Rick Green [00:00:07] Well, it's Friday, Good News Friday at WallBuilders. Welcome to the WallBuilders Show. Thanks for joining us today. The intersection of faith and culture, where we take on the hot topics of the day through my biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. Wallbuilders.com and wallbuilders.show. Yes. I do the intro faster on Fridays because I like getting to the good news as quick as possible. David and Tim Barton about to share a lot of good news with us. David kick us off, man. 

David Barton [00:00:31] Well, this is more like a Monday through Wednesday with news. And I was looking at news today, but I saw good news tucked inside the news. So I'm going to do some news with some good news, tucked inside it. This isn't an article that caught my attention. It had some pieces in it that I was not aware that America had certain policies and I really liked the policies that make sense. I should have known we had them, but nonetheless, the headlines says House Democrats press State Department to disclose Israel's nuclear capabilities amid Iran war. So in the middle of this war with Iran and in the middle of the ceasefire that was going on with Gaza that now Israel has had to whack Hamas because they haven't kept the cease fire. And all the stuff that's going on over in the Middle East. You've got Democrats saying we demand to know what Israel's nuclear capabilities are. Now, this is in the midst of all this rising growing anti-Semitism in America, particularly in the Democrat Party. There's an article we'll talk about probably later maybe on a different program where The NEA, the Democrats are actually being sued by the Jewish members of the NEA because the NEA is being antisemitic to its own liberal, progressive Jewish members that are in their own midst. I mean, it's gotten so bad that Democrats can't even tolerate Democrats if they happen to be Jewish. So in looking at this, it says demand to Marco Rubio that you tell us exactly what Israel's got and the way of nuclear weapons. And so the letter and, you know, just thinking about this, it's like a thief in some ways is like a thief going to your house, knocking on your door and saying, can you show me where your alarm system is? And I want to know if you've got any guns in your closets and, you know they want you to show and disclose all the defenses they have, everything they have that's a deterrent in the most hostile part of the world where they live. They're asking that publicly, we know exactly what weapons they have, which is one of the most stupid questions I think I've ever heard, but it did come from Democrats, so maybe I'm being redundant. 

Tim Barton [00:02:29] Well, it's also worth pointing out that this has nothing to do with America's position with Iran and why we want to keep Iran from having nuclear weapons. And so really all they're saying is we want to make sure all of the Muslim nations around Israel know exactly what Israel's capabilities are and maybe even where. If they have nuclear capability, where those nuclear capabilities are so that if bad guys want to target somewhere specific, they know exactly where to do it. It, I mean, it really is one of those super dumb things that, I mean, Dad, almost to your thief analogy, maybe even though a lot of politicians are thieves, there might be a better parallel somewhere along the lines, but I mean it really, it is that silly. It's like a police officer that pulled you over for speeding is like oh by the way i need to know every gun that you have at your house like no that's that's not what this is about. If you pulled me over for speeding you don't have the authority or even reasoning to say, I need you to tell me every gun that you've ever owned and blah, blah, blah. That's again not a perfect analogy but that's how silly this is. This is not pertinent to the conversation of America's position with Iran. And I know some people might say, no, because if Israel's a nuclear weapon, then it might change the way we view things. How? Why? Why would it change what we do with Iran or the Straight of Hormuz or et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So it really is one of these dumb posturing things that Democrats want to expose people and also levels of irony that with all of the fraud being exposed, for example, in California, that Democrats are passing or working to pass the anti-Nick Shirley bill where you can't expose fraud. So, we don't want the American people to know how much fraud there is in California, but we do want Israel to reveal to all of the world and all of their Muslim neighbors that hate them and wanna kill them exactly what their defense capabilities are. It's utterly ridiculous. 

David Barton [00:04:30] And just to add on to this, just so everybody knows, I know it's a top secret, but Israel has nuclear weapons and Israel has a bunch of them because they're not gonna live in that part of the world with the technology they have and not have nuclear weapons. It's like America not having nuclear weapons, we went through the 70s and 80s with all this nuclear peace and demilitarization and get rid of all the nukes and we didn't get rid of any of our nuked to speak of, except that ones that were too old to use basically. We're not gonna give up our own self-defense and Israel really doesn't care what anybody else thinks about them. They're going to defend themselves. They're the size of New Jersey and a land mass that Middle Eastern areas, it's much bigger than the United States. So, they're the little tiny country in this huge, massive land area surrounded by enemies who wanna wipe them out. I guarantee you they've got nuclear weapons. They have too good of intelligence, too good a scientist, not to. So it's silly, but now they're saying. Well, we want to know exactly how many Israel's got. And as you can imagine, the signers on this would be AOC and Rashid Tlaib and Ilhan Omar and all the others that you would expect to be on this. Now, it's interesting. What I did not know about this is since 1969 back under LBJ and Nixon, we have had a policy of not telling people what we know that Israel holds. And so, this is not a new policy. And there was someone that testified back in March from the State Department that refused to comment on whether Israel had nuclear weapons or not and that would set the Democrats off even more. But I was pleased to find that we've been doing this since 1969 that we're not telling people publicly what our allies hold, what they do, what they're not gonna do. I think that's just wonderful that we got those kind of secrets and we're keeping them. And I expect Marco Rubio to give this all the attention that deserves, which is nothing more than the laugh at them when he gets the request. At least I expect that. 

Rick Green [00:06:30] All right, taking it over to Tim. Are we staying in the Middle East or are we headed somewhere else? 

Tim Barton [00:06:36] Depends on how we apply this next topic of conversation. It's about the Biden administration targeting Christians in America, so I we probably could make some Middle East connections. However, it's dealing with the DOJ releasing information that shows the Biden ministration and, as I say this, that the thing that was interesting about the report, it's not that now there is confirmed information from the Department of Justice from their own records of the instructions from people in the Biden administration to target and silence Christians. That that's not necessarily surprising because we saw that for four years. We talked about how crazy it was. What is surprising is the volume of the targeting coming from the Biden Administration toward Christians. It was a 500 page report that came out, and by the way, the title of the article says: DOJ Releases Report Alleging Anti-Christian Bias Under Biden. Came out from the Epoch Times and it goes through again, 500 pages detailing and they're saying this alleged anti-Christian bias is the way the article says it because that's how articles are reported these days to make sure they don't get sued later for saying something they shouldn't. But when you read what's in the report, you're like, no, this isn't alleged that they literally were targeting. You can go back to the 2023 FBI memo on radical traditional Catholics, which by the way, when the FBI identified how radical these quote, traditional Catholics were, they, they were citing a study done by the SPLC, which of course SPLC now has been exposed to some extent for... 

Rick Green [00:08:21] They're not biased at all, Tim. They're, they're, like the purveyors of truth. They're the ones that decide who the good guys and bad guys are. I mean, they. No, no, they've never done anything unethical. I don't know. I don't know why you have such a negative tone about the SPLC. 

Tim Barton [00:08:35] Just because they paid a dude $270,000 to host a racist rally, that they then fundraise to make $65 million off of that one event. Like, I don't know. 

Rick Green [00:08:46] Wait, you're saying that they rant against Nazis and then they pay Nazis? That's so weird! 

Tim Barton [00:08:50] You know, I just, I can't imagine that there's any bias involved in what they do. 

Rick Green [00:08:56] I totally interrupted you. I'm so sorry. Go ahead. You were on a roll, too

David Barton [00:08:59] Oh wait a minute, you're not sorry, don't lie bro. 

Rick Green [00:09:02] You're right, you are right. I'm not sorry. Sorry, not sorry! 

Tim Barton [00:09:05] But, but to your point, I mean, you know, one of the things that, that, that the SPLC is going to be in a lot of trouble for going forward. All the lawsuits that are, are already being filed, but likely many more to come, because when you look at stuff like what happened to Charlie Kirk, the SPLC had been targeting him as a member of hate at his organization, the Turning Point USA and kind of all of their affiliates, all of the things that had been coming from those guys, SPLC. They, they were in it to some extent, not just encouraging, but even inciting some of this nonsense. And again, this is going back to the Biden's DOJ tracking all the things they did and they identify whether it was with the FBI, the IRS, Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, other agencies that were monitoring, investigating, and applying pressure to Christian groups. We know the people that were being arrested for praying silently outside of abortion clinics that were getting longer sentences than the violent protesters of some of the big riots that were happening in various cities. And so, the article goes on to highlighting this the reason it's good news and not just frustrating because of exposing how bad the Biden administration was. The reason it's Good News is because it's actually showing some transparency a little bit like what happened with SPLC when they were exposed for some of the ridiculous, fraudulent, evil things they were doing, the good news is that this sunlight is becoming a disinfectant. And so, people are now having some exposure to go, oh, okay, so when y'all were saying stuff about how prejudiced the Biden administration was being against Christians you weren't just making it up here are the receipts for those claims you are making. And so, I think the good news is that a lot of this is being exposed and part of why again it's good news, is because then it can be a learning curve for people to go hey, we're not doing this ever again which of course is what the Trump DOJ is now saying. And this was only one example they actually there were, this article highlights. There's also another report, an 800 page report from a department detailing the weaponization of the Freedom to Access to Clinic Entrance, FACE act, et cetera. So, there's a lot of stuff that has come out. Again, the reason it's good news is from the old adage that sunlight is the best disinfectant, that it's showing a lot of what happened and certainly good that president Trump has put a stop to that. It's going a different direction now, but it's great that this is being exposed for what it was. And hopefully now we can officially put a stop to this. 

David Barton [00:11:54] And if I can add to that, Tim, that there was a stat in that report that really captured my attention and it was like there was, I think they said there was like five to 700 violent attacks on pregnancy centers, pro-life centers, burnings, bombings, et cetera. I mean, where they destroyed facility. And on the other hand, you had people outside kneeling and praying across the sidewalk from abortion clinics. There weren't fire bombings at abortion clinics, it was basically prayer. And the Biden administration on average recommended a 27-month sentence for those who prayed and a 12-month sentenced for those who actually used bombs and arson, et cetera. How you can look at violence and say, well, we'll give you 12 months, but if you prayed, you're getting 27 months. That in itself is the kind of bias you're talking about, Tim, that really stands out.

Rick Green [00:12:48] Alright, we'll take a quick break. We'll be right back. With more good news you're listening to The WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:13:58] Welcome back to The WallBuilders Show, Good News Friday, at wallbuilders.com, wallbuilders.show. That's the two websites to check out today. And David, back over to you for a piece of good news. 

David Barton [00:14:06] Well, good news involves the Iran war and the Iran War. We suddenly now see that after Trump said, hey, we're going to hold things off and, and the Straits of Hormuz and I'm not doing anything else. I'm just going to sit there and let Iran stew, if you will, in a situation. And suddenly in the last day, they've come back and said, okay, we were willing to make a bunch more concessions. And I, I got to admit, I didn't quite understand what was going behind that. And I saw a news story. And that news story gave a lot of insight to what I was going to do for a Good News Friday story. So, I'm gonna give them the news story first. And this goes back to Wednesday when we had Congressmen Bobby McEwen on and we were asking why are gas prices rising? And I mean, America's producing more oil than we've ever produced, why are prices going up? And I found this article that said that the global condition now is that global oil reserves have plunged at a record rate. They're lower than they've been since COVID. So, they're down several billion barrels a day globally. So global production is through the floor, including Iran's production. And because even though America's boosting a whole lot, I had not thought about what the global demand is and how much more demand there is even than what we can supply. And so, while we've got lots of oil, it's also supplying across the world. And that's driven the prices across the word way up. So, the good piece of news that I had that I was gonna point to was what's happening with Iran. That Iran is now being forced to the table to make concessions. And it looks like there's three areas that Trump wants. It looks like they're willing to do all three. We'll know more about that probably over the weekend, but at this point, it looks like we're getting close to the very end of this thing. And there's some leverage that again, I didn't fully understand about, but it's the fact that Iran exports so much oil and what they're doing is they're, they're losing, since everything shut down and they're blockaded, they can't get anything out. They're collecting about 1.5 million barrels of oil every day that they can't move out of the country. Now the problem with that for them is they've got about 122 million barrels of oil they can hold and they're almost at capacity. So, they don't have any place to put the oil, they're still processing. They're out about a billion and a half, I think it's a billion a half a week that they lose when they can sell that oil so they're losing money. But the oil thing I did not understand, if they start shutting down oils, according to these oil people who are experts in this area who do this all over the world, if they shut down oil, most of their wells, many of their well will never reopen and they will never be able to go back to the capacity they had. And they were explaining, and again, this is stuff that I didn't understand about the oil industry and how it works, but this is why Iran informed Trump that they're in a state of collapse. They're about to lose their infrastructure. They have the capacity to have billions, billions, billions coming in, but only if they can sell their oil and they can't sell their all because we got them blockaded and they don't have enough space to hold all they're producing every day. So, what's happened with all this and he's saying, look, we'll let you go back to making money. You get rid of all that nuclear stuff. You agree to not be aggressive to your neighbors and he has got three conditions for them. But the production culture was really fascinating on this. So as it turns out if you shut down a well it starts getting water if water gets in it goes into molecular structure That they can't get it out again, and it blocks the oil from coming out So there's a process whereby it just seals that well you're gonna have to drill new wells Also, the other things they were talking about is the coagulation that goes and I mean it's all stuff that I just don't quite understand how it all works except it's really clear that if Iran's wells get shut down if they don't get this thing fixed really quick they're not going to be exporting oil. And if that happens, they going to lose a whole lot of their oil fields and a lot of their future wealth, which is going to make them a much poorer nation, which is going make them open for revolutions that they don't want if they can keep control. So, Trump, you know, again, has got these guys put in a box and the fact that in the last 24 hours they've come and said, hey, we're willing to make greater concessions. We're willing to do other stuff. He, he's just let them stew. And I was one that did not quite understand the pressure that was on them from letting them stew, which obviously Trump did, and it looks like it's producing good results. So, that war may be coming to a quicker end than it looked like it was even a week ago, and that's good news 

Rick Green [00:18:42] Yeah, you know guys I'll throw in there on that, on that specific issue, the, you know, there's, there's some people saying that President Trump is violating the War Powers Resolution of 1973. And, you, I would argue that's an unconstitutional resolution anyway, cause the President has the authority to be Commander in Chief and execute the laws and do all those things. And Adams and others, early founding presidents, had declared and undeclared wars and didn't ask Congress for permission for a lot of those things. But, having said that, he's been so smart in how he does this. So, you know, they did the ceasefire just long enough and it just the right time, to get under the 60 days and then, you know, now things will start back up and it'll be a fresh clock on the 60 days now, granted there's going to be some in Congress that say that's, you know it's, it's cumulative or whatever, but, it just, I, I just have to admire the masterful way that this whole thing has been done. And I'm like you, David, I was, I was getting not, not frustrated, but I was questioning. I was like, you why isn't he just going harder and finishing and? And I didn't realize a lot of these things you're talking about that, that pressure is just mounting in a huge, huge way. So yeah, we've all we've always said, hey, trust the guy in the room. This is a good negotiator. He's, he's the one getting all these great Intel briefings. He knows a lot, a lot things that we don't know that are, that are happening. So I would expect us to get more good news and more stories like that in the coming weeks. Tim back to you, man. What's our next piece of good news? 

Tim Barton [00:20:01] Well, this one deals with someone Trump just nominated for Surgeon General. And I got to say, guys, when I was reading the article, I, since Dr. Fauci, I just have a different feel and skepticism for a lot of a high-level appointed doctors that are going to give us medical advice on a high level. Obviously, Dr. Fauci was not a Surgeon General under Trump, but he worked with Trump's surgeon general Vivek Murthy, I think was the guy's name. Anyway, not to digress the good news about this one. Dr. Nicole Saphier is the one that President Trump has nominated to serve as US Surgeon General. Why it is good news is not only was she a practicing doctor who did a lot with women's health specifically. She was a radiologist, was director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth. She's a board-certified diagnostic radiology. I'm reading her titles right now, but ultimately, she helped women who were having to do the early checks and navigating and going through and hopefully surviving breast cancer. But why it's a cool story is because, and by the way, this article is from Life News. And so, they're gonna highlight some of the pro-life side of her story. And it really is cool. She was someone who got pregnant when she was 17, and she's been very open about her journey. She actually has a book that has come out called Love, Mom. Love comma Mom. And it is all about the greatness of motherhood and in an era where we see a lot of young men coming to faith. But it's really interesting to break down some of the dynamic that the young men tend toward conservative and young women overwhelmingly are liberal. Young women are not looking to get married and this is overall, if there's young women listening to our program, you might be in a different category, but generally speaking in America, young woman are not looking to be wives and mothers is not one of the ambitions they have. They've bought into a lot of this woke feminism, non-biblical thoughts on the value of motherhood and family. Not to digress too much, her story is that she and this is part of her testimony in public interviews, is that she chose to save two lives, hers and her son's. And the article goes through giving lots of details, but ultimately, it's something that is an encouragement, even her book is encouragement to young women to choose life and choose motherhood. And guys, it's been a minute since we had a high-level medical professional in America that was encouraging things like choosing life and choosing motherhood, so this is really encouraging. In the midst of a culture that does not seem to be going overwhelmingly pro-life. Definitely something, by the way, as everybody listening, one of the areas we need to make sure we help disciple rising generations. The value of life that God is the author and giver of life and so many thoughts that go into that. But the fact that we have a US Surgeon General that is someone that shows life and has a book encouraging young women to choose life and be a mother, guys, that is really encouraging. 

Rick Green [00:23:14] Well, it's a good, it a Good News Friday to share that Tim. Cause this weekend's Mother's Day. I hope you guys knew that and that you're prepared for Mother's day. I just wanted to help you out by just kidding, Justin told me on the break so, our producer saved me because I had forgotten his Mother's Day this weekend, but excellent piece of good news there. And I'm sure we'll all now have two days to get a really good card. So we're way ahead. 

Tim Barton [00:23:37] Well, I think guys isn't this like the husband hack that you just keep a couple of really good gifts in a cabinet somewhere. And that way, when it comes up, you're like, I knew it, this is for you, I was so ready. So, you just-. 

Rick Green [00:23:48] That's a future book right there, husband hack, that's pretty good. 

Tim Barton [00:23:50] You shop ahead, you have the right cards, have some good options, some good gift options. Yeah, it's no problem, I'm always ready. 

Rick Green [00:23:58] That is, where have you been all my life, Tim? I could have saved a lot of pain right there if you'd given me that advice a few years ago. All right, David, we got just a couple minutes left. You got a fast piece of good news to finish this out? 

David Barton [00:24:08] Yeah, I love, I, I loved the way this article starts. It says, Not Everybody is a Winner. And I love that because we went through the softness of the last 20 years that everybody's a winner, I'm sorry, when you run in a race, where you compete on the court, anything else, there's only one winner, not everybody's, a winner and we convinced for everybody that they are winners. Trump is going back to instilling competition for American youth in education, he's brought back the Eisenhower, Physical Fitness Test for kids in school. It was started in 1956 with Eisenhower. I remember seeing the videos under JFK just how fit America was. And now we've really become very health problem oriented because of all the obesity, massive amounts of obesity. America's never had amounts this high and all the health problems that go with it. But now we're going back to schools are now going to be required to go back to that physical fitness test. Students are gonna have to do things like a one-mile run, pull-ups, push-ups setups, a shuttle run. All sorts of things that have not been part for a good while and that that self-discipline is so good in so many areas. I'm a firm believer that when you keep your body in shape You also help keep your spirit and your mind in shape definitely your mind your spirit is not necessarily tied to the body in that way. You know, the scripture is what you need there. But I do know that good physical fitness is really good for mental sharpness as well. And so just seeing the nation go back to that kind of emphasis where we're willing maybe just suffer a little pain to get the result rather than just gratify every wish we have and every desire we've had. Which we've been told do for 20 to 30 years. This is it's a small thing but it's big thing to me and going back and putting that physical fitness test back in and having competition back again with young people. I think it's really good for the nation 

Rick Green [00:25:56] Yeah. And I would say, David, you know, not obviously your internal spirit, but certainly your kind of your emotions, your, your attitude, right? A merry heart doeth good, like a medicine and a broken spirit drieth the bones. And, and there's something about physically working out that, that boost your, your emotions and your, and your spirit and they're in the right way. 

David Barton [00:26:12] And I'll add, Rick, that the self-control that you get from having to really, as scripture says, buffet your body, you can also learn to control your spirit a lot better and your emotions a lot better when you learn to control your body better. So, I think it's got a spiritual aspect, well, as you're saying. 

Rick Green [00:26:28] Well, I will admit that as you were rattling off all of those things, pull ups, push-ups, everything else, I was I was kind of getting worn out already. Just hearing you make the list. So, we're out of time for today, folks. Lots of good news for you. Hope you share that with your friends and family. Have a fantastic weekend. You've been listening to The WallBuilders Show.