Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. Thanks for joining us on the WallBuilders Show today. It's Friday. I love Fridays. I'm kind of an optimistic guy. So I kind of like every day, one of those glass half full guys, but Fridays, man, it's like a double dose. It's like, there's no, you can't get enough. So it never gets empty. So lots of good news happening. And we love to bring as much of that to you as we can. So thanks for joining this on the program. Be sure and visit the websites, wallbuilders.com and wallbuilders.show. And especially at wallbuilders.show share today's program. People need to hear good news. And even now, even after all the good news that the Trump administration has created and all the positive things happening, you can already feel the children of Israel are doing their complaining. They're already starting to say, you know, we had better food back in Egypt. They're are already starting say, where's this water and that water. And I don't want man. I not, we just, you, know, people complain. So let's not be those people. And if you have friends that are like that and they're already saying the big, beautiful bill didn't do everything I wanted, so I'm quitting, then send them today's program because we're going to share some good news today. And we're going to keep pointing out that good news. Now we've still covered the bad and the ugly, but we're gonna definitely emphasize the good. By the way, I'm Rick Green here with David and Tim Barton. And guys, go for it. David, what's our first piece of good news? 

David Barton [00:01:17] Well, it's right now when you look at what Americans are thinking about what's happening with America, what's happening under the leadership of President Trump and the things that have been done. And granted, we know there's so much of the stuff has yet to be covered by by the mainstream media. The, you know, the legacy media is just not covering the stuff. And it's interesting to see how they continue to try to find everything negative they can, yet saying that we are now approaching the point where this is. More Americans now believe america's headed and the right direction than any time in the last sixteen years so despite the limited good news coverage it gets out there more Americans to get in at the getting around that that legacy media stuff and now it's near a sixteen-year high now i'll point out that now means that people now agree that America is heading in the right direction more so than at anytime in Obama's presidency so take that and chew on it for a while. You would never think that less in the media, that Trump has more support for what he's doing than Obama did in his time. But that's where it is now. And so this is the highest that it's been in 16 years. You have to go back to George W. Bush. Last time it was this high. So that means Obama. It means the first term of Trump and it means Biden. And so what he has got now surpasses all that and is back to what it was with George W Bush. 

Rick Green [00:02:40] And I guess David, when you say George W. Bush, you mean that would have been at the height of patriotism, the response to 9/11, everybody's rallying together that type of environment. So the fact that. 

David Barton [00:02:52] Actually, later than that, it's the last part of his term, by 2008. So this is nearing where it was in 2008, and so that's the last time it was this high, this range, was at the end of George W. Bush's second term. 

Rick Green [00:03:09] Interesting 

Tim Barton [00:03:11] Which is also interesting because I think in 2008 his his public approval rating was certainly going down because of the war and people being tired and some fatigue which led to President Obama but it's interesting that when President Obama came in again as you mentioned certainly we would think President Obama was so received and he was so idolized by the media and sending shivers and chills down people's legs as a famous leftist news reporter once pointed out, but Certainly, you would not think President Trump, with how much the media has been trashing him, would be that well-approved, received, the perception from the populace, quite impressive. 

Rick Green [00:03:54] Yes, and that's actually a good indication of all of the good news and it means political support for him to continue creating good news with, with, you know, aggressive policy. So Tim, how about you? Where's your first piece of good news coming from? 

Tim Barton [00:04:07] Well, guys, this one is coming from Florida and it's similar to, it was a couple of weeks ago, I think, when we talked about some of the baptisms that were happening out in California. Largest baptism in California, most people baptize in one day. Well, this, interestingly, not, I mean, this is just, oh, man, this was a a couple days ago, actually. When this news article came out, nearly 2,000 people were baptized Sunday on the shores of Hanna Park Beach as a church of 1122, which I assume that maybe Axel, I don't know, some Bible verse 1122 held its annual beach baptism event, drawing thousands in a vibrant public declaration. There was 1,958 individuals that were baptized in the Atlantic Ocean. The participants came from Florida, Georgia, and other states. It's one of the largest baptism gatherings in the region, and this is the second year they've done that. Last year, they had 1,600 baptisms. This year, nearly 2,000. But between the two years, when you're talking about over 3,500 people being baptized, it really is remarkable. And yet again, evidence, we've talked about this over and over andover, that God is on the move, that He is opening eyes, He's stirring hearts, He's drawing people to Him. That in the midst of the political hurdles and upheaval and the craziness going on, it's so clear that what we have talked about there being a great awakening, where you can see God is transforming things in culture. It sure seems that God is not just on the move, but He is helping transform the culture. It does not mean that we now have, you know, recovered back to like the 1980s when 90 plus percent of Americans identified as Christian, when well over 50 percent of Americans were going to church on Sunday. No, we have fallen off significantly. We have a long way to go, but it's cool to see that God is stirring on people's hearts and minds and drawing people back to Him. And as we've been talking about the baptisms and there's big baptism events coming up, This is just one more example of God on the move, people's lives being changed, and in this case, nearly 2,000 people being baptized in the Atlantic Ocean. 

Rick Green [00:06:29] And like we've talked about a few times, there's something special about all of this from the standpoint of it's not just rah-rah, it's depth. It's even baptism itself is obedience, right? It's taking those steps into discipleship. And so that's where we get to true reformation and actual revival that changes the culture. Really, really exciting to see it happening. David, how about you, what's next? 

David Barton [00:06:52] Well, that's probably a good reminder to remind people that on June the 8th is Baptized America. I mean, trying to get all churches on that day to to do baptisms that day. We talked to was it last week when we talked to folks from California and they had 500 churches participate in the baptism of Huntington Beach and there were 7,750 folks in that baptism. And so there is a nationwide effort. I think it's Sunday, June the eighth, asking churches across, because that is a doctrine that just... It cuts across from left to right when it comes to the Christian belief. Catholic, Protestant, doesn't matter. Baptism is a core belief for all of those. And so encouraging folks on June the 8th, get with your pastor, see if you can set up a baptismal service, and let's have the whole nation participate in that on June 8th on that Sunday. So just a reminder on that. Jumping over to the good news, going to Alabama. And Alabama is one of the many states who passed a ban on puberty blockers and on surgery. And they said, look, it's a felony for doctors to administer puberty-blockers or hormones or do surgery for individuals under 19 years of age. If you're a minor, we're just not gonna let you do that gender mutilation stuff. We're not gonna to let you destroy these kids while they're still growing. And so that was the law passed three years ago. At that point in time, you had all sorts of groups say that's wrong, we're suing. And so you had groups like the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center, you had the Human Rights Campaign, the National Center for Lesbian and Gay and LGBTQ, Legal Advocates and Defense, I mean all these groups, every group that you can think of lining up on the left. And so they wanted a preliminary injunction. And to get the preliminary injunction, you've got to go into court and be able to show that your position is likely to prevail when it goes to full trial. And so at that point in time, they forced Alabama to say, look, if you're going to do this, you got to be able prove that this is actually going to be good in the long term, or we're going give the temporary injunction and then we'll do a permanent injunction necessary when we go to trial. So what happened was they suddenly Alabama has to start showing its case. And in doing that, they started bringing out all sorts of evidence, and it's medical and scientific evidence on what actually happens to these young people below the age of 18, they go through all this transitioning, all this hormone blockers or surgery, whatever. And it's so compelling when they got all the evidence together, it's still compelling. That all of the liberal groups dropped the case. They backed out of it rather than have all that evidence entered into the record in the courts. So the evidence is now so compelling on this position that the left groups did not even want to get into court and have all this evidence presented. So I think that's really, really good. It's not knee-jerk, hysteria, hydrophobic kind of thinking. On the part of conservatives there's actually medical-based stuff here and this literally is the government doing something well to protect minors and protect those who have less they're more vulnerable and so i think the wonderful thing coming out of Alabama that those left groups had to drop this because the evidence clearly is against them it's no longer just my opinion it's the evidence is there 

Rick Green [00:10:37] Yeah. For them to even leave the battlefield like that is fantastic. Good stuff. Okay, Tim, I think we got time for another one before the break. 

Tim Barton [00:10:44] All right. Well, this one is, is rather fascinating to me. It says Planned Parenthood may lose 1.6 billion in funding from just one state. And as you read the article, it's from California. And what it points out is that Planned Parenthhood affiliates of California, the PPAC, recently published a scathing press release attacking California Governor Gavin Newsom after he dared to propose using 1. 6 billion generated by Prop 35 for something other than financially propping up Planned Parenthood's poorly run abortion clinics. Now, Gavin Newsom, just to catch everybody up, suggested that they might take, because of all their budget issues, of all they've been dealing with, because they've given so much money to so many illegal aliens, because they been taking benefits that arguably the government shouldn't be giving in some instances, and then maybe arguably on others should be giving to American citizens, not to illegal immigrants, not to digress. They have had a budget shortfall. So Gavin Newsom has had to reevaluate. What are we gonna do? And he proposed maybe let's take 1.6 billion of this funding and not give it to Planned Parenthood. Well, in the news release from Planned Parenthood, they identified how much of their annual budget, 1. 6 billion would be, like how much this would impact them. So guys, here's your trivia question. In California, what percentage of Planned Parenthood's budget of California is 1.6 billion. So if he removes it, he's removed how much of their budget. What do you think? 1. 6 billion. 

Rick Green [00:12:23] I'm going to say $1.6 dollars?

Tim Barton [00:12:30] He says, I'm not gonna give you 1.6 billion. And they said, but you're taking X amount from our budgets. 

David Barton [00:12:38] It's probably gonna be somewhere in the vicinity of 15, 15% maybe. I would say that that would, what's that? That's seven, that would put the problem at a 10 to $12 billion budget. 

Tim Barton [00:12:52] Okay, so you're thinking they have a much bigger budget than I was thinking they did. No, they said this is one third of their budget. 

David Barton [00:12:59] So under just under five trillion or five billion is what their budget and by the way I'll point out that most of their budget is government funding. They get very little on their own It comes from states like California and federal government 

Tim Barton [00:13:17] Let's point out with this 1.6, that they have more than a $5 billion budget. $5,000,000  they are making. And they describe themselves in this press release, they said the work we do is irreplaceable because nobody else can do what we do, killing babies. But they also, the article says they dramatically lamented the possible removal of federal funding by Congress. So not only would Gavin Newsom cut some of their budget, the federal government saying we might cut your budget and they demanded that California make up the difference by refraining from, this is their quote, slashing critical funding and keeping on its course and investing in reproductive healthcare. Troy Newman, who's the president of Operation Rescue, of course had a much better response to this. He said, planned parenthood sense of entitlement is nauseating, not to mention the incredible hypocrisy. This is an organization that has been convicted of Medicaid fraud, has recently been accused of financial mismanagement by its own employees among multiple affiliates, is rife with malpractice lawsuits, and is even at this moment facing a possible strike from California employees over terrible work conditions. And yes, that is correct because Gavin Newsom just days before he, he was making these announcements, the unionized workers of Planned Parenthood the California Central Coast, they voted in overwhelming numbers for a strike, citing poor work conditions at Planned Parenthood, including the unacceptable turnover rate, the lack of pay for overtime, et cetera, et cetera. Guys, this is, this is astounding to me, the debacle that PlannedParenthood is, and, and of course, when you have the kind of morals that say it's okay to murder innocent unborn children, It's not surprising that you don't have good work conditions, that you don't treat people well, et cetera, that they're high turnover. Yeah, all that makes sense. But here's what's crazy. The fact that Gavin Newsom is considering cutting some of the budget for Planned Parenthood. This is almost alternate reality time that Gavin Newsom, crazy Gavin Newsome, as he's trying to navigate what's the best way for them to reduce some of their bloated government spending, he suggested maybe We shouldn't give Planned Parenthood so much money. And if you reduce them by one third of their budget, imagine how many clinics might close and how many babies might be saved. And that's why this is really good news. 

Rick Green [00:15:56] And, honestly, Tim, I think very, very similar in other states too. I mean, like there's the, I saw, I, saw that there was, where was I just recently? I saw a headline that said that the, and maybe it was Indiana had gone 99% of abortions had been prevented. So, I mean we're talking like not small gains here. We're talking, like total wipeout of Planned Parenthood and abortion. 

David Barton [00:16:23] Yeah, it was Indiana in the high 90% drop since they passed that law, yes. 

Rick Green [00:16:29] Man, let's just keep the pro-life wins coming, guys. Keep them coming. Okay, quick break. We'll be right back, folks. It's Good News Friday. Again, wallbuilders.show. That's the website to share today's program with your friends and family that may not be keeping their excitement and their energy up. We gotta keep in the fight. So share that good news. It's one of the things that inspires us to keep taking action. Stay with us. You're listening to The WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:17:57] Welcome back to The WallBuilders Show, good news Friday and tossing it back over to David this time. 

David Barton [00:18:02] I'm going back five weeks. I've had this in stack for five weeks wanted to get to it hadn't but I'm gonna get to It because it's still worth doing and it goes back to the NFL draft and then NFL draft There were some really cool kids in the top five Ashton Shottie from from Boise State University Boise state just got to give a shout out to their program I was just looking here at something that they came out in the draft as well because Boise stayed had two of their players that did real well in the draft and have now made pro teams. And so here here's a quote from one of them. It was Ashenjati and then Ahmed Hussain. And it says Boise State football player, Ahmed Hossain breaks down in tears and thanks Coach Spencer Danielson for leading him to Christ. Coach D, you changed my life. I didn't know God until I got to Boise state. Glory be to God. So that's not what you necessarily expect in an NFL draft kind of thing. But there's some really strong Christian kids. But the one that was a surprise was Deion Sanders coach at Colorado. You know, it was a star at Dallas and then hall of fame, et cetera. His son Shedeur is the, is the quarterback for Colorado. And it was bleed that he was going to be a top five draft pick. He went number 144 in the draft, way down. I mean, nobody, they said nobody has fallen that far in draft expectations in the history of the draft as far as what they're projected and where they come up. And to Shedeur's credit, he said, that doesn't affect me, he says, God's got me. And he just, I mean the lack, his composure and his lack of being changed by circumstances. I don't care how it turns out, God got this. That was such a wholesome thing to see from a young man. 

Tim Barton [00:19:52] Well, and data I would suggest that I think he was potentially changed by circumstances because one of the reasons that commentators were talking about him falling so low is when he had gone to do the interviews with the teams, he was suggesting how great he was gonna be and how they should change some of their program to surround him, to compliment him. And there were several owners that, okay, we don't need that kid in our locker room. And I think the change for him was maybe a lesson in humility. And ultimately, It brought him back to some of the roots, which Dion Sanders has been promoting. And we've talked about it, I think on, the show before he's been promoting faith and manners and masculinity in his program. And this is something certainly that his son, when he finally was drafted, he went back to the roots and that foundation, a part of what his dad has been saying for years, as far as what we have seen and been able to hear. But you're right that the fact that he was not dissuaded from the reality that God is in control, that God has them. It was incredibly positive. And dad, you're right, there were so many of those individuals that were drafted that came from some of these noted programs, whether it be an OSU and Notre Dame. I mean, you can go down the very long list and so many of those programs were identified by faith. We talked about that a lot over the last several months. Really, even last fall, we talked a lot about it, how it was so encouraging that even some of the stars were part of programs on campus where there was evangelism, there was baptisms. There were so many cool things happening and it's great to see that continued on through some of the draft communication. 

David Barton [00:21:26] Yeah, you remember even the Ohio State football players were leading revivals on campus and baptizing folks on campus I mean they were being the evangelists, which is absolutely great. So yeah, you're right Tim we've seen a lot of that but I had to mention that about the NFL So many of those kids were outstanding in that draft and and the way they represented Christ and brought their faith forward was really fun to see so that's five weeks ago, but it was just too good not to mention 

Rick Green [00:21:55] All right, Tim, take us home, man, this might be the last piece. We'll see

Tim Barton [00:21:58] Well we'll see that this one is really interesting and it could even be a semi Foundation of Freedom Thursday kind of conversation but ultimately I think it's good news. The article says Trump admin revokes Harvard's ability to enroll international students. Now there's a lot involved in this certainly the fact that there were foreign agitators that were part of the the student group at Harvard, that Harvard's leadership facilitated, engaged, and coordinated activity with the CCP. They hosted and trained members of the CCP parliamentary group, complicit in the Uyghur genocide. I mean the article highlights just so many things Harvard has done in collaboration with China and how very bad it has been. And what the article points out is that Secretary Kristi Noem, who is over the Department of Homeland Security, she has revoked certification of Harvard University's foreign student admissions program, meaning Harvard can't arbitrarily accept people from other nations to come be part of Harvard anymore, which is so fascinating for lots of reasons. And I'm sure there are people going, wait a second, it's a private institution. The federal government can't tell them who they can and can't bring into their university, except the federal government can determine who's allowed to get a student visa, who's a lot to get out a work visa and who's not. And if the government says, yeah, we're not doing any of these visas anymore because the people you keep choosing for your university are people that are aligning with the CCP. And by the way, even backing up to some of what we know about the CCP, they require students when they come to America to pledge loyalty to China. To vouch that they're going to try to gather intelligence on America to be able to get it to help further China and whatever political or military strategy they might have, whatever their ends might be. And so the fact now that the Trump administration is saying, okay, we're not going to play that game with China anymore. We recognize that China is not a friendly nation that ultimately the Chinese communist party is, is not something we want on campus, part of, of what Noam wrote in this release, she said the administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus. It's a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multi-billion dollar endowments. Harvard had plenty of opportunities to do the right thing. It refused. They have lost their student and exchange visitor program certification as a result of their failure to adhere to the law. So again, guys, this could be even part of a foundation of freedom Thursday question. But ultimately, I think it's really good news that you have a now political will and backbone to say that we're not gonna continue to support universities bringing in people that are coming in to undermine America, to undermine American ideals, and actually working to help their nation in their nation's efforts to overthrow America. Ultimately, I think this is a really, really good deal, what the Trump administration and what Kristian Noem has done. 

Rick Green [00:25:15] All right, David, we've got about 90 seconds. You got a fast one to close us out with?

David Barton [00:25:18]  Yeah, Texas is coming in their session. I don't know how this is going to finally end up when this thing is all over and done with, but the Texas House of Representatives has approved a measure that would erect a pro-life monument on the Capitol grounds. So on the capital grounds of Texas, we've got a lot of monuments including the Ten Commandments, but this is a monument based on the National Life Monument, and if you go to Catholic University in Washington DC, they have, I think it's a nine-foot high statue there of a mother with a child, an unborn child, and it's really tastefully done. I mean, it's really a cool monument. It's worth looking up the National Life Monument, but it shows the unborned child inside the mother, but he does it in such a cool way. It looks like almost kind of a painting where you're seeing through the mom to the child on the inside. And so it's just a really good acknowledgement of life and the fact that Texas House represents wants to put that life monument up on the Texas state grounds. That's really cool. 

Rick Green [00:26:20] Yeah, very cool. And, you know, that's, again, on the life issue, you can just feel the tide turnin', right? We just keep havin' these pieces of good news that aren't just little pieces of the good news, they're big pieces of news, and it's changing. The public opinion out there is changing, and we're seeing the changes in legislation to show that. Lots of great news, folks. Be sure to share it with your friends and family. Go to wallbuilders.show to get the link. Have a great weekend. Thanks for listening to The WallBuilder Show.