Welcome And America 250 Updates

SPEAKER_04 0:07

Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. This is Tim Barton. I am joined by my dad, David Barton. And uh this week we've been doing all things 250. Normally, Rick Green is with us, but guys, this week, uh, and I'm saying guys, like Rick is still here. He's not. Dad, this week uh we've had a a bit of a mix-up because we've been traveling so much uh that somebody's on a plane somewhere, going somewhere for all these events. So a lot of cool things happening. This is Thursday, and our normal Thursday program is Foundations of Freedom Thursday, but this Thursday, this actually entire week, is everything 250. So we are focusing and highlighting on a lot of the 250 projects happening. Uh, Dad, you and I right now are up in Washington, DC. We got to uh yesterday speak from the main stage at the Celebrate Uh America, the 250 event, which was super fun. But I think it was like 100 degrees. Uh, it was like 110 uh is how it felt. We were on the stage, the sun's right on top of us. We were cooking. Uh, and so you very wisely took off your jacket and went out uh without a jacket and a button up. I kept on my jacket, so my sweat stains of my shirt did not show. But it was so hot, all that to say. Uh, we are now up in DC for the next couple of days doing lots of really cool and fun events. Uh, actually, some really cool things coming up today in the next couple of days. But we also have a very good friend, a special guest joining us today, Pastor Josh McPherson. And Josh is someone that uh has been on the program before. We talk about him even more than he's on the program. Uh, Josh, before I go through all the things that we love and appreciate about you, let me welcome you. Josh, thanks for being on with us today.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

It's an honor to be here, and please don't let me interrupt you going on and on about how wonderful I am. So I kick it back to you.

SPEAKER_04 1:54

So there's this guy named Josh McPherson, who's this amazing pastor in Washington State. Uh well, Josh, so just two days ago, we had uh Nate Shatzlein on with us. We were talking a little bit about some of what happened in Freedom Con up in Washington. Um, this incredible gathering of men, the largest uh gathering of men for a Christian men's conference since I think this was it 2003. Is that the right day?

SPEAKER_02 2:19

Uh that was the last one in Washington at uh the Promise Keepers event. That's correct.

SPEAKER_04 2:25

So you were able to pull off getting 4,700 people there uh to do something that was an incredibly

Pastors Who Shaped The Founding

SPEAKER_04 2:34

faith-motivated, faith-driven event. Um, it and Josh, we've been talking this week, uh, and a lot of things, 250, about the influence not just of Christianity in America, but even of pastors, of believers in America. Um, that's something you talked about even from the stage today is recognizing that America has been the most free, stable, prosperous nation uh in arguably with the history of the world, that the average length of the constitution and world history is only 17 to 19 years. And we are uh celebrating 250 years as a nation. And a lot of it has been because of the influence of pastors in the founding of our nation. Um tell a little bit of that for a second.

SPEAKER_03 3:14

Yeah, you know, and even with that, Tim, with all the thanks that we have at the museum, because I think we've mentioned before, but I'll mention again, we're the only museum uh that we know of anywhere in the United States that has documents from all 56 signs of the Declaration on display right now where you can see them. Certainly other museums, Smithsonian National Archives, have documents like that, but they don't like the Founding Fathers, and they're sure not going to put it out in a favorable way. So we've got all that up. And with that, one of the other displays we're working on right now in the museum is to show specific sermons and specific pastors that had dramatic impact in shaping the document, the declaration itself, or the individuals who wrote the declaration. And so whether it be a Jonas Clark, uh the pastor at Lexington, it was his church that went out and took on the British in the first fight of the Revolution, and he he's the pastor that was so close to John Hancock and Sam Adams, and they were staying with him when Paul Revere came warning the British are coming. He was looking for Hancock and Adams and knew they'd be staying with Pastor Clark, which is right where he wrote. Or you take a Patrick Henry, uh, what a great orator and leader. And he credits all that to the Reverend Samuel Davies. And then you got the Reverend Jonathan Mayhew, uh sermon he preached, is what the Committee of Three picked up when they created the motto for the United States July the 4th, 1776. It was right out of his sermon. And then even today we're thinking about uh the Reverend John Wise. His sermons were reprinted by Sam Adams from Sons of Liberty, and three clauses in the Declaration come directly out of that sermon. And so just the impact of pastors and shaping that document, shaping the men who shaped that document, and even the wording of their sermons making it into that document is a pretty strong indication. So that's one of the things that I mentioned today is how that that really that spiritual connection. And then you went through Taylor and showed even the founders by name and went through some of them. So that's part of the sit-up to this is we're getting back to a point where, like Pastor Josh, we we've got pastors now who are being able to speak into the community, speak into the civil process. And that's the way it had been from the beginning. And it's nice to start moving back that direction.

SPEAKER_04 5:24

Well, and Josh, as we come to you, one of the things, too, that that's it's worth noting big picture, uh, is even during the founding era, not every pastor was a patriot pastor. And even some of the patriot pastors, it took them a little bit to figure it out and get on board. Uh, and and we have now a lot of friends that are are leaders in this movement of saying Christians, we have to get engage the culture very strategically and specifically. And and some of our friends who are leaders in this movement now, uh, really prior to COVID, um, they would not have found themselves on this side of uh the field, like playing on the team that's saying Christians get more involved. So, Pastor Josh, for you, what was it that maybe uh was the motivating factor that said, okay, I can't sit on the sidelines anymore?

COVID Sparks A Civic Wake Up

SPEAKER_04 6:12

Um, was that always kind of in you, or was there a specific thing that motivated you? And what are you seeing now uh as you are engaging much more in culture?

SPEAKER_02 6:22

Uh well, yeah, I mean, it's always been in my heart. I mean, grew up a patriot, 4th of July. There, my mom put out more decorations for 4th of July than she did for Christmas. I mean, that might be an understatement, but we grew up loving our nation, grew up listening to wall builders, uh uh Mr. Barton, your material, your stuff. So it was always it was always weird when people would say, Well, we don't mix politics and religion, or you know, two things you don't talk about, politics and religion. I was, and I always thought, those are like the two most important things, right? So why wouldn't we A, talk about the two most important things and mix the two most important things because the one flows from the other. And so it was always strange to me. Um, but then as I, you know, you put your head down, you plant a church, and and you're young and you're just trying to do good, get a family, go on, buy a home, build something meaningful and beautiful and um something that contributes to society. I really wasn't politics didn't interest me. I I love talking about it and reading American history and the revolution. I love that era, but I wasn't really interested in politics until COVID, honestly. And and then COVID, um, at least in Washington State. I I have somebody in the Bible belt who are like, COVID was a two-week blip on the radio, they don't even remember. But for those in Washington State, I mean, they shut the state down, they closed this, we're the first state to close our schools down. It was a misdemeanor to leave your home for months on end at a time. Seattle Seahawks are playing football games, strip clubs are open, you can buy marijuana and get an abortion, but it was illegal to gather at church and worship and sing songs to Jesus. Literally illegal to sing songs out loud to Jesus. So we we found a dark underbelly of what happens when a government runs rogue. And as you have said many times, we've said many times, if you don't have a big God in your worldview, you end up getting a big government uh that takes over your entire world. And so I realized very quickly that in we were in a place in our state where good men had backed away, chosen not to deal with politics, let someone else do that. Well, when the good men step back, it gets filled with with with lesser men. And so all of a sudden we're behind the eight ball here in Washington, and there's a supermajority in the House and the Senate, and we haven't had uh a Republican leader for 42 years as a governor and capital gains and income tax, and all of a sudden you're like, why are people leaving and they can't afford a home? How come prices are so expensive? And wait, how much did I spend on property tax last $18,000 last year? Wait, what is that funding? Wait, that's going to fund public schools? How are the state schools doing? Oh, they're a dumpster fire, and you kind of start waking up looking around, you're like, holy cow, if we don't get intentional about getting involved in government, guess what? The government is more than happy to get involved with you, and it's really good. So I would say for me, it was the COVID event as an acute event in my history where I had to sue the governor to open our church. And it it's like that was a new experience for me. I hated lawsuits, and I claim I hope I planned on dying and never being involved in lawsuit was my goal. And and uh I I failed at that miserably because I I my first lawsuit was rather public. 40 businessmen in a class action lawsuit against our governor. And and we did it, um, Tim, because we weren't we're not scoff laws. We're not anarchists, we're not tribalists, we're not scoff laws. We care about rule of law. And through the governor was pretending to make up laws every week in his press conferences because he had taken executive authority over in this crisis, quote unquote. It it it became I realized I got to do more work and understand how the law works so I can work within the confines of the rule of law in order to work about and bring about righteousness.

SPEAKER_04 9:51

Well, and Josh, let me let me jump in real quick because I want you to keep going with the story, but let me point out that this is an important side note for everybody listening. You still had your God-given rights, even when the governor said you couldn't enjoy them. That's right. We we are always able to maintain our God-given rights, but in America, we've always been able to freely enjoy them because they were politically protected. But when you have political leaders that don't have your ideology, that don't support you being able to freely enjoy your God-given rights, then what happens is the people will who are in leadership, who oppose those things, they will look for opportunities to come in and say, yeah, you know, really for the good of the public, we can't let you enjoy your God-given rights. And I say this because in America, a lot of people, I think, come from the position they go, hey, you know, no, we have these inalienable rights, like we're free. You only get to enjoy your rights as much as they are politically protected. And unfortunately, you, along with so many Americans during COVID, had the wake-up call that there's a lot of people who do not want to politically protect my God-given rights.

SPEAKER_03 10:59

That's right. I I would add to that another word that that used to be a big word on this, because this stuff goes in cycles. I mean, some of this was going back in the 80s, 90s, certainly not over COVID. But what what we figured out was if you want to enjoy your God-given rights without penalty, and that was the word we used to use. If you want to enjoy those rights without having any penalty, you better have God-fearing men in there making the policies. Because you do have the right to free speech, you have the right to assemble, you have the right to do all those things, except you might find yourself being arrested for have exercising the right to assemble. So it's always the penalty. You can always do this stuff, and sometimes they call it civil disobedience, which it's not, you're obeying God over man. But if you want to do it without penalty, you better get involved and you better have enough influence on the system that you can back them off when they start trying to punish you for doing the right thing.

SPEAKER_04 11:48

So, Pastor Josh, you had to find this out the hard way, and and you have ultimately, in my mind, started a movement. You're obviously not the only one doing this, but God has put some wind in the sails of what you are doing. You have started a movement, and and the Freedom Con that happened in Washington just a couple weeks ago, not the least of those things. But but walk us through a little bit more, and we got to take a break here in a couple minutes, but walk us through a little bit more. Um you know this has to change. And obviously in Washington State, it's a major co-battle. This is this is not something that even as you're getting involved, you haven't changed this yet. But you are maybe like the Sons of Liberty uh in like the early 1770s. Like you're you're starting to get people to rally together, that you're starting to have some noticeable opposition to the tyranny, to the ungodliness. So walk us through more of the story. How did you get to where you are?

SPEAKER_02 12:46

Well, um, I mean, there's so much there. It was during COVID, uh, we realized that we were gonna have to disobey our government to obey God. And that was a huge thing for us because we're like, we love our, we're not anti-anti-government, we're not scoff laws. And so the level of thinking I was forced to do revealed that I had not thought deeply on important things until that point. And I was 42 at the time. And honestly, uh, I think I'm behind on some of these things, Tim. I'll just be honest with you guys. I I have not thought as deeply as I should on some of these issues, and so I was forced to. So I didn't come to it nobly, I was just backed into a corner. And I I I am I there are many things I am not, but uh, but I I don't like getting pushed around. And so that kind of triggered me. So we wrote a 110-page position paper. It was a white paper for our church, had 116 footnotes, and I I resolved to know more about COVID than our local health district did because if I was gonna make a decision that might quote unquote put our entire valley in danger, because that's what we were threatened with. You're gonna kill the whole valley. I gotta do my homework. So we did our homework, nine lenses to view COVID theological, medical, historical, legal, this whole thing. Uh, and we released that with the opening of our church. The first day we were in our new

White Papers, Rights, And Rule Of Law

SPEAKER_02 13:59

building, you just saw a couple we scope, Tim, was an act of quote unquote civil disobedience, but we corrected our language, as you know to Mr. Martin, it's not civil disobedience if you're if you're disobeying a law that that was unlawfully put in place. Uh and so we began meeting as joyful uh free men. And and what hit me, Tim, was was um if you don't act like a free man, you're not a free man. And it and and and if if if you play along with their games, you start forgetting what freedom feels like. And and then and now you're losing the battle. And so uh that led to that document, it got disseminated when hundreds of pastors and churches used it then to reopen their church, and then five months later the the COVID uh vaccine mandates came. And and and uh I'm not kidding, bro. I was away on vacation. I called into our church, we did a zoom call, I'm on the screen, and we at church we said, if anyone are are you if anyone here is in danger of losing their job because of the COVID vaccine mandates, please come back in an hour and we'll have a meeting about it. 586 people showed up at that meeting. Wow. You know, and so uh what the what the state did was they said if you have to have your pastor sign off on the on the um on the document saying religious exemption. Yeah, religious exemption. And our attorneys were telling us you can't sign for someone else's conscience. That that literally violates the whole point. And so the state was asking us to do something that wasn't legal, so we'd wrote another 150-page white paper on the uh illegality of these vaccine mandates. So pass so I'll I'll put this way trying to pastor my people through the acute local state-driven crisis is what put me in this situation. So I just didn't, I just didn't like, well, I love reading about legal things. Let's talk about it. I was trying to pastor my church faithfully. That's how we got there. That then triggered a series of events where I realized pastors weren't being bold, pastors weren't being courageous, and pastors were using the excuse of obeying the state to excuse what I felt was a a uh um a dereliction of duty when it comes to teaching their people a public theology that actually served the government that they're called to give or withhold consent to.

SPEAKER_03 16:10

You know, Josh, what you described is really interesting because as you were doing that, I was thinking, hey, that's what the founding fathers did, because they had these grievances and the great the British were telling them to do certain things, and they would write these kind of white papers, said, no, no, no, no, here's British law, here's British tradition, here's where we are as believers. And they would go through, and and Sam Adams did this thing where he approached it, here's where you are, your rights as Christians, your rights as colonists, and your rights as citizens, and kind of went in from that three directions. That's literally what you're doing, is what the founding fathers did was lay out the intellectual framework for people to be able to stand on when they said no to something that was tyrannical.

SPEAKER_04 16:47

That's exactly right. And this is so good. And Josh, my dad's right. I was thinking also, as you're saying this, of like John Adams, Sam Adams, so many of the founding fathers, they were writing essays at the time, the late 1760s, early 1770s, and often anonymous. They were just doing it to inform people of why the British were wrong, whether it was the appointed governor, the king, whatever it was, uh in the violation of those rights. So good. Okay, we need to take a quick break. We will be right back. You guys hang out with us. We'll be right back on the Wild Brother Show.

Patriot Academy Leadership Invitation

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Have you noticed the vacuum of leadership in America? We're looking around for leaders of principle to step up, and too often, no one is there. God is raising up a generation of young leaders with a passion for impacting the world around them. They're crying out for the mentorship and leadership training they need. Patriot Academy was created to meet that need. Patriot Academy graduates now serve in state capitals around America, in the halls of Congress, in business, in the film industry, in the pulpit, in every area of the culture. They're leading effectively and impacting the world around them. Patriot Academy is now expanding across the nation, and now's your chance to experience this life-changing week that trains champions to change the world. Visit Patriot Academy.com for dates and locations. Our core program is still for young leaders 16 to 25 years old, but we also now have a Citizen Track for Adults. So visit the website today to learn more. Help us fill the void of leadership in America. Join us in training champions to change the world at Patriotacademy.com.

FreedomCon And A Modern Declaration

SPEAKER_04 18:22

Welcome back to the Wild Brothers Show. This is Tim Barton, and this is a Thursday, which is normally Foundation of Freedom Thursday, but today we are doing all things America 250, really all week. We are, and we have our very good friend, Pastor Josh McPherson, with us, Pastor from Washington State. And uh, Josh, you've been talking about kind of what motivated you to get involved, where you uh really you were church plant and and you would focus on just trying to help this church grow. You're discipling people, your head was down, COVID hit, it forced you to realize I have to do more. Um, and and I want to transition a little bit into some of what happened uh with in your own church, where you are raising up statesmen uh to literally run for office, but also you just did Freedom Con. And we've talked about it on the program before. Uh, we actually on Tuesday with Nate Schatzlein talked about this some. But one of the things I think is interesting today is July 2nd. July 2nd is what the founding fathers, at least what John Adams called Independence Day, because July 2nd is when the founding fathers of 1776, the founding fathers voted to declare independence from Great Britain. It was in over the next day and a half that they work on all of the final wording, the language for the declaration. July 4th, the declaration presented to the public. So it used to be that July 2nd was uh Independence Day, and July 4th was Declaration Day. I say all of this because one of the things I think that was so impressive to me uh in the midst of all of the amazing things that happened at FreedomCon, what I mean, the people you had coming to lead worship and concerts and the speakers and all of the activities, I can only imagine if we have time, you can tell us of all of the man hours, of all of the details. You guys worked so hard for two straight months, and really probably three, uh, to make this happen. But I'm I'm saying all of this. One of the things that happened was that last night you gave a wonderful talk where you were challenging men that we can't just be men that sit on the sidelines and get frustrated and we're not willing to stand up and do something. And you talked about how the founding fathers were working on doing a declaration. And you uh and some of your team members or staff at church, y'all worked on an amazing declaration that you didn't have people sign. And again, I think it's great that we're having this conversation July 2nd, because literally this is not that this is when 250 years ago they have voted for independence. Now they're like, hey, so what do we tell people? Like, what are the words? And you were able to write up words for a declaration of independence from George, Washington. Uh, and and the reason is because you were in the town of George, the state of Washington, which was just providentially beautiful. Um, but but Josh, when you walk through some of what you did in that declaration and why you thought it was so important that every man of that conference who was willing to come put their name on the line.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

Well, there's a lot of reasons, uh, Tim. We talked about, you were pointing out the fact that the most logical conclusion for every man who signed the Declaration of Independence was they would be dead within a week. There's something clarifying when a man is willing to put his name on the line for his convictions, even if it means he loses his life. And I think one of the things that's been lost in our day is men have had no way to put their name on the line. And so while our founders were throwing off the bonds of tyranny in a revolution, what's needed today is not to throw off the bonds of a tyrannical government. We love the founding of our nation. We love the declaration, we love the constitution. Ours is the work of reformation to reclaim the ruins of old, like Nehemiah's work with the walls of Jerusalem, that have been lost. And so we wanted to be very Clear that we're not here as tribalists or anarchists or scoploss to throw off our government. We're here to remind our government of the lane it's to be in and to call men back to loving the foundations that were laid that you men have given your life to so articulately uh explain to people were the most profound outworking of a biblical worldview as expressed in a government form, maybe in the history of the world. And so we just had a sense that men were wanting to we actually started in DC, bro, at our last DC briefing. We got done that night, and we were walking the Jefferson uh memorial with you guys, and I was on like on Mr. Barton's bus, and you were on the the other bus that you guys so generously rented for our pastor group. And and about three guys came up to you and they were like, This has been such an awesome day. I want to sign something. I want to like put my name on something. And it was just this desire to like stand up and be counted. And there's the one signer that you tell the story of he he writes the location of his of the town he lives in to make sure that if the king wanted to find him, he'd know where to find him kind of thing. You know, I want to make sure that that I don't get confused with other guys that might have my name. And so we wanted to call men to stand up and be counted, especially in our state. And we I realized Olympia is dark because men carrying a light aren't going there. And so it

A Summons To Christian Statesmanship

SPEAKER_02 23:12

was really a summons to statesmanship, a summons to stand up, be counted. One of the great things about the the Black Robe Regiment that you guys have helped me understand is these were these were renaissance men. They could shoe a horse, they could they could cut a tree down, they could build a log home, they could they could tie off an artery, they could quote the poets and the stoics, they they could have a conversation about philosophy, and they could write a declaration of independence. They weren't one-dimensional men. They could kill and skin a buffalo, and they could write poetry, and and and and they could they could talk about the highest laws of Blackstone's theories of law. So um I want to call pastors to that kind of renaissance kind of man. You got to read deeply, you gotta read widely. I mean, we've laughed, Tim. I love you so much. You guys are one of the smartest men I know, but all the text messages I get from you are pictures of hogs you're shooting down in Texas. Like, you know, yeah, you're you're men's men. So so we wanted to write something. We call the George Washington Declaration of Freedom, a summons to Christian statesmanship. And it was the best of our ability to articulate how we're feeling about this moment that we're we are in, so that we're not just fighting from the hip, but we're coming across as thoughtful, reflective, intelligent men who are staking our grievances in the word of God and calling our people back to the word of God.

SPEAKER_04 24:30

And and Josh, this is something that uh we're we're almost out of time. We really don't have time to go very far in this. Um, but the conference you did, uh again, I think it's one of it will be looked back. And I think people, especially that were there from that region, they're gonna go, man, something spiritually significant happened to that conference. I fully believe that. But one of the cool things is you talked about, you know, maybe we should take this conference on the road. Maybe we should go to some other states. Um, so and and by the way, whether it's red or blue, right? Whether it's really dark or light, every state needs to have people that stand up and maybe sign their name on the line. Um, that actually what was so cool is you read the entire declaration. And and and like you, you just barely teased it. You're like, guys, I'm gonna read it. And afterwards, I'm gonna give you a chance to sign it. You're broke, you're like the first paragraph in. And it was like thousands of guys, yeah. Oh, it was like field of dreams, right? Like people are just coming out of the cornfields, they're they're on the all of this to say is there is a move happening right now, and and it is in my mind a little reminiscent of like another great awakening. And so there's people listening going, okay, uh if you come into my state, I want to be part, or if you're close to my state, I would be part

How To Follow And Next Steps

SPEAKER_04 25:43

of this. How can they find out more? Where can they sign up and get more information?

SPEAKER_02 25:47

So uh follow me at strongerwaynation.com or Pastor Josh McPherson on Instagram. If they follow me, follow you, they're gonna see it. And they could be prayerfully supporting us. We're gonna make an announcement in probably two or three weeks about a second location we're looking at right now. And if that happens, boy, we'd love to see them there.

SPEAKER_04 26:03

I love it. Okay, so for everybody listening, Stronger Wayne Nation, Pastor Josh McPherson, follow them online. Uh, so much good stuff. Gray City Church from up in Wenatchee, Washington is where they are. Uh, it's so grateful for you, Josh. Thank you so much for being with us and everybody else listening. As we are getting ready today, historically was declaration, or excuse me, it was independence day, leading up the declaration day. This is the beginning of what we are celebrating 250 years. Make sure that as you are thinking through what's going on, think about what it costs for the people that went before us to get us here and recognize without the Faith Foundation, there never would have been an America. Thank you guys for listening today to the Well Voter Show.