton [00:20:52] You know, I thought what Pastor Pittman said was such a profound statement just in the way he opened the interview. He said, you know, this was supposedly about immigration, but when they showed up at the church to protest, they had the rainbow flag. He said, it's really not about immigration. It's about a worldview. And he's exactly right. And it doesn't matter, as Tim said, whether it deals with genders, how many genders are. Everything is about worldview. And once you're off on worldview, you're gonna be off on every single policy that has a biblical background to it. And that's why you're gonna protest a lot of stuff and you'll show up with a rainbow flag because you have a very opposite worldview to what the Bible teaches and therefore, there's gonna be a lot of things that trigger you. And this is a problem we have with having a much more secular nation, biblically illiterate nation than we've ever had in our history. So whether we overcome this, a lot of that's gonna depend on pastors like Pastor Pittman, who have the guts to step up and say, hey, here's what the Bible teaches. Here's what the Bible teaches about Immigration there are no open borders to heaven now. I'm not specifically teaching about immigration I'm telling you their standards you have to meet and heaven has those standards and the current policy We've got the open borders that them will work in heaven I mean that's the kind of stuff that will change the way people think and it's probably stuff they've never even thought about before never even realized the Bible talked about those things before and That's where every one of us literally have to step up and be practical with what the Bible says about current events But taking it back to biblical standards Well, you know, guys, too, I thought it was interesting. 

Tim Barton [00:22:20] interesting, Rick, you made the point that it's possible this kind of attention might bring positive attention to him, too. And of course, he pointed out that there were people now in his congregation that said, we've been here 30 years, didn't even know there was a church here. And there is a hunger for truth coming from so many people throughout America. And they're looking for pastors, they're looking for leaders, not just pastors. They're looking for leaders. who have the courage to stand up. And it used to be that pastors were leaders, who would exemplify courage. And they would stand for truth. And we just haven't seen that as much. We've talked about it a lot since COVID, and that COVID really challenged and emboldened a lot of pastors to stand up and wake up. Rick, you talked about how your pastor had this epiphany, that, man, what am I doing? I need to start speaking biblical truth, addressing these issues. And I thought it was interesting also, where Pastor Pittman pointed out, that there's a lot of people in Chicago that are waking up and are supporting what President Trump has done, wanting Tom Homan to come in and remove some of these criminal illegals that have been in Chicago, it's just, again, revealing to me, very interesting, that so many American people are not anymore buying the propaganda from the big progressive liberal media machines that have been the way it's been for maybe decades now. And this is really refreshing that people are waking up. And of course, when you have pastors willing to stand up and be courageous leaders, it makes a difference as well. 

David Barton [00:23:52] And I thought it was real cool too, that, you know, as you were talking to him, Rick, he started talking about the fact that, well, you know, on the west side of Chicago and also on the south side of Chicago, maybe people are waking up. They're, they're starting to be different and they're starting to look for different things and, and hearing that that Chicago actually, and then the black community, as he pointed out, those are the black areas of Chicago that they're starting to see a change that are turned there and a rejection of some of this wackiness. I was reminded too of Detroit. Now Detroit, how long has that been a blue city? Oh my goodness, that's got to go back a long time. And the mayor of Detroit, he's been mayor for 10 years, has now announced that he's not going to run again as Democrat, he's going to run as an independent. And to have a mayor in a city like Detroit, or to have possibly Chicago starting to shift in a different direction, that's really big stuff. And maybe it's because that It's not because necessarily the people are more biblical, but they're just finding out from real life that a lot of this woke nonsense on the left, just flat, does not work. You can't live with it. It's not even reasonable. And it's certainly not the kind of oppression you want to live under. So there could be something even bigger starting to happen here. And if that happens, where they start questioning policies like that, then they're already so much more open to a biblical solution because the Bible not only questions policies like that, it rejects policies like that, but getting to even think outside that woke box is a huge step. 

Tim Barton [00:25:23] Well, and when pastors are saying the truth, God's ways work. And when you're actually even teaching, hey, here's the way it's going to work the best and people are going, oh, that does make sense. And then they realize also the Bible says that this is where there's been a major disconnect in culture is there have been people that have intentionally not applied the Bible to situations because. They think, well no, the Bible applies to spirituality and this is different kind of life. Without connecting the dots, the Bible was written as a practical life -guided manual. It applies to everything we do and the most practical common sense and the most effective solutions will always come from the word of God. 

Rick Green [00:26:03] Yeah, God's word is not only true, it works best. You get the best results, whether that's how we take care of the poor or how we do any other policy, you get the best results when you do it. God's way, no doubt about it. And churches that teach that end up with policy makers or business leaders or entertainment creators that follow that same guideline. And if they're doing that, then the culture reflects it. It's all about shaping culture, but it does begin with those pastors. and it's actually being salt and light from our churches. What a positive, encouraging story today. I hope that some other pastors out there are encouraged by that. And I hope that all of us that are in the pews as the flock and as the lay people will encourage our pastors to be like that. Thanks so much for listening today. You've been listening to The WallBuilders Show.