Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. It's a wall builder show. Thanks for joining us today. Rick green here with David and Tim Barton. And I want to cash in. I want a cash in on a $20 Chick-fil-A card that was promised by my cohost Tim Bartonn, if I could answer the question, I don't even remember what the question was guys, to be honest with you, so I'm not getting a Chick-Fil-A cart, don't know the answer. I don't know the question. 

Tim Barton [00:00:31] Rick, I was going to say that I did not agree to give you that Chick-fil-A card. You just kind of threw that out there, but since you don't know the question, I'm going to let you go ahead and guess at the answer. 

Rick Green [00:00:39] You're safe. You're completely safe and not having to. 

Tim Barton [00:00:43] That's it. 

Rick Green [00:00:44] Well, yesterday we were talking about your, your offer to kids. If they could name the founders, that's the $20. 

Tim Barton [00:00:50] That was it 

Rick Green [00:00:51] Yep, yep. 

Tim Barton [00:00:52] But we were talking about how much the Bible influenced the nation. So instead of talking about me on Friday, we had to do some founders trivia, question each other, challenge each other a little bit. Maybe not embarrass each other. But if it happens, right, we're just, my dad's going to shame both of us. 

Rick Green [00:01:08] We'll take too much glee in that. I know this group. Yeah, but. 

Tim Barton [00:01:12] We talked about that one of the other interesting connections is you could do a bible trivia connected to america in a similar way Because there are so many significant moments events, locations that if you said a verse there are very direct connections To some of those verses and some noted moments stories events people, etc. And so dad you said, okay Psalm 8 what scientific discovery came from psalm 8 and I said as a clue, Matthew Maury. And initially you were like, you just gave the answer away. And once we were off the air, I said, now dad, let's clarify, I told them who, who they should look to because he's the one that made the discovery. We didn't say what the discovery was. And we did get some, some calls, texts, and emails from people that were offering actually the correct answer, between Psalm 8 and Matthew Mari, we really connected some dots for them, but dad, so everybody knows. 

Rick Green [00:02:05] So you're saying I need, I needed to give out my email address yesterday so they could email me directly so that then I could claim to know on the show and cash in on a gift. I want a Bucky's gift card though, even better than Chick-fil-A. Do they do Bucky gift card? Oh yeah. I would do some homework after the program. Every time you throw it, I would actually put some effort in at that point. 

David Barton [00:02:25] Bucky's hasn't gone nationwide yet, Rick, so that may not be good for everybody, but. 

Rick Green [00:02:29] Man, I'm seeing them all over the place though. All right. So, so you gave the question or you gave the challenge on the verse. What, who emailed in? Uh, did we get somebody that actually sent in the right answer? 

Tim Barton [00:02:39] Well, we did, but I actually between the text and emails, I know emails, they are dated. However, they're forwarded from our staff. And so I didn't look to see which one came in first. And since we're not giving away a gift card, I can't officially say who is the winner of the gift card. Although, you know, at some point, we might do that kind of challenge. But dad, for everybody else listening, what is the connection between a scientific discovery and Psalm chapter eight? 

Rick Green [00:03:07] Wait, wait, I'm gonna take one more shot at this. I still want a gift card. So maybe like the listeners could send in the answers and I could vicariously, like they could enjoy the benefit of the gift card vicariously by me getting the giftcard and you guys giving it to me. And then I will talk about how good the Chick-fil-A was or the Bucky's or whatever. How about that? Like that would be fun. 

Tim Barton [00:03:29] Yeah, you post the picture on social media of you enjoying that Bucky's whatever you you know, you tag the person in there who actually got it Right. Yes, and you're like, hey, this is all because of you. Thank you for your contribution 

Rick Green [00:03:40] That's good. I like it. I like it new segment on wall builders coming up. Yes. 

David Barton [00:03:45] That response just took you out of the gen X and the gen Y. You're now the me generation. It's all about me. You guys get responsible to get me a gift card. You just switched generations on yourself, bro. 

Rick Green [00:03:58] That's right. I went back to the, to the Cassidy, the, was it David or Sean? I can't remember, you know, enough about me. What do you think about me? That's what I was trying to do there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Back to Psalms, back to Tim's hint about Matthew Mari, and then, uh, the the correct answer to, to, uh the scientific discovery that came as a result of that song. 

David Barton [00:04:19] Yeah, Matthew Maury became the director of the Naval Academies, or the Naval Observatory, something started by John Quincy Adams, and it was supposed to be a national observatory. And so Matthew Maury is directing that. He became sick one day. As he was sick in bed, he had his family read the Bible to him. They read out of Psalm 8, and in Psalm 8 it talked about the pathways of the sea. And so with the pathways to the sea, he said, pathways of sea? There's no pathways in the sea. And that got him investigating. And so he went through all the records at the Naval Academy, about 56,000 ship's logs he went though. And ships generally at that time would take about three readings a day. Here's where we are, latitude, longitude. We've made 14 miles since this morning or whatever. And so, he tracked out the logs for thousands of those ship's log, several entries a day, months of voyage. It takes six months to go from Boston to San Francisco because you had to go all the way down south of all of South America, et cetera. And so what he found was that there are areas in the ocean that if you would get in those areas, you make much faster speeds. And so after he plotted it out, he found the currents or the pathways in the sea. And if you could keep your ship in those pathways, you could make the trip from Boston to San Francisco in three months rather than six months. It literally doubled the speed of time to be in those currents. And so it was Matthew 8. It was his family reading it to him and the Holy Spirit just kind of hit him and said, Hey, look here, pathways in the sea. And so he's called the father of oceanography because what he did there revolutionized sea travel, it revolutionized the commercial industry. And it goes back to a specific Bible verse that he had. 

Rick Green [00:05:58] I remember David, the first time I heard you tell that story was at the Bible Do you remember that you spoke at the? They had this big Bible B thing in Texas and, and they do it every year and they move it around, but they had it here and you were the keynote speaker and I remember sitting at the back of the room and you're telling that story and my jaws on the ground. I like it as often when you were Tim speaking and you come up with these stories that I had never heard, never been taught. And just an amazing, amazing discovery. I remember walking out to your car going, I need that presentation, and you gave it to me on thumb drive. I was like, I got to start. But that is an amazing story, and that's what happens when we have scientists and others that have a biblical worldview. We get to discover this, all these amazing treasures within God's Word. 

Tim Barton [00:06:40] Well, Rick, in the midst of having a biblical worldview in science, one of the things I'm excited to have Braeden Sorbo on later to have a conversation about a book that he has written about biblical masculinity, because in the mints of having biblical worldview, there's so many things we can look at our culture today and see that we have shifted and then maybe transitioned from biblical perspective in a lot of areas, not the least of which has been the attack on masculinity. Although, some of the good news, in the midst of what we've talked about. Now for months if not years on the program, recognizing we might be in the midst of a cultural shift of a great awakening kind of shift in momentum, there is a lot of resurgence of some of these things that were taken away, including the biblical perspective of man and manhood and masculinity, which of course what Braden once talked about, but it's great to see this being redeemed to some extent in our culture. 

David Barton [00:07:32] Yeah, and it really does go with the biblical revival. We've been kind of looking at how that with Gen Y and Gen Z men, particularly, there's been a real growth of return to Bible reading. At the same time, there has been a renewed emphasis on masculinity. And I think that is such a big one. I'm going to go back to really 25 years ago in the early 2000s, there was something that started and at that time, and it now means something different than it meant in the early 2000, but it was called Metro Men and Metro Men. I mean here's a description right off the website from back in that time and it talks about being a good looking impeccably groomed man who's not ashamed to admit that he gets facials and pedicures and loves to wear his wife's underwear. They talked about how that there were so many papers written at that point in time and these are now seen as urban dwelling men, well educated, really sophisticated and that was a metro man and nothing physical about that. It was, you know, kind of, get in touch with your feminine side is what that was called. And so when you look at where we are now, that's very different. I'll just go back to a few scriptures as we talk about Braeden on this. But just reminders, first Corinthians 16 verses 13, 14, it says, act like men. Be strong. First Kings two, it says, be strong, show yourself to be a man. And then in the next chapter, talking to his son Solomon says, Solomon, be stronger in body, be strongest spirit. If you look back to the American Revolution, we used to have sermons on what it meant to be a man because every male was a member of the military and he learned military hardship, which goes, what we're told in 1 Timothy 2, it says to endure hardships as a soldier. And that's Paul talking to young Timothy, says you need to really learn hardships. You need to learn to endure physical toughness. 1 Corinthians 9, 27, Paul says, I buffet my body, I discipline my body. I make my body my slave. And then if somebody wants to have fun, go back and get on YouTube or any other social media stuff back or historical social media, stuff, and look at what public school exercises were at the time of JFK when he was emphasizing fitness. I really think I can safely say that a lot of the exercises and a lot of what public school kids were doing is more than what a lot of the military does today. And I say that because having family members that are drill sergeants, etc. I mean, just public school. So we were a lot tougher physically then. And I think that's coming back. And that is a biblical thing, especially for men to be men, for women to be women. Don't get the genders confused. And that started back in the 2000s, what they call that metro men. And now they call it metrosexuality. But nonetheless, this is going to be a fun program from a young man who is part of that reemerging generation that is starting to get this right and starting to go back to the Bible and starting to rediscover that masculinity. 

Rick Green [00:10:20] Braeden Sorbo, our special guest when we come back from the break and we're going to be talking about masculinity. Stay with us. You're listening to The WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:11:33] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us. Braeden Sorbo with us, new book out, Embrace Masculinity, lifting men up in a world that pushes them down. Braydon, good to have y'all, man. 

Braeden Sorbo [00:11:43] Hey, thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. 

Rick Green [00:11:45] Well, we appreciate it very much. And the message is so incredibly timely. Of course I work with a lot of young men from around the country and through Patriot Academy and, and I see the need that is out there. And I'm so thankful for guys like Victor Marx and John Lovell and Braeton Sorbo. So talk to us about the book. 

Braeden Sorbo [00:12:02] Oh man, Victor Marx is such a great friend. You bring him up. He endorsed it, actually. So it's a perfect segue, too. So the book is a guide. It is a handbook for men in America today. And in a different sense, it is a tool for women as a checklist, useful for discernment, for finding yourself the right people to surround by. You know, we... In the world, you become your closest circle of friends. And so the book aims to give people a foundation to build off of, in which they can find like-minded individuals to grow with, not detract from. And so, the book itself is a tool for everybody, but primarily young men, in living in a world that tells them that they are inherently expendable, useless, and valueless, and instead offers the alternative that every individual has an intrinsic value, and that men when they actualize that value can grow, can surpass what they thought were their limits, and can become leaders in their communities, in their culture, and in their country. 

Rick Green [00:13:05] Such a wealth of wisdom in what you already said, man. You're only, what are you 25 now? I can't remember. 

Braeden Sorbo [00:13:09] 23,. 

Rick Green [00:13:11] 23 years old, and you're, you're just spewing wisdom right now. I think that's a gift from God and, and so needed for your generation. Anyway, man, I gotta, I got to get you down here to Patriot Academy, hanging out with some of our guys. Y'all would hit it off big time. Um, what, what do you, I mean, here you are, you've been raised by Hercules. You got a mom that's even tougher than Hercules and amazing. What do you say to those young men out there that didn't have the role models you had, like what's the best way for them to find godly masculinity that they can look up to and learn from. 

Braeden Sorbo [00:13:41] Oh, man, I love this because there are plenty of those situations that I write about in the book. I talk about the fatherlessness epidemic and how when fathers are out of the household, children are prone to become drug addicts. They're more likely to commit crimes. They're most likely to have depression, anxiety, OCD, some sort of mental disorder. They're likely to end up in jail. They are more likely commit suicide or murder. Like the statistics are astronomically higher, the chances of these terrible things happening when the fathers are not present. And so, yeah, what do we do when your dad isn't willing to step up to the plate, when he's not there and he's NOT capable and he is NOT able. And even in some senses, what do you do when your dad is physically present, but spiritually and mentally absent? Like he's there, but he's just watching TV on the couch. He's not engaged. You're not growing. You're learning. And what I love to tell people is one, they have a father in heaven who still loves them, who is present, but two, you can find role models in society. And what love to say is look back throughout the history of the church. This is why I love the idea of people having patron saints, someone who went through similar struggles to you, someone, who lived a life. Dedicated to the Lord. Someone who has everything documented that you can look to for inspiration. You can look at that person and see God working through them and go, well, if He worked through them, He can work through me the same and even more so. And so I love people because the thing is, you know, you talk to people and even if they aren't necessarily religious, they go, well, God, you know what about Him? We can't see Him. We can feel Him. We can touch Him. So it's like, okay, what about it? But you have these saints. On earth who were fully human, and yet look at all of the amazing things they did, whether that be contributions to science, contributions to the church and Christianity, or contributions to just their community and a couple people around them. It made enough of an impact that they were recognized for it and we can look at them and go well, man, that's that's the bar, right? That's that the bar for us Paul says imitate me as I imitate Christ, he doesn't say just imitate Christ, which obviously is the benchmark for success, but no one's going to be Christ no one's gonna be perfect and even Paul recognized that he said try to imitate me as best as you can and you will get closer to Christ, and so for people who are struggling with well, I don't have a dad I don't have you know a good role model in my life look through the history of the church, there were people who were willing to die for the truth who set a good example so even though you might not have one in your real life close to you currently, you have thousands of years of it, two thousand years to look through. 

Rick Green [00:16:10] That is so good, Braeden. I had never thought about that, Paul saying that, and how much more encouragement that gives to, because obviously we're flawed human beings, and even the people that we model are gonna be flawed human being, and I love the transparency of so many of these people, like a Victor, that just say, hey, here's my flaws, but here's how I got over it, and here's what Christ did through me. That should give so much hope to people that are listening right now, because I think too, and maybe you address this in the book as well, the tearing down of our heroes. The deconstruction of, you know, basically make it where all the American founders were evil, awful men, no matter, you, know, and it's all the bad and the ugly. Nobody talks about the good anymore. So we tear down those heroes, even our comic book heroes. I mean, all of it. How do you, you just said helps to get over that and to recognize that even here on Earth, we do have good people that we can model and follow. But I think there's been a concentrated effort to just tear it all down and that way, you don't have a Godly man to look up to. And it even allows for the gender fluidity and all of those things. So that's been a concentrated effort of Marxism that's worked well. You mentioned surrounding yourself and the people that you're around. What about that? What can people do in their own communities? What should they look for in the qualities? And I want to talk specifically to the guys, and then we'll talk to the gals, but specifically the guys. What do they look in the quality of the friends that they look that would also be searching for this kind of godly masculinity? 

Braeden Sorbo [00:17:36] Yeah, man, that's such a great question. I want to touch on what you said just a minute ago with Marxism and also tying communism, because obviously there are different facets to all of these ideologies that we have in the world today. And we have to realize that as much as Marxism has played a role in the destruction of our Western world, communism, this collective idealism, where nobody is special is like a crabs in a bucket mentality, is sort of what led us here, which brings us to tearing down the historical figures, making even superheroes become worthless and obsolete. And so, it is really interesting to watch this decay, but when it comes to fighting it for young men who are looking for something, looking for community, the best thing that can do is get physical. Because, here's the thing, and this is a controversial take that people are slowly waking up to. When you are not physically demanding, when your physical prowess is low, you become agreeable subconsciously, because you are afraid to speak your mind... For the fear of confrontation. So if you are not physically able to defend yourself, you are more likely to become agreeable, which is why the left attacks masculinity and strength. Which is why they write articles saying that if you work out, you're a white supremacist or a right wing Nazi or everything under the sun. Because if you can think for yourself, you will realize that collectivism is a terrible mentality and it leads to destruction. But if, this is why so many young women have been engulfed by this leftist idea of abortion, and that women's rights are under attack, and that trans men can be, or trans women are actually women, and they should belong in women's sports instead of men's sports, because these women physically can't stand up to the 6 foot 4, 230 pound swimmer, who just beat them at the freestyle. That doesn't happen, because they know that these people, subconsciously, they know they're crazy and will attack them if provoked. We've seen it time and time again. And so in an effort of self-preservation, you become complacent and agreeable. So young men need to start working out. You don't have to deadlift a thousand pounds. But get active. Take up boxing, take up running even, something like that, go for walks. Get your body moving because your physical health has a direct impact on your mental and spiritual clarity. And then next. 

Rick Green [00:19:54] That is go away. Before you do next, I got to just confirm what you just said. The exclamation point on it, because I watched that in my own boys when they started doing jujitsu, I've watched it with thousands of young men that have come through our program and done, and not just young men, older men too, that have done our handgun defense course, just being able to defend themselves, to watch the intellectual growth that they had as a result of that. You just explained it. I've never been able to explain it. You just explain what's happening. They're more willing to stand up intellectually. Just because of the physical ability to defend themselves. And I know they're not making that connection. I don't think I ever made that connection, so good. Go ahead, you had a second one. 

Braeden Sorbo [00:20:30] Yeah, well the next one is finding people who have that same mentality as well as Christian mentality because here's the thing, right? We can look at the figures of today's world like the Andrew Tate and say well what they're doing is wrong, but the world has made morality subjective. And so by what standard are we holding these men to? So we need to find Christian men in society and uplift them, make them the standard. Because when we live in a subjective world, nothing is inherently good or bad. And so there are plenty of leftists who would say that what Andrew Tate is doing is terrible, but they also believe in abortion. There is no objective morality that they hold themselves to. So in a non-christian world what he is doing is perfectly acceptable and that is an unchecked tenet of masculinity because God tells Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden be fruitful multiply and exert dominion over the world and so dominion unchecked without the system of Christianity to keep it balanced becomes oppression, right? That's what we see with the story of Gideon and the 300 men. He goes off and he listens to God at first and then he does his own thing, and he takes over an entire village because they refuse to feed his troops, so he slaughters them all. And then he goes and he has 70 sons. That technically is masculinity. Go conquer, be the strongest, have a bunch of kids because your offspring is your legacy. What is the moral of the story of Gideon though? He doesn't end up with 70 sons, Abimelech kills 68 of them and the last one runs away. So this unchecked non-Christian masculinity turns into 68 funerals and a murderous son. And so young men need to adhere to a moral standard which is objective truth, which is Christianity. And so finding other young men who have that same standard to keep you in check is absolutely crucial. Proverbs 6-7 says... As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. And so we have to be strong physically, be strong spiritually, and lastly be strong mentally. 

Rick Green [00:22:20] Ah, so good man. All right, Bradensorbo.com is where folks can go to learn all about your podcast, your all the other things. What about booking you to speak? Cause I know you're doing a lot more traveling now and speaking. 

Braeden Sorbo [00:22:31] They can go to BraedenSorbo.com, I have a form there, or Sorbo Studios and reach out to the connection page there. 

Rick Green [00:22:37] Excellent. And, and the book itself, you want them to go into your website, Amazon, where you send them folks. 

Braeden Sorbo [00:22:42] Go to storebostudios.com and if they use my last name, Storebo, I'll give them 20% off. 

Rick Green [00:22:47] There you go. What a deal. Braden, God bless you, man. So proud of you. Love what you're doing. We need more like you. I got to get you out to Patriot Academy, bro, but God bless. Let's talk soon. 

Braeden Sorbo [00:22:55] I would love to. Thank you. 

Rick Green [00:22:57] Stay with us folks. We'll be right back with David and Tim Barton

Rick Green [00:24:06] Welcome back to The WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us. Thanks to Braeden Sobro for joining us as well. And back to what you were saying, David, you know, when you think about these guys like Matthew Murray. I mean, he was obviously a man's man back then, and on the high seas and doing all those things, but also intellectually curious and in God's Word. That's a godly manly man. 

Tim Barton [00:24:25] Well guys, one of the things that I think is so significant jumped out to me, Rick, you mentioned it at one point when he was talking about men need to be physically capable to be able to stand up and say no at times to people. And if you're not able, if you don't have a physical ability, whether it's because you exercise or you lift weights or you're a boxer, right? Whatever it is, you don't have the same level of confidence and then it's easy for you to be abused and your rights to be trampled, et cetera, in some of that capacity. And you mentioned how When your boy started jiu-jitsu and when you have people come down the constitutional offense and they train with handguns is actually one of the reasons founding fathers encouraged their sons to train with handgun and start even winter and not just handgun with guns because it was muskets and pistols but start even with when early with these young kids doing it because there is a very real thought accurate thought I Say that! When men are capable, when they are physically capable, when they're mentally prepared, when they have some physical prowess, and again, whether that be that you are training with a firearm or you do jujitsu, or you exercise, you lift weights, you're far more willing and ready to say no when evil presents itself. And I say that with the personal experience of I know the confidence I have when I had not trained with a fire arm and then I've done a lot of training with a firearms. I know that confidence I had. Or the lack of in some cases, before I started jiu-jitsu and how much more confident I am now having done jiu jitsu for nearly five years, it does make a difference and you're not as afraid of confrontation in the times. What we need in our culture are for men who have a biblical worldview, a biblical understanding to stand up and say no to evil. This is what has been lacking to some extent in our cultural, but this is where there is a resurgence and I thought Brayden did such a good job of explaining that. 

Rick Green [00:26:16] It's so good seeing it come from that generation too, right? Not just the older generations, but from his generation. Very good stuff. Folks, thanks for joining us today. We appreciate you listening to The Wall Builders Show. Encourage you to go to our website today, wallbuilders.com for all of our general information for events we have coming up this summer and into the fall. And that's the place to donate, make that one-time or monthly contribution at wallbuilder.com. And then visit wallbuilds.show to catch up on some of the radio programming you might've missed or to share the program with your friends or family. Thanks again for listening to the WallBuilders Show.