Welcome And Reasons For Hope

SPEAKER_03 0:07

Welcome to the intersection of Faith and Culture. It's the Wall Builder Show taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton. Our websites wallbuilders.com and wallbuilders.show. And yes, you hear excitement in my voice because there's just so many good things happening. I mean, things are shaking loose in Washington, D.C., in Texas, and even in Idaho. We've got an Idaho rep that'll be with us uh here a little bit later in the program. Uh but guys, I mean, I've heard you know Kelly Shackleford say it. David, I've heard you say it. I mean, more religious liberty than at any time in our lifetime. And now we're seeing great opportunities at the state level. Um, and I guess we could talk some Washington, D.C. stuff as well, but stuff at the state level breaking loose. Legislators filing all kinds of great legislation. I don't know how many states you guys have testified in in the last year, but it's a lot. And um, so it's just it's it's good to see a lot of things we talked about for years, planted seeds for, worked for, talked to people about, worked on grassroots organizing for, but now we're starting to get to see some incredible fruit.

Hawley’s Medical Case On Mifepristone

SPEAKER_02 1:06

Yeah, God is on the move in incredible ways. And uh, you know, Rick, we at times talk about this off-air, how privileged we feel that God allows us to travel the country and connect with so many good people around the country. Uh, for a lot of people, that they're in a bit of a bubble and it feels lonely in their bubble, and especially depending on what kind of bubble you are in, what what kind of town or makeup or church or whatever kind of dynamics are around, it can be lonely. But guys, there are things that we are seeing happen all around this nation that we've been praying for and working for for decades. Dad, literally things that were part of the reason that you felt God called you into this ministry in the first place are are literally starting to unfold in this last week. We all got to be up in Washington, D.C. Uh one of our good friends, Senator Josh Hawley from Missouri, had a press conference. And Dad, I think you definitely should tell some of the details about that in a moment. Um, Rick, you and I were at an event at the White House with a faith office, and just so many things happening that a lot of people just in their normal walks of life would not see and aren't always privy to this. And so I I think we got to take a little time, just highlight some of what's going on because there is so much good happening around the nation. Uh so dad, you were up in DC last week with Senator Josh Hawley at a press conference where the pretty unique idea, obviously, there's gonna be challenges getting any legislation through the House and the Senate, but the fact that we have a senator promoting something really, really great, having a press conference to highlight it, prioritize it, it was a really cool deal you were part of.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

It was. It was uh kind of an unusual press conference, and I think it was handled brilliantly. It was uh dealing with methoprestone, which is kind of like the abortion pill, the uh pill that can be taken to create an abortion without having to go to a clinic, etc. And he came at it from a purely a medical standpoint. It was really quite amazing. He had several people there who had been through um with the pill and had really bad medical reactions. Um, you know, some wanted an abortion, some didn't want an abortion. Uh, some was the boyfriend gave it to the girl without her knowing it, uh, which could not be done with you know something else like that. So there was all these angles on it. But what was amazing was that Josh pointed out the number of drugs that have lost their FDA certification because they had a negative incident ratio of 0.001. And so that's a that's a small amount, but that is a lot of people when you look at 300 million people, if they're all taking that drug, that that's a lot of folks. So he was pointing out how many drugs have been taken off the market, lost FDA approval because of a 0.00 or 0.01 uh negative incident. What we have currently, based on the stats right now, is roughly a 9% incident. That is a that is an incident rate that is thousands of times higher than they've allowed for other drugs, which goes to show that the Biden decision to make this available with no FDA regulation, sell it over-the-counter, sell it. And by the way, it's being shipped in mostly from foreign countries. It's not being provided in America, it's other countries sending it to America, thus, it lacks all the safety features that we would have with normal drug production. So it really, I didn't realize how political the drug had become. Now I knew that the Democrats are fully behind it. It's the abortion industry loves this thing. Uh now it doesn't matter how many states ban abortion, you can just order this drug through the mail and get an abortion in your state, wherever you are. So that's a way for them to get around all the state laws, but I had not realized the high, high medical incident level that was there and how much this was not based in the United States but outside. So as part of that, there were four four young women that gave um their compelling testimonies, and it was compelling. And I tell you what, even if pro-abortion people heard what happened to these women and don't have concern for them, then you know there's something really, really, really twisted. What these women went through, abortion aside, what they went through medically should never happen to anybody. And so the the the really blanket opposition that Democrats have to this particular abortion drug is illogical once you see what's out there. And Josh Hawley did a fantastic job of of laying that out really well.

SPEAKER_03 5:43

David, what is the what's the temperature in in Congress for something like that? I mean, uh I would think this would maybe take several sessions or years or to to to get past, but I mean, just starting with the science and starting with the response and and you know, not just the um you know pro-life or pro abortion arguments, but but laying out the things that he did um you know makes total sense.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

But what do you think the what's the likelihood that we could get something like this done? What's the likelihood that the sun's going to come up in the west and go down in the east? That bad, huh? What if you're facing south instead of north?

SPEAKER_02 6:21

Then is it like then is it how it goes?

SPEAKER_00 6:25

Yeah. No, I didn't say left and right. Left and right is is you know, that that's changeable, but east and west, it it's not gonna happen. Uh there I I don't know of any scenario with abortions or with gender or with how many injuries happen in sports to uh women who are hurt by men who claim to be women. I I don't I don't know how many negative scenarios you can put forward and not you're not gonna get you might get Fetterman. Yeah, Fetterman has done some unusual things recently. That might be the only Democrat you pick up is Fetterman, and he's the last guy I would have thought three years ago that we would ever pick up, but it it's strange.

SPEAKER_03 7:06

Yeah, so David, I'm I'm a bit of an optimist. So you're you're you're saying it's kind of like when I'm, you know, if I'm campaigning in a really Democrat area and I'm knocking on doors, and someone at the door says, you know, you go to the door, you say, Hey, I'm Rick Green, I'm running for state representative, da-da-da-da-da. Here's why, and then they look at you and say, I know who you are, I'd never vote for you in a million years, you're awful, you know, you're pro-life, you're pro-Second Amendment, I think you're destroying America, and they slam the door in your face. And then you go back and you're making your notes in the car about each person at the door, and you say, instead of yes or no, you just say maybe. Yeah. Like, yeah.

Prayer Events And “Miracles” In Motion

SPEAKER_00 7:41

Well, yeah, this this reminds me of the line out of an early Disney movie back when Disney movies were really good, where angels in the outfield and the line was, well, it could happen. This is kind of it would take a huge miracle from heaven, but it could happen.

SPEAKER_02 7:56

Well, and speaking of huge miracles from heaven, uh, as we're celebrating 250 years, we're gonna be telling a lot of stories about some of those miracles from heaven and birthing the nation. Uh, I'm reminded that in one of the verses in the gospels is what's impossible for man is possible with God. So this could totally happen when we have a year, when we have a president on May 17th who's gonna have a big event in DC to rededicate America to God. That was not on any of our bingo cards. None of us saw this coming. God is already doing some amazing things, and I actually think that's part of the conversation today uh with our friend from Idaho, as they're doing a call to prayer and what that looks like. And so that this is a good time to have these days of prayer and hope to see God move in incredible ways. He's done it before. We're praying he does it again. It certainly would be a miracle, but man, if you could stop the abortion pill drug from being distributed so freely across America and restore the value of life on some level, it would it would take a miracle, but we serve a God who does that.

De Tocqueville On Faith And Freedom

SPEAKER_03 9:03

Well, and one of the best things about this is that it raises the negatives and the and and helps women know the risks of using so that it even on an individual decision, you know, or you know, somebody's giving advice to somebody, uh, you know, fri you somebody asks a friend or whatever, at least it's raising those negatives and making it less likely that someone uh would use it, even if the FDA doesn't get rid of it. Okay, guys, we gotta we do have uh as you said, Tim Jason Monks with us, uh representative from Idaho. So let's take a quick break. We'll be right back with Jason. Stay with us. You're listening to the Wall Builder Show.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

This is Tim Barton from Wall Builders with another moment from American history. Alexei de Togeville, a political official from France, traveled to the United States in 1831 and penned his observations in the now famous book Democracy in America. Being from France, what he found in America was completely unexpected to him. He reported, upon my arrival in the United States, the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention. And the longer I stayed there, the more I perceived the great political consequences resulting from this. In France, I'd almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America, I found that they were intimately united and that they reigned in common over the same country. De Tocqueville recognized that it was biblical Christianity and the morals it produced that made America great. For more information about Alexei de Tocqueville and the positive influence of Christianity in early America, go to wallbuilders.com.

SPEAKER_03 10:43

Welcome back to the Wall Builder Show. Thanks for staying with us. Representative Jason Monk's with us, assistant majority leader there in Idaho. Thank you so much, Representative, for joining us today.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Thanks for having me. Appreciate it. Can I clarify one thing? Yes, sir. I'm the majority leader, not the assistant majority leader.

SPEAKER_03 10:58

Well, where did why did they tell me assistant majority leader? You either got a promotion or I'm just misinformed. Hey. That was a while ago. A while ago. Majority leader for the last four years. So we're we're all good though. Majority leader. Now in Idaho, how do you guys do that? Is that a caucus vote? Do you just kind of like is that how it works? Yep, caucus vote. And when you're majority leader at the state level like that, is it sort of like at the federal level where you kind of whip the votes, you're kind of in charge of getting making sure the caucus shows up and and uh uh kind of gauge the caucus before a bill comes to the floor? I mean, what what are the different things you do as majority leader?

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Well, I'd say in Idaho, um, there's no such thing as a whip because we're not uh we're not trying to corral anybody here. This is this is all a bunch of individualistic uh leaders, and so it's usually just trying to figure out where the caucus wants us to go. That's my job. Figure out where you want us to go, and I'll help I'll help get you there.

SPEAKER_03 11:52

You you'd have a you'd have a mutiny on your hand if you had if you tried to whip the vote in Idaho.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Uh yeah, yeah, the last majority leader. That happened that happened to the last majority leader.

SPEAKER_03 12:00

Oh, that's hilarious. I'm glad I'm glad we went there then. That's that's a good lesson. So that's um, you know, Idaho is is is interesting. What every time I do Patriot Academy, we do Patriot Academy in June, I think, there every year. And um it I always hear about how much better Idaho is than Texas. And of course, you know, as we we Texans are are quite obnoxious about that sort of thing, so we always have a hard time hearing that sort of thing. But then we start talking about gun legislation or life or or all these core conservative issues. And when we look at the Idaho law and the Texas law, I have to go, wow, you guys beat us again. No, y'all y'all actually do a great job up there.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

You know, we get we get to the it's funny, we get accused all the time. People will see that some state did something, and sure enough, I'll get some post somewhere and they say Idaho ought to do this. And and I'll it's always like, you know, we did that like three years ago.

SPEAKER_03 12:48

That's right. That's right. I love it. Well, hey, our topic for there's so many things we could talk about, man. But um, you know, the the the call for prayer and fasting. I mean, this is this is something that immediately when you do something like this, you probably got a ton of calls, oh, separation church and state, or you guys aren't supposed to be involved in this kind of thing. But it's so important to do this. There's such a rich history of the founding fathers doing this. Uh, before we, you know, went live and started recording, we were talking about the painting behind you and and just the type of leadership we had in the founding era. What for you guys, you know, why first of all, why did you want to do a call for prayer and fasting? And then let's talk about the protesting against it.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

So, um, you know, it's been part of my religion, uh fasting and prayer, but it's been part of our country and the founding uh since since the beginning.

SPEAKER_03 13:33

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

I I think in the first three or four years of the founding of our country, uh Congress called, I think, I think it was 15 times they called for a fasting and prayer. And it was not just for divine guidance, which we obviously need, but it was also for humility and repentance and telling the people if if you want God's health, then you've got to be a righteous people. And um, you know, fasting and prayer is part of that. And it helps us to become a little bit more humble and uh, you know, do a little bit more self-reflection on as far as, you know, what are we doing in this world? Are we making the place better? Are we making it worse? And um, you know, that was that was part of the call to help us here. You know, Idaho's we're immune from a lot of things in this world, but we're not immune from everything. And we still have our own strife here. And uh as a leader in in this this state, I want divine guidance. I want the people praying for me so that I make wise decisions, so that I don't get too far afield from where I'm supposed to be. So for me, it was a call for help uh to the citizens of Idaho that says, please help me out, please help us out, do a better job.

SPEAKER_03 14:39

I I gotta tell you, man, that's the first time I I I've done a lot of prayer and fasting discussions over the last 30 years of doing this, and we've got all the proclamations, of course, in the Wall Builders Library and everything. But almost every time I've ever asked anybody about this, especially legislators, governors, that sort of thing, it's usually about we need the Lord's help on this thing or that thing. The fact that your focus was on the humility part and how it sets our heart right, I love that. I mean, that is I I can't remember, I think it was Hancocks that were prayer, fasting, and humiliation, right? So the fact that you uh you know keyed in on, zeroed in on that, bro, that's uh that's rare. I don't know what you're in your background gave you that. Maybe I should ask you that. Like, what why for you was that even you were willing to to address that part?

SPEAKER_01 15:27

You know, it was funny. The very first time I and I'll I'll try to make this a shorter story, but the first time I ran uh for political office, it was actually for the mayor of a small town Meridian, and um I ended up losing that race. So no uh spoiler alert here. But right after I I got uh done with a town hall meeting, the incumbent mayor met with me and had made a comment to me that that really stuck with me odd because the question was asked, and I said, I don't know the answer to that. I'm not the smartest person even in this room. And they they came pulled me aside afterward and says, you know, if you're gonna be in politics, never ever say that. I said, say what? That you don't know the answer and that you're not the smartest person in the room. And it really kind of struck me a little bit. I thought, well, that's the truth. Um you know, we're not the smartest people in the room, and uh we need we need help from a lot of different peoples. And so I always remembered that uh because I thought it was bad advice, and I've tried to remember that as I go forward here. And you know, we we don't know all the answers, and anybody who says they do, you know they're selling you something. Yeah. So I think the best thing we can do is listen to the people out there, listen to the Lord, and He's gonna tell us if we listen, and you know, and we're we're humble and we do all the things we're supposed to, you know, he'll tell us if we're going the wrong direction. And and sometimes we need that. We all need that help.

Church And State Objections Answered

SPEAKER_03 16:48

Amen. Amen. More of that, my man. That's uh that's part of what we try to instill at Patriot Academy with the kids. And um, I I think it's the opposite of what people expect uh today in polit, quote unquote politicians. I know you probably hate that term as much as I do, but uh patriots and and statesmen, right? That's uh that's what we uh strive to be. A politician's only thinking about the next election. A patriot or statesman thinks about the next generation. And I can already hear it in your voice. That's your that that's your mindset. Okay, so let's talk about the protest. Why were people upset that y'all would want to be humble and what to ask God for help?

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Oh, you know, I had people who've come who've just, you know, they reach out and they say you should be doing something different. You should worry about all the other problems. Uh, that's that's a lot of the people. Some people get frustrated that we're we're calling religion into to politics. Again, there is no separation between church and state. That's a that's a misnomer. You probably preach that a lot. Um we just didn't want to have a state-defined religion. That's the only difference there. We weren't supposed to be an ungodly people. Um, but a lot of other people, I think it's just that frustration that um, you know, they're not they're not uh religious and they don't like us to to say we are. And I think there's some of that, which I've always found interesting, you know, in our our court systems have said and tried to limit prayer in a lot of aspects over the years. Unfortunately, a lot of that's been been um removed as far as whether or not we could do that. And I always thought, well, that is a religion, that's atheism. And so we are promoting atheism if we're not allowing people to pray. And so I think it's a little bit of a uh fallacy there to say that we shouldn't be mixing the two. Um in Idaho, we lead off every session that we have on the floor with a prayer. And that's how we start off. In our leadership meetings, we start off with a prayer. In our joint leadership meetings we have with the Senate, we start off with a prayer. Um, our our chairman's meeting here in Idaho, we start off with a prayer. It's part of who we are, and I think we all recognize here again in Idaho, I think most of us recognize that we we can't do this without help. And and we need God's, we need God's direction, is his um assistance to be with us at at all times.

Measuring Change Through Civil Discourse

SPEAKER_03 18:58

Amen. Uh, that's uh, you know, that's part that's what we want to teach not only the young people, but our citizens and the next generation of candidates, right? The next generation of people that that that go into office and and the people that protest. Usually they just don't know the history, right? So it also gives you uh opportunity not only just to have the prayer, fasting, humiliation, but to educate so you get a chance to teach them about that history and and all of those uh times in history when when our founders did exactly what you're what you're talking about. So um what would be let me ask you this before I let you go, what would be um how would you know that that the Lord had answered the prayer, right? Like what would be the evidence of the of the shift in attitude or a particular thing to happen? Like what are you looking for for the signs uh that that uh and not not that we have to have that, right? I mean, uh we're we're we're called to pray and and and fast and and be humble no matter what, but what what would you point to or look for, I guess, um to say, you know what, God's smiling on us at this point.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

You know, I think that happens a lot of ways, and and I think for God it's about the one, right? You know, Christ Christ left the 99 to find the one, and that's still I think important today. And are we changing, you know, one person's life, and that should start with myself, right? And if I have a little bit more humility, and if I have a little bit more patience and understanding um and wisdom when I deal with the next problem here, then I call it success. Um I think what else I would love to see here in the state is kind of dialing down a little bit of the rhetoric. And you know, I hate to say it, but you know, it does happen a little bit on both sides. Um, you know, we all like to say the other side's more guilty of it. And in some circumstances, I think that's very true. Uh so I I don't want to diminish that either. But does it mean that we handle situations, you know, the perfectly as well? No. And and I think that's what I'd like to see is us just to be able to have a disagreement and be dis a little bit more agreeable in our disagreement and and not be so um personal instead of taking all this stuff that because that person disagrees with me, they must be a bad person. And that's not always the case. Um, you know, in Idaho, we have we have Democrats, we have Republicans, uh, some of our Democrats in Idaho are much more conservative than you'll find in other states. Uh, you know, and so you know, for the most part, a lot of us we just want we just want the state to be a great place for for our kids to grow up. And I think when we remember that, then we do a better job. And that's what this really is an attempt to do is to just get us to recognize that we're all God's children. God wants the very best for us, and we need to recognize that and recognize that these are just God's children who are doing the best they can right now. And um at the end of the day, that's what we want. We just want us all to be a little bit more humble, um a little bit more forgiving in in our relationships with politically and and personally. That's what we're looking for.

SPEAKER_03 21:58

That almost sounds Like civil discourse. You know? Maybe, like, maybe Patrick Hidry had it right. According to the magnitude of the subject, ought to be the freedom of the debate. Only in this way can we arrive at the truth. And actually, you know, respecting other people when we're in that debate. Good stuff, man. Representative Jason Monk's majority leader, not assistant majority leader. Hey, we really do appreciate you coming on today, man. Thank you, and thank you for doing the proclamation. Absolutely. Thank you much. Stay with us, folks. We'll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

Invite WallBuilders To Your Community

SPEAKER_02 22:32

Hey, this is Tim Barton with Wall Builders. And as you've had the opportunity to listen to Wall Builders Live, you've probably heard the wealth of information about our nation, about our spiritual heritage, about the religious liberties, about all the things that makes America exceptional. And you might be thinking, as incredible as this information is, I wish there was a way that I could get one of the wall builders' guys to come to my area and share with my group, whether it be a church, whether it be a Christian school or public school or some political event or activity. If you're interested in having a wall builder speaker come to your area, you can get on our website at www.wallbuilders.com and there's a tab for scheduling. And if you'll click on that tab, you'll notice there's a list of information from speakers' bios to events that are already going on. And there's a section where you can request an event to bring this information about who we are, where we came from, our religious liberties and freedoms. Go to the wall builders website and bring a speaker to your area.

SPEAKER_03 23:33

Welcome back to the Wall Builder Show. Thanks for staying with us. And uh man, guys, I what do y'all should probably done that interview? Because you could have rattled off all the different prayer proclamations. I was trying to remember some of them. Uh, but man, you guys have them hanging all over the place and then file folders. And when I say file folders for folks at home, these things are giant. Like they're, I don't know, what guys, 20 by 30 or 15 by uh 30 with blown up proclamations of uh of governors and continental congresses and all kinds of people calling for prayer. But cool to see this effort in Idaho as well.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

Yeah, and we at wallbuilders.com have a whole section with with pictures of proclamations. We have a section where that they are transcribed. Um there were fourteen hundred proclamations issued in New England alone by 1815, so there's lots out there. But what I find absolutely phenomenal about what has happened with Jason is this is not a day of prayer, it's a day of prayer and fasting. And a day of prayer and fasting, you have to go back quite a ways to start finding that in American history anytime in recent decades. I remember a few years ago when a representative in Kansas wanted to do that, a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, uh, which was very common for the founding fathers, and the media went ballistic and said, What? You want us to humiliate ourselves? How are you going to? And it was just they didn't even understand what the word meant. They did not know how to process that word. And so here you've got uh in the legislature, they're actually not only processing that word, they're encouraging that word. Fasting, humiliation, and prayer, what a great thing. And so I, you know, Tim, as you mentioned, we're already seeing things we never thought we would see in in recent years, and this is one of the, I think, one of the great miracles happening across America.

SPEAKER_02 25:12

Well, and when you have state legislators who recognize, as explained the tired argument of the separation of church and state, and and and they recognize that the idea from our founding inception, even the constitution, we were never intended to have a secular government when we have state-elected officials that are figuring that out, and by the way, figuring it out from the highest level, from President Trump all the way down, guys. This is so encouraging. As we mentioned, May 17th, where President Trump is gonna have a rededication ceremony up in DC where we're saying America's God, but even in in just a couple weeks, we're gonna be up in DC all of us again at America Reads the Bible, the an event being hosted by Museum of the Bible, but so many members of Congress and leaders of faith and pastors from across the nation are coming to just take time and read the Bible out loud in Washington, DC. There is so much good stuff happening in the midst of the craziness and chaos. God is on the move, and it's really cool to see.

SPEAKER_03 26:12

Yeah, and of course, we'll keep bringing more and more of these stories throughout the 250th as a lot of these things happen. And of course, always on Friday, uh, just gathering a ton of good news stories for you folks. But uh definitely stay tuned into Wall Builders and then spread the news. Help other people get encouraged as well. That's the great thing about this. You can easily share the Wall Builder Show. It's an uplifting to people. We hear from people all over the country about how much they enjoy the show because of the optimism and because of all the good news stories that they don't get to hear anywhere else. So check that out at wallbuilders.show and share that with your friends and family. Thanks so much for listening to the Wall Builder Show.