Good News Friday Kickoff

SPEAKER_00 0:07

This is the Intersection of Faith and Culture. It's the Wall Builder Show, and it's Friday, so we got a lot of good news to share with you today. If you're new to Wall Builders, we call it Good News Friday. If you've been listening for a while, it's probably your favorite day of the week to listen to Wall Builders. David Barton and Tim Barton have been collecting good news stories all week. I'm Rick Green, and we're going to rapid fire some good news at you. David Barton starting first. David, go for it, man.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Well, I'm going to start with something that happened earlier this week. I think a lot of people know about the referendum that was held in Virginia. It barely passed less than plus or minus one on that. But uh Virginia voters apparently, and by the way, the turnout was really high in that Virginia election. It was as high as it was in the presidential election. So both sides really turned out their voters, and that's really good. High voter engagement's always healthy for the nation, even if they get the wrong result. So I'm thrilled with a high voter turnout that was as high as it was in the presidential. And this is an off-year election and a ballot election that doesn't have uh other state senators and reps and congressmen on it. Well, that I think too, it's it's worth pointing out.

SPEAKER_02 1:10

We're even more excited when there's high voter turnout when it's American citizens that are legally voting in elections. Yeah, that's right. You know, uh that there's uh oftentimes questions surrounding some of the uh the processes in Democrat controlled territories, especially when there's mail in ballots, and especially when there's late night drop off of mail-in-ballot. Uh so just a caveat. It's great there were so many numbers, but kind of like you know, with the Biden presidency, I'm a bit skeptical that how many votes he got he actually got, but not to digress. It's great when the American people who have registered a vote partake in that constitutional action.

Judge Calls Ballot Process Illegal

SPEAKER_01 1:54

And if we make the assumption, as we have for several years, that most of the uh voting fraud occurs on one side and most of the illegals vote on one side. The fact that enough conservatives turned out in Virginia to make this thing plus or minus one point, um, if there was illegals voting on the other side, then kudos to those who really showed up and voted well on this. Now, here's where the story gets interesting. The day after the election, a judge of Virginia set the election aside. And Tim and I were in D.C. this week, and and Tim and I, back on Monday, the day before the election, we're in a meeting about this election. And in that meeting, as they were looking at this election or what was going to happen. Um, and so we were told that the judge is going to rule on whether the election language was good the day after the election. We're going, no, wait a minute. Why wouldn't you rule before the election that the language was good? Because the language is really terrible. It says uh we we want to use a fair way of redrawing lines. And the redrawing, this is the bottom line of what it is. Texas earlier the year did redistricting and they picked up some Republican districts, and other states did so as well. And Virginia said, well, we can give us more Democrat districts. So they have 11 congressional seats in Virginia. Right now, six of them are Democrat and five of them are Republican. Under the new lines that they drew, 10 would be Democrat and one would be Republican. And so in their ballot initiative, they said, we just want to make fair lines in Virginia. Fair for who? Fair for the Democrats? Maybe. Not fair for the Republicans. And so we we just said, this is ridiculous that you would use the word fair in a ballot initiative because it's fair for which side? And surely a judge wouldn't let that go through. And so I was just really mystified hearing on Monday that the judge was going to rule the day after the election. And lo and behold, the judge did rule after the election, but there was more to the story than what I knew at that point in time. So it turns out the judge who ruled after the election is the judge who ruled before the election. And before the election, he told the Democrats that this ballot initiative is illegal. You can't do it because it violates two things that state law requires. It requires that if you have a referendum like this, it has to occur, the referendum has to be established before the general election, not after it. So the general election was in November. Democrats took control in January, and they passed this ballot initiative in February. Well, that's not before a general election. You've done it after. And the second thing that has to happen is you have to publish the amendment three months before the election occurs. Well, Democrats did this in January and they had the election in April. That's not three months before it occurred. And so the judge says, I told you that this was illegal. You went ahead with the election anyway. I'm telling you again, what you did is illegal. So that's the rest of the story on what happened in Virginia. And so it's now gone to the state Supreme Court. And boy, if the state Supreme Court rules that this was a legal election, man, they have just ignored two. They would be as bad as the Kansas Supreme Court if they did that. Only Kansas, I think Kansas has an 89% record of being overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Kansas Supreme Court is a state that does not elect its judges. They're appointed by the state bar back in 1958. Kansas came up with a new way of doing it, and no longer do the citizens elect the judges. So if Virginia were to say, hey, we want you to ignore the state law, we're going to declare this election good because we think the legal language is fair, man, you've got a Supreme Court just as goofy as what the Kansas Supreme Court has been. But that's my good news is that what just happened in Virginia, I don't think is going to stand. Certainly the judge that did this twice doesn't think it should stand. We'll see what the Supreme Court does and whether they actually uphold the state law or whether they become activists that start picking winners and losers. So good news from Virginia from my standpoint.

Pro-Life Dad Wins DOJ Settlement

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Yeah, and it's going to be real important to watch that one over the next few weeks. I bet there's all kinds of appeals. It's going to it's going to see all kinds of challenges, but the the the fuse is short because the election's, you know, just a few months away, and they've got to they've got to know what lines people are are uh you know running in. The candidates need to know, the voters need to know, and of course the election judges and all the preparation that has to be done. Going to be very, very interesting to watch. All right, Tim, what's your first piece of good news today?

SPEAKER_02 6:15

All right, guys. Well, this is one that is a good news because there is some restitution. Uh, there's some veneration for someone that was targeted by the Biden administration. The article headline says pro-life hero. Mark Houck celebrates winning seven-figure settlement against Biden DOJ. The background of the story is Mark is a Catholic. He's got seven kids, and he and his son, uh, part of a pro-life group. It's 40 Days for Life Institute of Law and Justice. They are the ones that represented Mark. Uh, but Mark was outside of a Planned Parenthood clinic. He and his son, and they were praying. And I think they were holding signs too, but they were just praying uh for what was going on. Planned Parenthood had hired someone to be an escort, quote unquote, uh, to be able to bring in women who wanted to get an abortion without having to be harassed by someone asking if they could pray for them. And I say that a little tongue-in-cheek, how ridiculous that is. But this escort I came out and started berating Mark and his son. And so Mark and his son scooted further down the sidewalk to get a further away from the entrance. And the escort began following them, yelling them, and he got up in the son's face. And at that point, Mark stepped forward and pushed him back. Well, then when Mark pushed him back, he was charged. Uh ultimately the the Biden DOJ, the U.S. Department of Justice, they alleged that he assaulted this man because uh charging him under, I'm I'm trying to read what the article says, um, charging him under intentionally injuring, intimidating, or interfering with or attempting to injure, intimidate, or interfere with a person who provides or assists in the provision of abortions to federal charges. So all of this, when the guy starts screaming and cussing at his son and he pushes him back, and then they say, Oh, all right, well, you touched us, so now you're going to jail. And that's basically what happened. The FBI raided his home. Uh and like he knew charges were coming, but instead of somebody saying, Hey, will you please come down? You know, present show up at the courthouse, come down. He he wasn't resisting. They weren't being violent or crazy. But one of the things we saw a lot from the Biden DOJ, and this was certainly true with some of the people like the praying grandma from the January 6th scenario, someone that was just there praying and not being violent. And when the FBI showed up and they were told to use these flashbangs or whatever, like they wanted to make it as intimidating as possible to really just kind of punish the people that have been part of anything against what the Biden Department of Justice wanted. Uh, that that's essentially what they were doing. And so they went to Mark's house. FBI does this early morning raid, it's very traumatic for the family, for all of the kids. They put them in handcuffs, they take them to jail, et cetera, et cetera. Well, the good news is that he did just win a million-dollar lawsuit. Uh, the the bad news is it took him four years to get it. But that this is one of the things that even the article highlights what a difference an administration makes. When you have an administration that wants to punish people for doing something that is constitutionally legal in every understanding, you can stand on a public sidewalk and and you can pray. And that's not considered interfering with somebody, especially when you're not blocking the entrance. It's that they were not on the sidewalk right in front of the door and using their body as a shield. That's not what they were doing. And yet that's what the Biden DOJ essentially charged and targeted them with, and then with assault, because when somebody comes up and you know cusses in front of your kid and you push that person back and tell them to stop and leave your kid alone, and now you've assaulted somebody. Just how crazy. And again, the article highlights the difference an administration makes when you have one administration that wants to punish people for trying to protect innocent life and defend their children from being cussed out by crazy people. And you then have the Trump administration in contrast to the Biden administration, who's actually working to bring restitution and justice to some of these scenarios, overall, just really good news.

The FACE Act And Unequal Sentences

SPEAKER_01 10:23

And Tim, the other thing I find so fascinating is I was looking um when this article came out, I was looking at some of the Biden stats that the Justice Department has just released. And they were looking at um during the time that Biden was president, they had this that they're protecting, and Mark Halk was prosecuted under the FACE Act, freedom of access to clinics entrance. And so they said he was blocking the access, he was intimidating people by praying, even though he moved down the street. And as you point out, that flashbang at night in front of the seven kids, they handcuffed daddy, everything was wrong about that. But they pointed out, the Justice Department just pointed out that the Biden administration, on average, was getting 24 months in jail for those who were praying outside abortion clinics. Now, during the Biden administration, there were hundreds of documented instances of firebombings of pro-life pregnancy centers and clinics and violence and attacks. And on average, they were giving the violent people 12 months in jail, but they were giving the praying people 24 months in jail. And that's how twisted it was in the Biden administration that just simply praying is considered so abominable to them that they doubled the time that they gave for violent protesters who actually were burning down churches, burning down abortion clinics, et cetera. Crazy stuff out of the Biden administration. Good thing it's being rectified now, and great to hear that that Halk got that$1.1 million settlement. That's great.

How To Bring WallBuilders Speakers

SPEAKER_00 11:55

Yeah, and the great thing about the the the dollar figure is the the deterrent, right? It it will hopefully help to prevent this uh from happening in the future for sure. Hey, let's take a quick break, guys. We got more good news when we return. You're listening to the Wall Builder Show.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

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.

Disney Returns To Gendered Greetings

SPEAKER_00 13:14

Welcome back to the Wall Builder Show. Thanks for staying with us. Good news Friday the day. And David's got the next piece of good news.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

This one actually goes back to the glory days of Disney. Uh, before Disney went, woke DEI, did all their crazy stuff when they had really high market value and share, and they were really uh a very popular institution. Uh, they had some different practices than what we see.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

Uh, Dad, out of curiosity, um, when you say back to the glory days of Disney, what movie do you think of? Oh, man. When you think of the glory days of Disney. Is this like the computer war tennis shoes? Is this like uh Bambi? Like, what is the glory days of Disney?

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Oh man, that's so easy, Tim. It's all the Dean Jones movies, it's Snowball Express and all well, I actually the glory days of Disney, I think, kind of go up through a lot of their animated stuff, even the stuff that they were in 2000, thereabouts, they were still some some really high-heady movies. Well, because I was ready to sing the Davy Crockett theme song.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

There you go. Because that's that's one of the most glorious times of Disney there was. And actually, super, it's super funny when they do the Davy Crockett King of the Wild Frontier movie, uh, and it takes him really to the end because of the Alamo. Um after it was done, uh, that there's been many people right about this, but Disney said that was one of the biggest mistakes he ever made was killing Davy Crockett so early. He said, Man, we should have made so many movies and stories. And then he came back, you know, with the River Pirates and whatever else. It did a few others, but man, I could sing that song right now, and and it would just make me happy on the inside.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Uh I I went back, uh look, all over the years before all the streaming we got now, we we were by VHS so we could watch the Disney movies and show them to, you know, Tim, you grew up seeing them. And then we bought the the DVDs, etc. So I was just curious. We have such a big collection, I wondered how many were out there. And so I spent about a day literally uh going through searching the web for every Disney movie I could find that was produced. And I don't know how many there are, but I know that on Single Space Paper, I had 12 pages of Single Space Paper with one title uh of each movie per line. So it's got to be over 600 that thereabouts. And I, you know, we we probably got 150 or there thereabouts. So glory days, Disney did really well with with basic box office and and the general public up through the 2000s and and and probably even a little 2004, five, and six, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

Well, and that too. It's I mean, it's worth pointing out they were doing some things in the 80s and 90s that there were already things you're seeing being like, well, that's not quite right. With some of the cartoons, there were people slipping stuff in there, but it wasn't as egregious and up front. Where back then you still had to kind of wonder, did they do that on purpose? Was it was that somebody strategically slipping something in there as opposed to over the last couple decades when you don't have to wonder at all. It is aggressive, it is in your face, it is promoting things that are very much contrary to traditional values. Uh, and and I do say it is a caveat because growing up in some of the homeschool world we did, there were people in the 80s and 90s who were already like, oh, you can't watch that movie, it's not good. And we didn't watch all the Disney movies. We that there's there's a lot of things we weren't allowed to watch, but it it definitely has changed over the last couple of decades, which I'm guessing the good news means that maybe it's going a different direction.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Well, yeah, what happens is when you look at Disney, how successful they were in the market and how much the market share they had on entertainment, children's entertainment, and so much else, what you find, and what we've known even up through this year is the Disney institution, the Disney franchise, they tend to, particularly at Disney World, Disneyland, they test every line that they use publicly. They test it, they retest it, they do all these marketing things and test groups and others. And so when you hear announcements, they have crafted that in a very particular way. It's not just a random announcement. And so when you walk into Disney and you get the the Disney greetings and the characters talk to you, and you get the PA announcements and everything, for the last several years as you walk in, uh the cast members talk to the crowd and say friend. And well, and then they talk about being friends, and it's good to have you all here. And for years they said, ladies and gentlemen, and they would say yes, sir, and no, ma'am, and and they would identify genders, and they've gotten away from that in the last few years, and that was tested. And lo and behold, without any fanfare, people have now noticed that Disney has gone back to using genders. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, ma'am, no, sir, and and they point out that that never happens by accident. Disney tests everything, and so they've seen a real change in the way that they're presenting themselves in their parks, and that's because we know they they took a massive hit. You know, people like us wouldn't go to Disney or Disneyland anymore, uh Disney World, and they took a massive hit, but they're making some adjustments, and there's actually some other good adjustments still coming.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

Well, dad, too, I would think that some of those adjustments when they're calling you friend because you don't want to misgender somebody, I would think that that probably was not something that was as thoroughly tested. I think, and this is just me suspicion, I'm not reading the article, you are, but but I would speculate that that was something they were promoting an agenda. And then when there was backlash, that's when they started testing and they realized, oh, people don't like this at all. Because I some of the stuff they've rolled out with, and when you even mentioned like how many movies they've done, that's not including all of the Disney Channel specials and whatever. We're talking like the more cinematic things, but where they've gone, once they had the Disney Channel and have done a lot of the made for TV and and so much of what they have been promoting on that has not been family friendly with traditional values in mind. And so for many of us that have grown up in in a Christian home or want to continue or maybe have a Christian home for our family, it's been very problematic. And again, I think it has been problematic because they've been promoting propaganda, promoting ideology and worldview that's contrary to the Bible. And the backlash, I think, is what has brought them back to that testing, which is what led them to go back to saying, Welcome to the park, ladies and gentlemen, and all of the language they would use. But now it's going back to referencing that we are male and female. Having been in DC most of the week, there's still some places where there's a lot of wokism left. And and I had my wife and girls with me for a little bit, and there were a few places we went, and I looked, and I'm like, sometimes you were seeing men wearing women's clothes and dresses, and you know, we would just do the eye roll and we would kind of uh redirect our kids. Hopefully they're not seeing it. But there's every now and then you see somebody, and you're like, I'm not even sure uh how to properly identify this person because of the way they presented themselves. And it's worth noting, the Bible is very clear God is not a God of confusion or chaos, he is a God of order. It is the world and culture around us that has derailed that. That's where Disney went. But dad, really good news, and I don't know if you have more in that article, but the fact that that Disney finally tested and realized, oh, that's not what these people want.

Former Employee Describes DEI Retreat

SPEAKER_01 20:51

Yeah, they they changed their language in 2021, and and they specifically instructed their employees to say, hello, friends, hello, everyone, and not use any gender. And and so now, and I've known they've been testing stuff. I've been told that Disney is one of the most aggressive at testing every clause and every phrase, at least in the 2000s. So I don't know if they were doing it back in the old days, but uh under Bob Iger and others, and Iger's now in his second run as CEO. But what happened is Disney has gone through a real downturn in people going to the park and people buying their videos. They've had several flops at the theater, and and they're changing things now. And Bob Iger, they brought him back in with all the downturn. They got rid of the super woke guys, and Iger's back in, he's back to more traditional kind of marketing where they'd been. Not that he's conservative, but he was he was a good market analyst. And so what's recently happened is is Disney has laid off a thousand employees. And, you know, AI and all the other stuff with their downsizing and less income. There's a thousand employees that were laid off, and one of the employees just did kind of an online interview. He wouldn't talk about everything. But but uh a guy named Josh Dawes, he was a software engineer for 12 and a half years at Disney and did this this kind of an interview on X, people asking questions he would answer. And some of the people started asking him about this Disney push for DEI and all the stuff. And he he said that he believes Disney's on the tail end of that and they've been moving away from it. He said it peaked in 2020, uh, and they've been on a steady decline since. He says it's much better internally now. He said the vibe shift is real. Um and he he said it's really changed a whole lot since Trump has been elected president, that the whole company internally has moved further and further away from that. And so he said he was a Christian. They said, Well, are there many Christians there? And he said, Well, not as enough, not as many as I'd like to see, but a whole lot more than you would think. And so they said, So, with that, how did all this woke stuff get in? And he said it was a very small and very vocal minority of the company that kind of took it over and just went crazy. He said, Most of the employees were not there. Um, a lot the Christians definitely were not there, and a whole lot of people just didn't want there, but that's what that was what was pushed on them. So I found that interesting. Apparently, that vocal minority that is kind of pushed out of the company now with Iger being back. And I hope that does mean a real genuine shift for Disney, uh, not just market-wise, but philosophical-wise. But it was fun to see that that interview from the inside on this guy who had worked there 12 and a half years and just kind of given his reflection on when he saw it change and start to change and what's happening. So I hope that means good things for Disney. I hope we can get back to where we can enjoy them and support them. Uh, but man, they've they've driven us away for the last several years, that's for sure.

Pastors Step Up In Public Life

SPEAKER_00 23:45

Yeah, it's such a good indication of the of the culture, too, because we know ideologically how crazy they were. And we've seen the videos of of executives talking about how they wanted to groom kids and all this crazy stuff. So the culture just puts so much pressure on them, they had to go the other way. That's that's a very, very good sign. Well, Tim, take us home, man. Final piece of good news for the day.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

Well, I want to highlight some things that have happened this week uh in regard to pastors. Uh, we obviously had our pastors' briefing up in Washington, D.C. this week, which I do want to highlight a couple things. But then yesterday I was at Turning Point Faith. They did a big faith event, three-day event in Dallas. I got to speak at it yesterday morning. A lot of uh friends of the show, guests we've had on many times were there. But one of the cool things that I'm seeing is there are more and more pastors that are waking up to recognize the the need for their leadership in very real ways, which is just very encouraging to me. When we were on our pastor's briefing up in DC, our our friend Congresswoman Mary Miller hosted for us, and she's so gracious. She's incredible, uh great, godly woman. Uh, speaker Mike Johnson came and hung out with us for a while. We got to connect with him. The next day, we had Senator Josh Hawley, and then we heard from Ted Cruz and uh at the Josh Burkin, Congressman Loudermill. We just had so many friends that came by and we're encouraging the pastors for their role. And what was great is in the room, there were many pastors who were already fully committed doing it. There were pastors who uh maybe even doubled down on some of that that were inspired. But the reason I'm bringing it up is because the last really all this week, the last many days, I've been in rooms full of pastors. And as we've been talking about a great awakening and revival in America, if the church doesn't figure out her role and start doing what God's called her to do and leading in some of these ways, it's it's not a great indication for the future of the nation, recognizing that our nation was built by people that knew their Bible, that were often led as the most influential voice in many areas in the founding were the pastors. And we've been in need of that. It's been missing. But having so many pastors, seeing so many this week, that are really starting to get it and walking forward in courage and boldness, it is so encouraging. So I'd say my last piece of good news from this week are all of the pastors that we've been able to connect with all throughout this week who are really starting to step forward in courage and boldness to teach the full counsel of the word of God. Not just that Jesus loves you, which he does, but that you need to live like Jesus and apply his word in every area of your life and the culture. And that's encouraging to me.

Final Links And Signoff

SPEAKER_00 26:25

Great encouragement going into the weekend. Everybody have a fantastic weekend and join us here on the Wall Builder Show next week. If you missed any shows this week, they're at our website right now, wallbuilders.show. Wallbuilders.show, easiest place to always get the program, and then wallbuilders.com for everything else. God bless you. Have a great weekend. You've been listening to the Wall Builder Show.