Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the Intersection of Faith and Culture. Thanks for joining us today on The WallBuilders Show. Be sure and check out our website, wallbuilders.com. That's our main site with all the great information and upcoming events and tools and resources and a great opportunity for you to just get educated about the founding era, but also get educated about how to apply the Bible to today's era, where everything is going on today. You need to do that. Go to wallbuilders.com. And then if you want to catch up on the radio program, wallbuilders.show, or if you just want an easy place to listen to it. also available on most podcast apps as well. Rick Green here with Tim Barton today. David's traveling in DC. Got a bunch of stuff going on there. And so Tim and I have Kirk Cameron coming on later and Tim, it's nice to see, uh, Christian's finally taking territory back, you know, we talk politics most of the time, but entertainment, kids education, huge area, and it shapes the culture. 

Tim Barton [00:00:54] It does. And you know, Rick, we've been talking about this for several years. I remember so many good news Friday segments, talking about a good movie, a good TV show, uh, positive things in Hollywood. Now in fairness, some of that was contrasting with how bad it's been. And so having something right. That wasn't totally woke. We're like, this is great. Obviously what Kirk Cameron is doing is something not just, it's not bad. It's actually promoting very positive values. Uh, and I am excited to hear some details from him today. I've been following along. Uh, so I already know what we're going to talk about today. Uh, but having a six year old and a three, almost four year old, my kids are at a place where we do have to think about what shows are we watching? What we're having to be very intentional. And we noticed that for, for, for some of our friends, and this is, I know true for everybody listening, everybody that's had kids and raised kids is everybody has a different idea of how they're going to parent and everybody has different value systems and so there are some friends that absolutely they love the Halloween and they dress up and do things and so we just don't do that with them on Halloween because that's not how we do it and right you kind of learn to navigate even in your friend groups the different shows that somebody watches our friends were with somebody recently and they were showing them 101 Dalmatians, which we've not shown. We have shown most of the old Disney's, we don't show all of them, because there's some moments or parts or characters that we don't want to feed those things into them, and then have to deal with maybe nightmares later as they're worrying about the beast from Beauty and the Beast, or Ursula from Little Mermaid. Well, literally they're watching 101 Dalmatians, and Cruella de Villa's there, as she's twirling in her coat and smoking her cigarette, But I'm like, no, the lady is gonna... kill puppies? This is not what I want to put in my three-year-old's head, the process. We have a dog, Dad, what's going to happen to our dog? No, we're good. But we literally have to think through those things of what our kids are in front of. And even sometimes, again, the standards that different friends have, what are they going to be exposed to in some of those areas? And I say all that bringing back context to, this is It really is so nice to have a group, in this case Kirk Cameron, doing a show that is something that is wholesome that you can have confidence in and say, hey, kids go watch this, we're not worried about it. You can tell the babysitter, put this on, it's a great show, we're not worried about it. And there's just not that many shows out there that we can do that with. And certainly what they've done at Brave Books and now with some of these TV shows and things coming out, they have really been and kind of industry leaders in some of this and growing up, for me, I remember things like Superbook and McGee and me, and even like Quigley's Village, there were these relatively, quote unquote, safe shows, right, for kids to watch. Adventures in Odyssey had some cartoons out then, too. Those were the things around, and even Gospel Bill. Now that I'm talking out loud, I'm thinking of all these other additional things, which, Rick, I assume was probably different for you. Maybe yours was, I'm not trying to date you and be awkward here. Oh, wait, I gotta hear this. Wait, what was the name of yours? Andy Griffiths, right? Thanks for watching. 

Rick Green [00:04:14] ! Wait, that's your dad's, come on. 

Tim Barton [00:04:19] See? I, okay. I mean, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm striking out. Cause I guess for you, like with wonder years, Kirk Cameron, right? Yeah, yeah. 

Rick Green [00:04:26] Yeah, yeah, yeah you you were thinking leave it to Beaver black and white leave it to Beaver That's what you were thinking for me, right? That's it 

Tim Barton [00:04:32] Is that not right? 

Rick Green [00:04:36] You know, let's see. What was I'm trying to think like Maxwell smart. What was that? Yeah, get smart That was a get smart. Yeah,Gillaugin's island Let's see. What else? Yeah, those for sure Messages. Yeah. Yeah, really? 

Rick Green [00:04:48] Yes, you know jump over cliffs be dangerous. That's where I got my be dangerous theme was watching Dukes of Hazard Okay,. 

Tim Barton [00:04:53] So the a team. 

Rick Green [00:04:56] Yeah, absolutely the a team. Yes. I love it when a plan comes together Yeah. 

Tim Barton [00:05:00] Well played. There it was 

Rick Green [00:05:01] You know what though, I was thinking as you were saying that though, I was thinking about how there was a point, I was trying to pinpoint, I was trying to remember even what the movie was, but I can't remember exactly what I was, you know, cause it used to be, you could trust Disney, right? It was like, that was good entertainment for your kids. And it was going to reinforce the values that you had or, or when I was a kid, for sure. And there was some point when our kids were growing up that it was just like, it dawned on us and he just hit us, smacked us between the eyes. I think it was kind of, if I remember right, it was like a sassy girl in a movie or something, or maybe it was a TV show. I can't remember. Anyway, it was just like, wow. I started thinking, I don't want my daughter to act like that, you know? And then I started thinking, what are the other values they're teaching? And then it just came a point where I was like, we're just not doing it anymore, man, we're not, we're not trusting them anymore. And that was, you know, 20 years ago, it got a lot worse after that. And, and now it's grandkids for me, you've got the six and three, you know, I've got, I've got a seven and five and two and, and six month old grandkids, so I'm thinking like you are. It's like, okay, I need to make sure I'm looking for good entertainment to put in front of them that we can feel good about. 

Tim Barton [00:06:01] Yes. And I mean, we find ourselves constantly and we don't, and like full disclosure and fairness, we don't watch that many shows, right? We're not like, the TV is not our babysitter. That's right. That's not how we're trying to raise our family and raise our kids. But because of that, oftentimes when we do have TV time for segments of the day, whatever that might look like, we are often in the room or sitting beside them on the couch. And so when there's a sassy attitude, we're like, Whoa, that's not a good attitude. And often I will make the comments, planting seeds, like, you know what? That girl probably should be spanked for the attitude. Throwing an attitude like that, they're getting a spanking. Teaching lesson, teaching lesson. It's an opportunity to, yeah, yeah. You know, cause they're seeing this modeled to some extent, but I want you to know, if you repeat what you're seeing modeled, here's the consequences coming with that behavior. But all that again, to say- 

Rick Green [00:06:49] But you could see it back then though, that would be part of the program, right? It'd be like, if that child was acting in that way, there would be consequences for that. I think about the Brady Bunch and shows like that. If that kid acted wrong, there was a consequence. Whereas now, that's rewarded or that's cool or that's the trend and it's just not the same. 

Tim Barton [00:07:10] Well, yeah. And it was with a shift of the dad being the dummy, the mom running the home, uh, I mean, you're just kind of all these dynamics that changed in the midst of it. And it's so different. We're, we're now, I mean, you, you can talk to most parents and they're like, Bluey is the safe show there. There might be like three or four shows that safe, but, but even there's, there's concerns about some of what's happened with some of the newer episodes and some different shows that again, that we thought were safe, and this, going back to Kirk and what he's doing, it's one of the reasons we're so grateful that he is doing this project. We've been looking forward to it. We haven't seen the episodes yet, but certainly we are excited that, I think it's the summer they're releasing, that we are gonna have something that, hopefully, is great for our family, our dynamic, that age and that stage, and that we can have confidence and trust in. And it's not, again, it's not something that's just not bad. It's something that's promoting those wholesome values that we care about. And so I'm not having to show my kids some really old TV show that they still had some kind of values. No, it's something more modern and maybe even culturally relevant. We'll see how far they go in some of these lessons. 

Rick Green [00:08:21] All right, you heard it here first. We're going to have a watch party at Tim Barton's house this summer. Um, I don't know if it's a pool. I don't even know if you have a pool Tim, but it'll be a watch party. So all of our listeners from across the nation are going to converge upon Tim Barton's house and bring all of their two-year-olds and I will not be there, but Tim, you have fun. All right, quick break. We'll be right back. Kirk Cameron joining us to talk about Iggy and Mr. Kirk, stay with us. You're listening to the Wallbuilder Show. 

Rick Green [00:09:51] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us. Kirk Cameron back with us. Iggy and Mr. Kirk, I'm so excited. Kirk, I feel like I'm, I'm getting to go back to my childhood and get the good stuff for my grandkids instead of this trash we've been getting for the last few decades. Thank you for this project, man. 

Kirk Cameron [00:10:07] Oh, I'm so grateful. I think I'm even more grateful than you are to be a part of something. You know, when you're an actor living in Hollywood, California, often you don't get an opportunity to be a part of redemptive things, kingdom building things, things that are going to return us to the values that led to America's blessing and protection. And as a grandfather, to be able to be doing this in my fifth decade of life is really an honor. So, parents, Help is on the way for your kids and your grandkids. It's called Iggy and Mr. Kirk. It's a brand new Beautiful television show that not only you can trust and kids love but it builds their moral character and it's healthy for their cognitive development. It's it's a modern-day. Mr. Rogers meets Sesame Street and it's faith-building and Bible friendly 

Rick Green [00:10:56] Love it, man, and people are hungry for it, bro. They've been asking, they've been, you know, complaining about what's out there and just going, where do I turn? Where do I turn? Where's the good stuff? How do I get some good stuff for my kids to be able to watch? And like, I love your analogy that it's essentially Mr. Rogers meets Sesame Street, because I was thinking about that with some of the stories, we used to get that in those shows where you would teach a good value to a kid in a story that they could understand. 

Kirk Cameron [00:11:20] Yeah, that's right. I mean, even Growing Pains or Full House or think of the shows that you love to watch, you know, the Waltons and Little House on the Prairie. We had sort of a collective consciousness about doing the right thing and raising children with character and judging them by their character and not, you know, DEI qualities. And now kids are being taught that those kinds of values, DEI, LGBTQIA, blah, blah, blah, is that that's where all of the value is. And we've got to remind our kids that pride is not a virtue, it is a wicked vice and that God resists the proud. So we want them to understand that humility is where all of the blessing is. So that's what we're teaching our kids with this new TV show. Think of Mr. Rogers, except not in a cardigan sweater, but in a leather bomber jacket. That's me, Mr. Kirk. And instead of Kermit the Frog, we've got an adorable green iguana named Iggy. And he's learning all kinds of lessons that five-year-old children will be able to relate to as he's learning about forgiveness, putting others first, self-control, overcoming fear, honesty, teamwork, and trusting in God. And Rick, one of the characters in Iggy and Mr. Kirk I love the most is the nemesis of Iggy and that is a vulture named culture who's always lying to Iggy and deceiving him so he's got to rely on biblical wisdom and for mr. Kirk and a supercomputer that is died It's a base version of AI that's teaching him what real goodness and truth and beauty is all about So I'm excited for people to see it. It's free on Pure Flix. It's going to be free on Angel Studios, we're pretty sure. And it's going to be free for everybody who's part of the Brave Books subscription service. And outside of that, you can watch it on YouTube. You can watch it on Brave Plus, along with 50 other great shows for kids that you can trust. So super excited about this. 

Rick Green [00:13:27] Well, last time we had you on, you were just wrapping some of the production, actually, in the great state of Texas. And so I can't remember how many episodes you did. How many episodes are out now, or about to be out? 

Kirk Cameron [00:13:38] We've completed 20 episodes, and that's two seasons of Iggy and Mr. Kirk. And episode number four is all about identity from God's perspective. These are the kinds of topics Mr. Rogers didn't really have to deal with, but kids today do because of Disney and because of Netflix and because of Miss. Rachel and because of Bud Light. Even if it's not a kid's show, it's a commercial that's on a kid's show or it's the show after the show you're showing your kids that are gonna get these messages in there. And so if we want to straighten out a crooked culture, we've got to really take ownership of the sacred role of parenting and then feed our children mental and and soul health food that nourishes their hearts and minds, not the junk food that is designed to be addictive and compromising to them. Yeah, and that's what we're trying to do through Iggy and Mr. Kirk. 

Rick Green [00:14:35] We've talked a lot about the diet of information for us, trying to find good news, trying to find good things to listen to. It's even more important in those formative years for those kids. You even have an episode on forgiveness that y'all are gonna be doing. I mean, these are good character traits to be instilling. 

Kirk Cameron [00:14:51] And you know what else I love about Iggy and Mr.Kirk is that it's a family viewing experience. Back in the day, we used to sit down as families and watch shows. Now everything's segmented and divided up into different demographics to appeal to certain age groups or certain interest groups, rather than promoting relationship and a family unit. Well, this is a co-viewing experience for kids of all ages and their parents and their grandparents. And what it's designed to do is get kids asking questions about important subjects and then giving parents an opportunity to use that as a teaching opportunity and help their kids understand clear moral truth and then apply those truths in their everyday life. So again, it's called Iggy and Mr. Kirk and it's free on Pure Flix starting June 2nd. You can see it even earlier if you go to watchbrave.com or go to Brave Plus. dot com and you can start checking it out. 

Rick Green [00:15:55] Love it. Love it, Kirk. God bless you, man. Keep up the great work. You've been educating adults for years and now that next generation that's coming up, getting them prepared and teach them those good values. We sure appreciate the work you're doing, brother. Look forward to having you back soon. 

Kirk Cameron [00:16:08] Thanks for being America's Constitution Coach and teaching us what our rights given to us from God are and what the limitations of government is. 

Rick Green [00:16:17] Amen. That's Kirk Cameron. Stay with us folks. We'll be right back with David and Tim Barton. 

Rick Green [00:17:28] Welcome back to The WallBuilder Show. I have been booted from The WallBuilder's program after inviting the entire audience. Tim's wife called on the break and said, you're done, son, you're done. 

Tim Barton [00:17:38] Well, and I also, I mean, Rick, I chuckled and the reason I was chuckling as you were finishing an interview is because you were welcoming back Tim and David Barton. I thought, well, I, you know, I would love to work with my dad. 

Rick Green [00:17:48] You could be both. You had to be Tim and David. 

Tim Barton [00:17:52] You know what, I mean, my middle name is 

Rick Green [00:17:53] David, so Timothy David Barton. That's what I meant to say. That's what I meant to say. We'll be back in a moment with Timothy. 

Tim Barton [00:18:01] See, and if I was a split personality, it'd be even better, Timothy and David Barton. But, again, reaffirming kind of what Kirk was talking about with some of what they're doing in the show and the episodes, it does sound like the very intention is that families can watch this together, which is great. Because there are definitely some cartoons that, or shows in general, that if my girls are watching, I'm like, I feel dumber for watching the show. It can't be helping them. As opposed to right, it's one of the things that there was a niche that like Disney Pixar hit for a little while, like with Toy Story, where it was something parents could watch with their kids and they didn't even understand all of the conversation, but jokes are being made and you're like, this is so funny. And it was something that the whole family could enjoy.

Rick Green [00:18:47] I found my moving buddy. Yeah. Yeah. I remember those lines. I used to get, we drove so many trips where my kids were watching Toy Story in the back, you know, with the, with the monitors and all that, and I'm driving. So I can't even see what's going on in the story, but I could quote every line in that movie. 

Tim Barton [00:19:06] One of the things I thought about as he was talking about, you know, back in the day, TV shows, there was more of a collective conscience where you could watch a variety of shows and you're going to get some of the same positive messaging, but it, but it struck me. He said a collective conscience about doing the right thing. And what struck me is even back then, the right thing could be subjective unless you have an objective moral that you are. you are using as kind of your your compass to help you navigate. And the reason that's fresh in my mind is because yesterday I was up in Arkansas. My dad and I were up there. We were testifying on a civics education bill, but also on the Ten Commandments bill. Arkansas is one of many states doing that again. And one of the things actually, even yesterday in in Texas, the Senate took up the Ten Commandments bill for the floor hearing. And I watched just a little bit of some of that floor debate to see what was going on. And there were Democrats challenging and saying, now, wait a second, you wouldn't suggest that the 10 commandments are the only place kids can learn morals and or that that Christianity has a better set of morals and other religions because these other religions. And this is a kind of conversation that we're hearing where the right thing has become very subjective because the right thing for who? Right. I mean, if if if you look at Hamas, Hamas thought the right thing is something, whether it be something on October 7th, holding hostages still in Gaza, they haven't released, we would not call that the right thing. And they're saying what's the right thing. And if we live in a world that's so subjective that the right thing is up to the individual or the group, then it's gonna be very hard for us to function collectively in a nation as a people. And this is, again, going back to what Kurt Cameron said, it used to be there was a collective conscience, but the collective conscience, it wasn't subjective as much. And obviously everybody's always had their own opinions. I get that. But there was an objective standard that we always could point to. That we could point to things like the Ten Commandments and say, now I know we all have feelings, but we all know we should honor our parents. Well, why did we all know we should honor? Why did everybody know if you did not honor your parents? And even my parents felt justified. If they were dishonored, you know, whether it's the belt, it's a sandal, it's the back of the hand, that, you know, something was going to happen if your mom and dad, certainly when I was growing up, if we were disrespectful to mom and she'd say, wait till your daddy gets home. You're like, my mom's so sorry. I didn't mean it right. Dad was. 

Rick Green [00:21:38] The rest of the day was miserable as you're waiting for dad to get out of the worst that was the worst 

Tim Barton [00:21:42] It was but where did we have this collective value system of honoring your mother and father? 

Rick Green [00:21:49] Yeah. 

Tim Barton [00:21:50] And this is where, even as we're talking about restoring some of these values, maybe even in television and having good things to point to, those values have to come from somewhere. It's the reason the founding fathers shows Christianity. The moral values of the Bible above everything else, it's because it was the highest moral standard there was. And if we were to live as a free people, you need that moral standard. And not to go too far in this tangent, and we're really talking about Kirk and Mr. Iggy, right? A Mr. Rogers meets Sesame Street, really funny thoughts, show coming up, but it's restoring the moral value of what used to be the norm in America, even to some extent for children's programming, it was the norm in America. We've lost it by and large in more of the modern era, but having a place that is working to restore this is really encouraging. 

Rick Green [00:22:43] You know, you, you guys did a book with, uh, Barna, I don't know, four or five years ago called U-Turn and it talked about all these different areas of the culture, pulling in the same direction, you know, promoting the same values. That's, that's what we have to get back to so that, so that you do have entertainment and education and government and all of these pointing back to, as you said, objective truth that everybody, you know, recognizes and can call upon, uh, in order to form a society where you do have some of these things that you absolutely agree on I was a little confused, I wasn't sure if this was a kid's version of some Star Trek episode. Mr. What's not Mr. It's not Captain Kirk. It's Mr. Kirk and Iggy. So it's not a weird Island that there it is a weird Island though. It's freedom Island. I think that they. 

Tim Barton [00:23:24] But now I'm curious, if we watch it, are we going to see some references that as adults we can appreciate, and kids are going to have no idea, right? Because he said, hey, it's for all ages, right, that parents, you can sit there. So, so we're going to have to look. Are there some hidden gems in here somewhere? Uh, because certainly if there's a Mr. Kirk and there's, you know, a, a, a make it so, is there a Scotty? Like how far do we go? Who are the characters? I'm super curious now. 

Rick Green [00:23:49] Well, I love to his, the way you described it, right? I'm, I'm already thinking Mr. Rogers meets Sesame street. Cause those are two more, right? That I grew up on and, and, and was watching. And my, I think my kids even watched that at the beginning. Sesame street was already getting a little bit weird, uh, as my kids were coming along and certainly very weird by the time your kids got here. But, uh, you know, Mr. Rogers was definitely a show that you could feel good about your kids watching, and he was such a champ at, at teaching good values and, you know, who would have known that he was a military vet and you know, all the other things that you find out about him. But anyway, I just think this is a Renaissance, you know, potentially a Renaissance in, in entertainment, the same way we're seeing a new revolution in education and politics is just, there's just an appetite for that. So I hope that Kirk and the team of Brave books that this spurs on some additional programming, you know, our friends, Jeremy, and those guys over at Daily Wire, they got, um, they're all the programming that they created, you got vid angel teaming up with, um, with a Tuttle twins, you know, so you're getting more and more, there's more options out there. 

Tim Barton [00:24:45] Well, you have House of David on Amazon. 

Rick Green [00:24:47] Oh yeah, that's right, that just came out, right? 

Tim Barton [00:24:49] Right already season two that they're committed and scheduled for you have The Chosen we all this again affirming we are seeing a resurgence of this and we've talked about how we feel like there's a revival a reformation happening around the nation people are waking up a God is moving and things are happening and one of the things that we again have talked often about is if we're going to bring America back to being one of the strongest most prosperous, freest nations in the history of the world, the Founding Fathers made it very clear that America's prosperity and success was linked to religion and morality. And if we don't restore those moral values rooted in the principles of Christianity and the Bible, if we don't get religion and morality back, then we will not have the same freedoms and enjoyment that we want for our kids and our grandkids, but having shows, working in this media mountain, so to speak, it is going to make a difference. It is gonna be something that as our kids are growing up, learning the values and that being the norm, right? Where we were growing up, the norm was some basic values and those aren't the norm anymore but if we can renormalize that for our kids, that religion and morality, those biblical values, this is what we do, we can see a culture turnaround. 

Rick Green [00:26:08] This could be that, that William Wilberforce thing about, you know, not only ending slavery, but quote, making, restoring, morals and he, he said, make being good, fashionable again. So yeah, like you said, make it the norm, make it cool to have these values. Looking forward to it. It's called Iggy and Mr. Kirk. Thank you to Brave Books and to Kirk Cameron and all the others that are working hard on this project. And I should have told Kirk, man, you know, producer Justin's got little ones too, we need to get some Iggy merchandise over here at the WallBuilders Studio to pass around. Anyway, we're looking forward to it, and we hope that everybody out there will support it and share it. Thanks so much for listening to The Wall Builder Show.