Rick Green [00:00:07] Thanks for joining us today on the WallBuilders Show where we take on the hot topics of the day from a biblical historical and constitutional perspective. It's Good News Friday. So, I am going to keep this intro super short because I want these guys to be able to share as much good news as possible. And Tim Barton, being younger and nimbler than David Barton or Rick Green, either one has made it very clear that he's going to tackle me and put me in some sort of jujitsu hold if I don't go to him first today, which is not our norm. We usually go to David first, but I don't like being choked out by Tim. So, Tim. What's our, what's our first piece? Uncle, or whatever, I cry uncle, but without you even having to choke me out. 

Tim Barton [00:00:42] Well, I told you before we start, I said, hey, I can't wait anymore. This is like the kid waiting for the Christmas present, and they just, I can't, wait, I got to do it, guys. Earlier this week, the announcement from Pete Hegseth about making Chaplains great again, absolutely incredible! I think we have that clip. I want to play this clip for you guys. I think obviously you've seen it, but for everybody to listen to, listen to this clip, and then I want to come back and make a few points after it. 

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth [00:01:13] I'm here to tell you about a real problem facing our nation's military. It's one you're probably not aware of, but it's a really important one, and it's been going on for far too long, the weakening of our Chaplain Corps. You see, chaplains are intended to be the spiritual and moral backbone of our nation forces. George Washington established the Chaplain Corp in 1775, one of his first actions as general of the Continental Army. Congress authorized chaplains for the Navy that very same year. In Washington's general orders, he explained their importance, quote, "the blessing and protection of heaven are at all times necessary, but especially so in times of public distress and danger." For about 200 years, the Chaplain Corps continued its role as the spiritual leader of our service members, serving our men and women in times of hardship and ministering to their souls. But sadly, as part of the ongoing war on warriors, In recent decades, its role has been degraded. In an atmosphere of political correctness and secular humanism, chaplains have been minimized, viewed by many as therapists instead of ministers. Faith and virtue were traded for self-help and self-care. If you need proof, just look at the current army, Spiritual Fitness Guide. In well over 100 pages, it mentions God one time. That's it! It mentions feelings eleven times. It even mentions playfulness, whatever that is, nine times. There's zero mention of virtue. The guide relies on New Age notions, saying that the soldier's spirit consists of consciousness, creativity, and connection. The guide itself reports that around 82% of the military are religious, yet ironically it alienates our warfighters of faith by pushing. Secular humanism. In short, it's unacceptable and unserious, so we're tossing it. I have a directive right here that I will sign today to eliminate the use of the Army Spiritual Fitness Guide effective immediately. These types of training materials have no place in the War Department. Our chaplains are chaplains, not emotional support officers, and we're going to treat them as such. That's why today at my direction we are also simplifying the Faith and Belief Coding System. In recent years, it ballooned to over 200 overly complex faith and belief codes. An overwhelming majority of the military population only uses six codes. Eleven are not used by anyone. So we're going to streamline it and move it to a new list of religious affiliation codes. So that our chaplains can actually use it to minister better to the flock. More reforms will be coming in the days and weeks ahead. There will be a top-down cultural shift, putting spiritual wellbeing on the same footing as mental and physical health, as a first step toward creating a supportive environment for our warriors and their soul. We're gonna restore the esteemed position of chaplain as moral anchors for our fighting force. The 1956 Army Chaplain's manual states, quote, the Chaplain is the pastor and the shepherd of the souls entrusted to his care, end quote. This is a high and sacred calling, but this only works if our shepherds are actually given the freedom to boldly guide and care for their flock. Stay tuned for more. We are going to make the Chaplin Corps great again. And Merry Christmas. 

Tim Barton [00:05:06] Obviously incredible that he's acknowledging that we're going to allow these chaplains to be pastors, to be shepherds, to get back to what they did, but it is worth kind of asking the question, raising attention to the fact that there's a lot of stuff happening right now in the military and really in the last couple of weeks. And I think it's interesting because I think It was just a week ago, Dad, that you... Were with the Religious Liberty Commission, with one of the Trump commissions, focusing on preserving and restoring religious liberty. But I think this was the one over in Dallas and you were there testifying on some of the religious foundation in the military. Dan Patrick, who's lieutenant governor of Texas. He is the chair of that commission. And obviously you talked to all y'all were there. And you were able to explain some details and of course there were a lot of artifacts that were there. So, he was seeing things firsthand and when you see firsthand these original source documents, what used to happen, in fact, part of what Pete Hegseth read from George Washington, some of the general orders, when you begin to see what the military used to do, what we used to promote and where we are now, it's absolutely crazy. But we know Dan Patrick called President Trump. We know President Trump called Pete Hegseth and we can't say exactly that this was all maybe because of your testimony, but we can certainly say it's quite interesting. There's a sequence that flows from some of this, and whether it's your testimony or not. Guys, this is incredible the good news that is going on, that we could see a reversal in the military that allowed chaplains to actually be chaplain, to be the pastors and shepherds again, to speak biblical truth when we know back to even under President Obama, there was a lot of things they were told they couldn't say. That they couldn't call out certain sins. They couldn't read certain Bible passages out loud It might offend somebody and now to have the US War Department saying now we're bringing these back guys This is this is incredible good news! 

David Barton [00:07:09] I tell you; it is such a turnaround. Back in the 90s, I would speak often down at the Air Force Academy. And the Air force Academy, really cool being there and doing so many speakings there. But it was the chaplains who were largely in charge of the curriculum at the air force Academy. 

Tim Barton [00:07:28] And Dad, can I point out when you spoke there, you weren't giving Bible lectures. You were telling military stories. And when you learn, for example, like George Washington, the battle of Monongahela that he had bullet holes in his jacket and he tells his mom, I only lived because of God's divine providence, you were telling actual military related stories and the stories just so happened to have a lot of faith components in them. And I'm saying this to clarify because I know where you're about to go. And the idea that people are super, super offended, learning some of the true history of some of these military heroes becomes ironic. But you weren't there to give Bible lectures. You were there just telling history stories. 

David Barton [00:08:10] That's exactly right. And I did that a number of times, the air force Academy. And it was very cool to see that the chaplains were the ones who laid out much of the instruction, much, much of the foundation for the, the cadets there. And much of what they got over the four years was guided by the chaplains. And then as time went on, and particularly as you moved into the Obama administration, things reversed. 

Rick Green [00:08:32] Hey, David, real quick, before you go to where it got bad, I want to point out back then as well, even like when I first came on board with you, one of the first events that really stuck in my mind was you hosted a chaplain briefing at the Capitol, and you know, WallBuilders done these pastor's briefings at the capitol for a while, but you had over a hundred chaplains there from all the branches and you were doing the tour for them. And I mean, it struck me so strongly back then. The sense of purpose and pride that those chaplains had in their role in making our military strong. And when you gave them the evidence of the history of that and I just remember that being something really, really special. And I was completely unaware. I didn't come from a military family, didn't serve in the military. And so I wasn't aware of how important that was. And anyway, I just wanted to point that out because that was probably, man, I'm gonna guess that was probably 20 years ago and it was. It was, it was honored and respected and the branches respected that. And so it was before Obama and all these terrible changes came to the military. But anyway, just throwing that in there of where we came from before you get to where what ended up happening and now where we're getting back to. 

David Barton [00:09:41] Yeah, it was a very, it's very clear that the, what George Washington wanted as morality and religion as a base of that force, the moral goodness, what, what the military used to call the moral goodness of the force. You know, they, they were a lethal force, but they wanted to have moral goodness, moral right on their side and they were very conscious of that and therefore they taught just war theory, if you, if you want God's help in a war, you better do exactly what God says. And the way of conducting war. And so, there were things, lines you could not cross. And that went back to stuff that was taught all the way back in the third century A.D. And then by St. Augustine and then up in like the 1300s with St. Thomas Aquinas. And this is the kind of stuff that everybody in the military got, because if you have to take a life, that's a hard thing to do. But if you know that you're not murdering to do so, you're doing something in a justified war. And what does the Bible call it justified war? That was so important for those guys going into combat back then. And so that that's where this was. And then it started changing, particularly on Obama got really hostile. Obama, I remember speaking at Langley Air Force Base outside of D.C. And the chaplains there said, hey, we've just been notified that we're not going to have chaplains in the military anymore. Obama is outsourcing chaplains. We will be contractors and will no longer go down range with the troops. And when they come back home to Virginia, we'll have services for them. And so, I mean, Obama was just purging so much of the structure out. And so, Trump kind of stopped that. He didn't really reverse it in his first term. Didn't know much about it. He didn't think much about. It wasn't a big deal at that time. And then Biden came in and he kind of picked up with where Obama had left off and he started getting hostile again. So, at this point, the role of chaplains who have been in the last 10 to 15 years, they don't have a clue what chaplain did in the military even 25 years ago. And so, it's a whole new day. And so, for Pete Hegseth, and that's part of what we talked about, literally in the hearings was, here's where it used to be. And I told them in the hearing is, okay, I can tell you the things that are going wrong, but it's whole lot easier for you to recognize what's going wrong if you know the way it used be. And so that's why I backed up and I read George Washington's original first order, his first order and his first general order. And I read all the way through and. I read Abraham Lincoln's military orders where he re-quoted George Washington's first order and all about religion and morality. And so, by the time you get through looking at what it had been for really 200 years and you run up against Obama, you're going, oh my goodness, we've given up so much. And so, for Pete Hegseth to have to take and roll this back is an awesome thing. But Tim, you and I were even talking to a chaplain today and the chaplains that have been the last 10 to 15 years don't know what it was like even 20 years ago, 25 years ago. And they're gonna have to relearn it and get some courage and boldness that they haven't had to have as chaplains before. So, this is gonna be a whole new era, a whole day, but what a cool day to be able to roll back to. This is kind of like a birthday gift for the 250th is what it amounts to. It's kind of, like, let's go back to the 250, the way we started, and let's do this thing again with chaplain's having a significant role. Very cool. 

Rick Green [00:12:54] All right, excellent, I was just trying to figure out. Let's see, Tim started with this one, but very good piece of good news and very thankful for Pete Hegseth in so many different ways, man. It's great to get the right people in the right positions, for sure. So, David, what about you? First piece of news before we go to break. 

David Barton [00:13:09] Well, this piece of good news, I think it's pretty cool. The national murder rate is the lowest in modern history. Since they've been keeping these kinds of statistics, the murder rate has now reached the lowest that we have had in well over 50 years, which is pretty amazing. It's just, it's awesome to see the turnarounds that's happening. And they've dismantled so many organizations that have been at the base of so much bad stuff in the FBI. It's good to have good news. That crime is going down; especially violent crime is going down. 

Tim Barton [00:13:41] Is this a report from 2025 and I'm asking because that's something that is reflective over the last several years or is this something that the Trump administration maybe that there's a correlation causation right with the two million that have self-deported 500,000 that they have deported some of these very violent criminal offenders, obviously with even having at times National Guard coming in Washington DC, various places where there used to be shootings every night and now there's not. Is this something 2025 connected with President Trump or is this a larger trend backing up before President Trump? 

David Barton [00:14:17] Yeah. This backs up before president Trump has been falling. It's been falling for a little bit, but it's taken a real, dive in, in the last year or two, and especially as they went through some of the other stats, I'll throw out some more things here. These are kind of interesting stats, but, in addition to the dropping violent crime rate, there's a 40% increase in espionage arrests. So we're that that's a big jump and, uh and arresting spies there in the country. It's not that we didn't have spies before, it's that we weren't arresting them, but now we are, so we're tracking them down, which that's a really big deal. 

Tim Barton [00:14:54] Although I would say over the last four years, we probably got a lot more spies in the country under the Biden administration than we had before the Biden Administration. When you have an open border, and estimates of up to 20 million people that came across a Southern border and we don't know who they are or where they went. Unquestionably, if there were nations that meant us harm, they could have gotten as many agents as they wanted across that Southern border. And so, all that to say, I think there's probably way more now than before the Biden administration. But the fact that President Trump is saying, yeah, we're not going to let you guys stay here knowing who you are and that you're going to do bad things, that's good news. 

David Barton [00:15:32] And they're also announcing that they there's been this big increase of finding recovered children, children that had disappeared in the system. And I, you know, it's a, it' a large number, whatever it is now. 

Rick Green [00:15:44] Yeah, I think David, I saw Homan on several interviews saying like over 60, I think it was 62, 62,000 significant number and not all of those were obviously in sex trafficking or, you know, horrible situation, but he said that they definitely found a lot that, that were so, you know, just a horrific evil that was perpetrated on these, on these kids, on, on women. I mean, all of that with the open border. So, a lot of that is getting reversed thanks to the, to the Trump administration. 

David Barton [00:16:08] Yeah. And they've gone after a lot of criminal organizations that are harming children. One is in Texas is based in Texas called Seven Sixty-Four. And that's the area code down in that area, but it's a, it's a notorious international group, but they've had a 490% increase in arrest targeting even just that organization. So, I mean, these things are going through the roof. They're, they're bearing down on this. And here's what really struck me as interesting. I don't guess I've ever thought about this before.  But The FBI, they enforce federal law all over the nation. So, they've got offices in just every state, every city you can think of, they got offices. Do you know how many FBI agents there are in the United States? Any clue? 

Tim Barton [00:16:53] Five-thousand. 

David Barton [00:16:54] Go higher. 

Rick Green [00:16:55] No idea. 

Tim Barton [00:16:57] 5,000! Ha ha ha ha! 

Speaker 5 [00:17:00] Well done that was good no that was good no it's 37,000. 

Rick Green [00:17:08] Not a sound I expected from Tim Barton, not at all. Nope, mm-mm. 

David Barton [00:17:15] So they've got 37,000 agents with all these hundreds of offices across the U S and it turned out that nearly one third of all the agents, some 12,000 agents were in Washington, DC. And so, Kash Patel looked at that and said, what? So, he started throwing them out of DC and sending them out all across the nation. So, you've had this infusion of FBI agents all across the nation, more and more agents are going out. And so, crime is coming down. So, there's just a lot of good things to say about that. It's all logical, it all makes sense. I think we probably all thought they were already doing that. And as it turns out, they just weren't doing much enforcement work at all. But again, the lowest crime rate, violent crime rate in 50 years, I think that's really good news. 

Rick Green [00:18:03] You know what guys, well, I'm sure we'll get an opportunity to cover this more in the coming weeks, but because we've, we've sort of seen Dan Bongino as a, a little bit of a canary in the coal mine kind of thing. I think a lot of people see it that way.  And since he announced yesterday that, that he's going to be stepping down in January, I just want to get y'all's quick thoughts on that. I totally, it's kind of like the Elon Musk thing. If you're coming from, from the outside and going in, you probably do get frustrated with the bureaucracy part of it. I'm, sure we will hear more from him as to why, but he did step away from. Clearly an amazing job and incredible influence in the media so that's what everybody's speculating but I thought we'd be remiss not to go into the weekend with your thoughts on this. 

Tim Barton [00:18:41] Yeah, I think it's something that is a little bit of a not surprising move. You know, when he was going in the first place, as you mentioned, Elon Musk is a great example, uh, somebody that you were really excited to have there because you knew this was somebody that was going to take the job seriously, that was gonna try to do the most good they could. And largely you didn't feel like they're going to be corrupted by the system. And I think... Part, and, and as you mentioned, we're going to probably hear more from him. I obviously there's going to be some, uh, non-disclosure stuff that he's going have to navigate, what he can and can't tell. But I think ultimately what, what I would expect, and Dad, you might have a different idea and Rick, you too, I would expect a little bit, maybe what you alluded to Rick is that there's probably some frustration with the bureaucracy where, and Trump had to learn this a lot, his first term, he's doing better now. But, unfortunately, at times you are very limited with what you can do and how you can do it. For so many Americans on the outside, I think it's the reason also that young people have felt so frustrated with government and politics in general, feel disconnected from it. And I think a lot of young people now are feeling like the game is rigged and it doesn't matter if you're Republican or Democrat, you all kind of do the same thing. And it's because they're seeing the effects of the swamp, that there are swamp creatures that live there. And they don't necessarily have the R&D label in front of them. I think that's part of what Dan Bongino ran into. Again, we'll probably hear more of this, but I do think that they have started to do things that are having the opportunities to change the trajectory of some of what is going on. A little bit like what Pete Hegseth is doing in the military. There are things that that Dan Bongino was able to be a part of that absolutely should be celebrated. I don't think we should be discouraged that he is leaving at this point, but I will be very curious to hear more from him in the coming months. 

Rick Green [00:20:44] Yeah. And I think people need to understand that, you know, you guys like that have to constantly decide where can I have the most impact. Look, all three of us could have gone to DC and served in administrations, possibly even run some of these departments like park service and that kind of stuff. But everybody's got to kind of decide where's God want me at this season. And so, I'm like you, Tim, I'm not discouraged by it. I don't, you, I loved having him there, but he is a hard charger and I bet he did meet a lot of obstacles and But no one person is, you know, the fate of the administration or the country doesn't follow one person. But yeah, I think it's important for people to recognize that and we'll learn a lot more about that. David, anything on that before we go to break? 

David Barton [00:21:22] Yeah, Rick, you know, interestingly, we got some friends, very close friends serving in Washington, D.C. right now in very high positions, and they're making a difference. There's no question about it. They're making very tangible difference that at some point will be revealed what they've been doing, but they've made it really clear that they only wanna be there for a year or so. I mean, they were in the private sector. They were doing great things in the public sector. They were willing to go in for public service to help the nation. And they're there, but they don't intend to stay there. And it could be that's part of what Bongino's dealing with as well, is he was doing so much in the private sector, but he gave that time, and it's been appreciated, and it could be a lot of folks in DC with that kind of mentality. They don't want to become swamp creatures. This is not a permanent place for them. They want to make a difference and move on. 

Rick Green [00:22:13] Okay, quick break guys. We'll be right back. We got some more good news for you when we return on The WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:23:25] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us on this Good News Friday. I believe it is Tim Barton's turn. 

Tim Barton [00:23:30] Yeah, Dad, if you'll help me remember how to do this. So, my first piece of good news when we started the program was Pete Hegseth making the announcement about Chaplains. This next one I have is also about Pete Hegseth. So is this all part, should I have rolled that together? Is it all one piece of Good News? 

David Barton [00:23:47] The way you should have done that was do that back at the beginning and you actually had, I mean, once you get Hegseth, you're in the administration. So, if you choose anything in the ministration is still related, you kind of kept going three or four or five of those. 

Tim Barton [00:23:59] Well, so ironically, I think the next like two or three in my stack do all deal with the Pentagon. So, like they're basically all Pete Hegseth, but I'm not going through all of them right now. But this one is something that happened last week. There was a DC circuit panel that on Tuesday of last week, they issued an order dissolving an administrative stay on the military transgender ban now what happened is Pete Hegseth said hey, we're not doing transgender in the military there was a lower court judge who said you can't tell transgenders they can't be in the military. So, there was a stay on this. A D.C. circuit panel a two-to-one panel came out and said actually guys, he's in charge of the military and he's not doing something that crosses a discriminatory line because, the article points this out, they were able to point out There's a lot of military readiness concern they have. When soldiers come and join the military, they're not coming to find a cushy job sitting behind a desk on a computer. No, you're coming to the war department and you have to be ready for war. There was a study that came out in 2021 that suggested that up to 40% of individuals with gender dysphoria, and I love that they're calling it gender dysphoria because that's what transgenderism is. You think you're something you're not? They could be non-deployable for up to 24 months following the initial diagnosis Including it was identified an additional psychiatric diagnosis that they have mood disorders anxiety disorders psychotic disorders The suicide attempt rate is 13 times higher than non-transgender individuals, etc. So, they had really good, compelling evidence say, guys, we shouldn't do this in the military, that this doesn't help us be more prepared for war lethality, everything else. Again, the good news is that this circuit panel said, yeah, you, you're not going to be required to keep people with gender dysphoria that have all kinds of other potential issues in the. And so that was upheld and the judges that gave the opinion for this. They actually pointed to a Supreme Court decision in May dealing again with a transgender ban, and they said that we think what he did is fine because it also lines up with the most recent Supreme Court decisions. All of this to say really good news. Chaplains are back in the military and transgenderism is not. I am celebrating this Friday. 

Rick Green [00:26:25] And this is not, I mean, you know, some of our victories take 20, 30 years. Didn't take that long this time. So, you what a, what a difference, what a big turnaround with the election of president Donald Trump. And of course, with these good appointees, a lot more good news we didn't get to, we'll get some of that next week. Everybody have a fantastic weekend. You've been listening to the WallBuilders Show.