Rick Green [00:00:14] Welcome to the Intersection of Faith and Culture. It's The WallBuilders Show, taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. I'm Rick Green with David and Tim Barton bringing you a talk from our Pro-Family Legislators Conference here on this Christmas week. We've got some great Christmas programming throughout the week for you tomorrow on Christmas Eve. We'll be doing a recap of the year and all the things that we're thankful that God gave us in 2025. And then, of course, Christmas Day, we've got Bill Federer with us going to be talking about St. Nick. And the real story behind all of those things. And then of course, Friday is our Good News Friday program. We'll be back to our regular schedule, Good News Fridays, but got a lot of good news for 2025 that we'll be talking about as well. But today we're gonna bring you Jack Brewer from the Pro Family Legislators Conference. Gonna be a fantastic program for you. Hope you enjoy this. We're gonna take a quick break and then we will be out at the Pro-family Legislators Conference. If you're not familiar with that, that is our conference we do for state reps and state senators across the nation. We do it once a year. It is a phenomenal event and it gets them equipped and ready to go into their legislative sessions in January all across the nation. So, we bring them all kinds of great speakers. And we've been sharing some of those with you. Some of the ones we haven't shared yet that you can expect in the next few weeks and months, Alex Newman, Senator David Bullard, Jaco Booyens, Kevin Freeman, there's a lot of good ones. So, we've got a lot, a lot good stuff in the can that we'll be bringing your way, but for today, it's going to be Jack Brewer, one of the speakers at the Pro-Family Legislators Conference that I know you're going to enjoy a quick break. We'll be right back on the WallBuilders show. 

Rick Green [00:03:50] Welcome back to the WallBuilders show. Thanks so much for staying with us. Jack Brewer is our guest and we're going to be hearing from him on the stage at the Pro-Family Legislators Conference. 

Jack Brewer [00:04:01] How's everyone doing today? Good, so I'm gonna try, hopefully we can liven this up just a little bit. Is that alright? I'm an old football player. I would ask you all to stand up and do jumping jacks, but I'm not gonna do that. I promise, alright? Though I actually am born and raised right down the road, Grapevine, Texas. And so, it's really good to be back. It's truly an honor. You know, I have been able to experience a lot of things over my life. In particular when it comes to our children and our youth and our families. And so, growing up in Grapevine, you know, it was kind of like that white picket fence life. You know, had a mom and a dad in the house with me, which unfortunately today is not always the norm. And so, I grew up and I watched so many of my older cousins growing up right down the road in Grapevine. So many of them that had more athletic ability than me. That was just as smart as I was. But for some reason, they never went to college and stayed there. They never stayed out of trouble. And so, as I played through my career in the National Football League, and I went on and started my organization in 2006, I started to realize a couple things. One, there was a big difference between me and my cousins because of my father. And I looked around and they didn't have an active dad, but I did. And so, I slowly started to want to understand why. And as I went into inner-city neighborhoods, I went to the University of Minnesota where I graduated and I was able to become a captain on that team, going into that community, into the neighborhoods of North Minneapolis. Then I got a chance to go play for the Minnesota Vikings. And then I got a chance to play for the New York Giants. I go into those neighborhoods, got a chance to go play for the Philadelphia Eagles, got a change to go into to those neighborhoods. Arizona Cardinals, got a changed to go in to those neighborhoods. And so, after I continued my research, it was obvious, man. Fatherlessness was the thing that was crippling our nation. Every single neighborhood that I went to, in every neighborhood that I did work in, it was the same thing. It was almost like a culture. You started to see where having a baby mama was normal and cool. And so I grew up with this mentality and I had to finally realize that in order for us to really give our kids a chance, we gotta go back to what my mama and my grandma, and my great grandma taught us. Man, a man and a woman gotta be in the house together. Amen? So, the first time I walked into a prison, I was eight years old. I drove up I-35 into Kansas City, Missouri. And walked into the prison to see my big cousin. It was scary. I was heartbroken. I didn't understand it. I didn't understand why he couldn't leave and come out with me. His dad was an alcoholic, not in his life. Second time I went into prison was about a year and a half later to see his brother in prison. And so that really affected me, and it really affected the work that I started to do. And so, over the course of the past decade, I've dedicated my life to advocating for fatherless kids, particularly ones that are impacted by the criminal justice system. That's why I'm here today. I'm talking about the juveniles. I'm talkin' about the kids that are the lost, the ones that, in the scientific terms, will call them a high acuity youth. I'm talking about the fatherless kids of America. A lot of, over 18 million. Right here in Texas is over two and a half million. Right here in this state, two and a half million. So, this is not just an issue that we talk about. This is not something that you see in the news and get a headline. This is literally the epidemic that's plaguing our land. Just like the plagues of the Bible. This is a plague. This is something that does, it's not just fleshly. It's not something you're making with decisions, but it's going into the spirit of our schools in our neighborhoods. And our community. How are we going to have successful public schools if the spirit that we're producing is not righteous? The word says he would know them by their fruit. And right now, we're just producing a lot of bad fruit. That I know! So, I want to show you something. So, we started a program in the state of Florida, and so many things in the State of Florida. But we were able to lobby for fatherhood legislation in the States of Florida the largest of its kind. We've also been able to help lobby the State of Ohio for its first fatherhood legislation the largest of its kind. And so, what this fatherhood legislation does is first off It promotes fatherhood across the state. But then it also goes into the communities of the fatherless and actually gives us the chance to have programs and to go in into that soil that's not fertile and do some tilling, do some fertilizing, do some digging a little deeper, put a little water on it. We go into prisons. And instead of telling these guys you're no good because you were having an assault charge or a rape charge or a violent crime, you still got kids at home that wanna know that they have a dad. So, no matter how long your sentence is, you are still a father ordained by God. And so, when we walk into the prison, when I walk through the door, I say, who are we? And they say, we are fathers. Instead of, thank you, amen. 94% of everyone in prison is getting out. They're gonna be our neighbors. They're going to be walking in the parking lot with our wives and our daughters. And so, it's important that we realize that when the Bible tells us to visit those in prison as if we're in prison with them, it's not a choice that God has given us. It's a commandment. It's so our fatherhood program digs to the depths of these men, gets into their heart, and actually gives them the training that they need. Eighty-five percent of every juvenile in prison, and it's a lot of them, that commit their crimes as juveniles, eighty-five percent of those men are fatherless. Think about that. And so, when you walk into a prison, what are you seeing? You're seeing a bunch of fatherless kids that have gaping holes that, they don't know, no one ever taught them how to put on a tie. No one taught them to open up a door for a female or treat them properly. Many of them, mom was on crack, dad wasn't there. They've been born in this same continuous cycle And so our program goes in and we say, not only are you a father, but we're gonna hold you accountable. The second you do anything that gives you any type of disciplinary consequence, you are out of my program. That's the first thing. The second thing is, is if you meet us halfway and you do what you're supposed to do, every birthday your child will receive a gift from you. We gonna send it. Your family will never need groceries again because we're gonna go and deliver groceries to your family when they need them. As a matter of fact, if your child wants to go to college and needs a scholarship, you can apply for our scholarship program. When you get out of prison, we're going to help you get a cell phone, make sure you have your ID, help you write your resume, and we're gonna give you a letter of referral from our organization because you've done what you were supposed to do. Can you imagine how that makes men feel inside of a prison? So, if you look at our program, it's called H2FI. I've gotten our first commitment to bring this program into Tarrant County right here where we are because that's where I'm from. So we're planning on bringing this program here. But out of the two, these are our numbers from 2024. So out of our 2,080 fathers, 260 are grandfathers, 37 are great-grandfathers and 200 are still married. But when you start to look down, look at that about the third from the bottom. 434 youthful offenders, meaning they got locked up when they were children. Almost 600 have life sentences. 

Rick Green [00:14:45] All right, we got to interrupt Jack Brewer. I mean, that's, you know, I'm a little guy, so interrupting a former NFL football player is dangerous, but since he's not here to.... Anyway. Quick interruption. We'll be right back. You're listening to The WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:17:05] Welcome back to The WallBuilders Show jumping back in with Jack Brewer at the Pro-Family Legislators Conference. 

Jack Brewer [00:17:12] Now, most states, many states, don't even allow life-sentence guys to do program, because they say we wanna give programs to the guys that are getting out in the short term. I say, no, no, no. I want as many lifers as I can. Can you imagine being a little girl or a little boy and your daddy is in prison for life for something you had nothing to do with? Can you image? And if that man is in depression... If he doesn't even call you, doesn't even talk to you. I don't care who you are, whether your parents are in prison or wherever your parents are, you want to talk to your parent. You want a relationship with your dad. I don't care who are. And so, I've been able to empower the Florida legislature and our Department of Correction to embrace this philosophy. And it's been incredible. Over 11,000 classes taken in one year. 22,000 class hours, almost 4,000 certificates, and that was last year. This year's numbers are gonna blow these out the water. We delivered 677 gifts on kids' birthdays. And so, I left this part out. Out of our 40 staff members, 35 of them have served time in prison. And so, I hire the guys right out of prison, and the ladies. You'd be surprised how many ladies we get, too. And so... What this does is, is can you imagine someone that was in prison now, you're delivering a gift to a child of a man that you may have served time with who also was in prison. And so, the videos and the testimonies are absolutely incredible. Let's talk about Texas. So, in the state of Texas, we did, I dove in to the state's numbers back in 2022 when we produced this. At the time in Texas, 60%, and I'm sure this is pretty close enough, 60% of every black child that looks like me is fatherless. Sixty percent! If that doesn't break your heart, I don't know what is. That's what James 1:27 tells us, pure religion and undefiable for God and the Father is this, to visit the orphan and the widow in their troubles. Right here in Texas, man, we got a crisis. And this is God's country. The reason I preach the word of God, amen? This is God country. The reason why I preach the word of God is because I was born and raised in a Texas church. Playing the drums at 7 years old, being the choir director at 11, you know they make you do everything in a black church. Everything! I knew where to go get the oil for the pastor. I do everything! But it's not right! I don't even like saying that sixty percent! It's no wonder we, in our inner cities, in some of our neighborhoods, now these young kids are terrorizing our streets. No wonder. And so, if you look nationwide, forty percent of all children are born to unwed mothers. That's a cultural issue. The change in culture. Fifty years ago, it wasn't like this. So why is the change? What happened? What can we do legislatively? Listen, you can't legislate righteousness, okay? Can't legislated morality. But we can push for accountability. If your kid is gonna go harass the streets and your kid going to go and torment other children and hold them back from progressing, the parent needs to be held accountable. And right now, we don't have very much parental accountability in Texas or any other state around this country. And that needs to change. I'm telling you; I love helping the men and women in prison, but that does not mean I'm not about accountability. You have to be held accountable for your action. And as parents, you cannot be allowed to freely have your kids roaming these streets. And actin' a fool. It needs to end. 63% of youth suicide victims are fatherless. Ninety percent of all homeless and runaway children are fatherless. Ninety-percent! Seventy-percent of juveniles in state-operated institutions, whether we're talking about foster care, whether we talking about the juvenile justice centers, seventy-percent percent of those kids are fatherless. And the one that I told you before, which should break everyone's heart, is eighty-five percent of youth in prison are father-less. Now I'm going to tell you one that is disgusting, but it's the truth. Eighty percent of every person convicted of rape in America is fatherless. What else are we fighting for? Why are we looking at all these other issues and using all these different ideologies and trying to understand this and mental health and all these others? No, we need to get the daddy back in the home. And if we are serious about these types of actions, we gotta legislate this. When they see a bill coming out of this legislature, they need to know we stand for the father. And it's not just when you stand for the father, you're standing for the mother. I just wanna be clear. We don't have, they're not mutually exclusive. But at some point, in our country we have to address the fact that we're broken away from this Bible. The man has to be the head of the household, or the household will not be stable. Then you go, amen. And you're gonna always have situations, you're always gonna have tons of situations in the Bible where that don't happen, right? Tons. But it should not be the standard. And it should be praised. And it shouldn't be accepted across a community or particularly a state. A state that was founded and that represents the foundations of God like Texas. And so as I close, I just encourage you all. As you're exploring different ways to make impact through your legislation when it comes to families. Dive into what is already exist, but commit yourself to stand for communities and faith-based model. Government cannot replace our God. Our families, amen. Our families in these issues need to be given back to the church. There is no reason that we have foster kids and we have these at-risk youth, and we don't have strong Christian men and women intervening to mentor, to coach, and to support all of these children that we had running these streets. We have enough people if we actually serve and do the things that God instructed us to do. And so, I just encourage you and I pray for you and I say, thank you for your leadership. These are trying times right now, trying times. And the things that you all are doing and the folks that you're advocating for and standing for are the most vulnerable that we have in the world, the vulnerable. They can't speak for themselves. And so, as you enter your next legislative session, please keep that at heart and be tireless, man. Don't back down. We've all seen what's going on in this country. What happened to Charlie Kirk sparked a fire in most of us. Amen. And we cannot be quiet right now. We have to continue to stand for righteousness and do what God ordained us to do. 

Rick Green [00:27:05] Our folks, that's it for today. That was Jack Brewer at the Pro-Family Legislators Conference. We've got a lot more of those coming your way. These are the types of topics though that we wanna cover more and more so that not only can our legislators do legislation on this, when you think about mentorship and the things that Jack was talking about, every single one of us can play a role in that. Clearly, we need good legislators that will pass good legislation that protects the right to do these kinds of things or opens the door sometimes for us to be able to do this kind of things. But I hope today was a clarion call for all of us to do our part. And I'm telling you, every single one of us has people in our life that we can help mentor and disciple, so don't be silent, speak, and look for those that you can pour into. Thanks so much for listening. You've been listening to The WallBuilders Show.