Welcome And Course Setup

SPEAKER_02 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. I'm Rick Green, America's Constitution Coach here with David Barton and Tim Barton, and we've got a special programming for you from Rebuilding Liberty. If you want the entire course, it's available to you right now at Patriotacademy.com by signing up as a coach, and the videos will be in your dashboard. So not only listen to it like we can do here on the radio program, but be able to watch the videos as well. What we're gonna do now is go ahead and give you week two. We're gonna go ahead and jump into week two or episode two, restoring religious liberty. You're gonna love this. A lot of great information, a lot of great action steps as well. And uh and we'll get, you know, we'll get um uh basically a uh a broad range of action steps so that you're not you're not pigeonholed into saying, well, I can I could do that one, uh, but uh, you know, I or that one's too impossible for me. No, we're gonna give you lots of options. So with one of those, you're gonna be able to do. And in each of these episodes, there's multiple action steps for you to choose from. So that may not make sense yet, but it will as you listen to the episode. So let's jump right in. This is Rebuilding Liberty, episode two, called Restoring Religious Liberty. The purpose of this course is to make sure that they know why that flag is worthy of being waived.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

Wherever you are watching from, we're not rebuilding a structure without giving the right foundation.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

And our burden should be to transform a moment into a movement. The entire globe is moving towards the right. Recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States. I thought our founding fathers were a bunch of atheists, agnostics, and deists who wanted a secular public square who didn't want the Bible in schools. Fight like it's your last breath. But know this: the truth is over the facts that God's not giving us fear to fear. What a power loving us on mine. What do I want my legacy to be on the way out? That I was safe or that I was dangerous.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

No, this nation is not perfect. I'll take America for any other country or nation on the face of this planet. How about you?

Introducing David Barton’s Framework

SPEAKER_02 2:21

Welcome back to week two of Rebuilding Liberty. Last week we began to just kind of get the big picture of what we're doing. We went through the Declaration of Independence that we'll be celebrating in just over a year. We talked about those principles in the Declaration, but tonight we're really gonna dive in to those foundations. We said last week from the Declaration of Independence that we should lay our government and its foundation on the principles and organize its powers in such forms as we think would most affect our safety and happiness. So tonight we're gonna talk about those principles that we're laying that foundation on. And our master bricklayer tonight that is gonna be teaching is one of my mentors. I think the greatest historian alive in America today. He is America's premier historian, read more of the Founding Fathers than anyone alive today. I would even argue he probably has retained more than the next 10 historians combined. It's absolutely incredible what David Barton has done for our country. He's literally the George Whitfield of our day. He's our Nehemiah, and I'm proud to call him a mentor. I first found David Barton when somebody handed me one of those old cassette tapes. Anybody remember those? Yeah, they handed me this cassette tape, and I hated history up to that point. So boring. I just, you know, all you did was memorize dates and names and places. And I popped in that cassette and history came to life. I could see what was happening. I was literally watching history happen through the eyes of the people that experienced it. David's an absolute master at bringing that to life. So I fell in love with it. I started gobbling up everything he put out. I had this box in my truck. I called it my university on wills, and I had all of his cassette tapes. I was memorizing everything he had. Then I started using it as I go out there and speak. And then one day I'm giving this speech and I had no idea his parents were in the audience. I'm using all of his material. And uh they they didn't used to tell it this way, and he would probably deny it, but uh I'm pretty sure his mom went to him and said, Hey, this kid has stolen all your material. So you might as well hire him. So that's how I got connected to David and Cheryl, and they've been wonderful mentors to care and me both, and we're thrilled to be a part of Wall Builders. I can genuinely say it's the professional honor of my life to have learned at this man's feet for the last two decades and to be able to march into battle after battle with him, and we are blessed to have him tonight to help us rebuild liberty. Y'all welcome your master bricklayer for the night, David Martin. Appreciate you, brother.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Thanks, man. Hey guys, good to

1962 Court Rulings Remove Prayer

SPEAKER_01 4:40

be with you. Now, I want to take you into history that's probably a little more recent. People actually in this room, some would have been alive at the time of this history. And it goes back to actually what happened in 1962. It's part of legal history. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1962, they came down with a decision that was called Engel versus Vital. And that decision, they said, you know, we've had prayer in public for a long time. We've had prayer in schools for a long time, but we're not going to do that anymore. And so what they did at that point in time, they said, no, prayer in school is no longer constitutional. Now, at this point in time, we're coming up on two centuries under the Constitution. We've done this for two centuries, but it's not going to be constitutional anymore. Within 12 months and two more decisions, Japan and Shemp and Murray, they said, and by the way, this thing about using the Bible in schools, we're not doing that anymore either. Now, this is something that has been in part of education all the way back prior to the Constitution, but they said, we're not doing this anymore. And so in a 12-month period of time and three decisions, they've completely changed the culture of America as far as religious expression goes. And so this is what happened. This is where progressivism really became standardized in the court. They just kind of made up stuff because time to make progress. So what you find is this approach that they took, it had no historical legal precedent, and they acknowledged that in their decisions. They said, what we're doing here has no historical, no legal precedent, it's just time to do something new in America. What happened was so many cases came to the court that you start saying, wait a minute, does the First Amendment, what does it mean now? And the court said, Well, we'll tell you what it means. The First Amendment is essentially what we will tell you. The court started getting so many challenges to public religious expression that they said, look, we can't take all these. We're gonna have to come up with a standard whereby you can know what is and isn't constitutional.

The Lemon Test Changes Everything

SPEAKER_01 6:21

And that case was in 1971, it's called Lemon versus Kirchman. And what they came up with was a three-pronged test. It's now called the Lemon test because it came out of the Lemon Beast Kirchman test case. And they said, okay, if you want to know if something's constitutional, the number one thing to tell you if a religious activity is constitutional, if its primary purpose is secular.

SPEAKER_04 6:40

There's a case called Lemon. It is aptly named, it is of a case. And really it goes back to it's our establishment clause. We the very first thing when you get into the First Amendment is not establishing religion. And that's because, of course, our founders came from like the Church of England. And we don't we didn't want there to be a nationally established church. But in Lemon, in the early 1970s, they said, Well, we think it means more than that. We think it means that anywhere government is, religion can't be. And so our whole lives, I mean it's been for 50 years. Yeah. Uh nativity scenes are banned on the on the lawn of a county or a city. Uh a menorah for Hanukkah.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

Um, how many cases have you tried over a cross in a cemetery? All over the place.

SPEAKER_04 7:25

Yeah, yeah. And and even the stuff we see in schools with religion happens at school and it's like there's a fire. Why? Because any of that is in the constitution? No, because of the Lemon case. It was cited over 7,000 times in 50 years to attack religious freedom.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

The number one thing to tell you if a religious activity is constitutional, if its primary purpose is secular. Now, can you name a religious activity whose primary purpose is secular?

SPEAKER_02 7:54

All

Break And WallBuilders Resources

SPEAKER_02 7:55

right, quick break, everybody. We've got to interrupt for just a second here. Stay with us. You're listening to the Wall Builder Show.

SPEAKER_03 8:03

Okay, we want to let you know about a new product we have here at Wall Builders called Lives, Fortunes, and Sacred Honors, the Signers of the Declaration. Like most Americans, you might be someone that you recognize some of the names of the Founding Fathers, but do you know their story? We want to help remedy that. My dad and I have written biographies on all 56 signers of the Declaration to help reintroduce people to the men who literally sign their names on the line for the sake of the nation. And when they did this, they knew that they were essentially signing their death warrants. They were risking everything for the hope that they might be able to purchase freedom for the rising generation with their lives, their fortunes, and sacred honors. And in spite of the hardship that every one of them endured, none of them recantored or backed away. Now, if you don't know their story, you can get to know all 56 of them. Go to wallbuilders.com and look for the book Lives, Fortunes, and Sacred Honors, the signers of the Declaration. This is Tim Barton from Wall Builders with another moment from American history. The year after the American War for Independence ended, we began addressing the issue of Muslim terrorists in North Africa who were attacking American ships and killing and enslaving American seamen. Congress dispatched John Adams and Thomas Jefferson to negotiate peace, and when they asked the Muslim ambassador the reason for the unprovoked attacks, he told them that it was written in their Quran, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them whenever they could be found. Sixteen years of negotiations failed, and in 1801, America sent its military to crush the terrorists. When that war ended in 1805, the first American edition of the Quran was published, urging Americans to read the Quran to see for themselves that its teachings were incompatible with the safety and peace of non-Muslims. To see the first American Koran and to get more information about America's first war on Islamic terror, go to wallbuilders.com.

The Bladensburg Cross Turning Point

SPEAKER_02 10:04

Welcome back to the Wall Builder Show. Thanks for staying with us. Thanks for listening to Rebuilding Liberty. Hopefully, you're gonna get excited about this and host a Rebuilding Liberty class in your home or at your church or wherever it might be. We encourage everyone to be a part of it. Let's jump right back in where we left off before the break.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Since that time in 1971, the court has signed with the limit test over 7,000 times. Every conceivable aspect of faith and public life has come before the court, and the court said, no, no, no, we gave you the limit test. If it's not primarily secular, it's unconstitutional. And this is where we become a very secularist. So I don't say secular, secularist. It's committed to secularism, it's intolerant of religion. So the whole thing turned in the culture. Now, fortunately, it didn't stay that way. We've had a change, and that change is really in more recent years. That change occurred when we had a Supreme Court that actually started reading the Constitution of the United States. That's a novel idea. You take a note to uphold it. Why don't you read it? They did, and they said, we can't come to the same conclusion that previous courts have come to. In 2019, there was a case that reached the court. It was this is called the Bladensburg Cross. This is a war memorial cross at the end of World War I. And there were about 25 moms in Maryland whose sons had been killed in World War I, and they erected this cross on city land to say we want to honor the memory not only of our sons, but of all those that were lost in World War I.

SPEAKER_04 11:23

We started really going after this four years ago when we had the Bladensburg Cross case, which is a veterans memorial that was put up by mothers who lost their sons in World War I. And it sat there for almost 100 years until the American Humanists Association said, Hey, you can't have this cross. You know, at the at the Court of Appeals, they said, Yeah, you know, uh, why don't you just cut the arms off the cross and that way nobody will be offended and we won't have to tear it down? And we were like, Wow. That's the craziest thing. That was a federal court of appeals judge, and they ruled two to one after almost a hundred years, it was unconstitutional. So when we went to the Supreme Court, we just thought, you know, I just cannot imagine this Supreme Court tearing down a hundred-year-old veterans memorial. So maybe this is the time to go after Lemon. I mean, it's it's 50 years,

Coach Kennedy Case Ends Lemon

SPEAKER_04 12:05

it's 7,000 citations, it really is an uphill battle.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

And so what happened was that same year as when the Coach Kennedy case came to the court, you remember it was Kennedy versus Bremerton, Bremerton School District at West Coast would not let him pray after a football game. Football coach, after the game's over, he goes out, he kneels down by himself, he prays by himself, silent prayer. You can't do that. That's unconstitutional. People might see you doing something religious, and you can't do that.

SPEAKER_04 12:29

And so when we got to the Coach Kennedy case, we were like, you know, there's never been a case at the Supreme Court on the rights of teachers or coaches with regard to their faith. So if we push for this sort of grand slam, get rid of lemon, we might blow the case up. Let's win a really big case, and so we'll we'll have the lemon argument in here, but that won't be our main argument. Midway through the oral argument, just out of nowhere, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch, you know, Justice Kavanaugh and Justice Gorsuch start talking about, you know, I think it's time we might need to get rid of lemon. And why we're just like are you there? Oh, we're we're we're in shock. Our eyes are as big as silver dollars because we can't believe they're saying this. And we thought, but do they have the votes? And then the decision comes down and they reverse lemon. Wow. And I mean, the descent is going crazy. I mean, 50 years, 7,000 citations over. Everywhere a cross went down, it comes back up. Everywhere Ten Commandments was put in the closet, it comes back out.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

And so the court at that time made this statement. They said longstanding, religiously expressive monuments, symbols, and practices require a strong presumption of constitutionality. If you can show us that this has been in the culture for a long period of time, we're going to presume that it's constitutional.

SPEAKER_04 13:45

And the Lemon test was was, you know, it's gone, right? So what's the new test for the establishment clause? What they said is if something is a part of our history and tradition, some religious practice that we've done, then it is presumptively protected. We're not going to say you can't do that. So, like, you know, prayer before the legislature. Well, the founders had a chaplain. Yeah. So this idea that, oh, you can't pray, this takes care of a lot of the ridiculous attacks in God We Trust on the Coin, all these attacks that we've had to deal with. We've had the Pledge of Allegiance. We had to defend the Pledge of Allegiance in federal courts. I mean, this takes care of all that and takes us back to really who we are as a country when we founded and the principles that we were trying to protect.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

So nearly everything that's been used to force secularization on America is now out the door. Now, this is not what most people know about today. They haven't heard about that strange thing. The media doesn't cover this kind of stuff. When you have a pro-faith and a pro-constitution kind of victory, don't cover that. So let's go back to what they said in 2019. Longstanding religiously expressive practices require a strong presumption of constitutionality. This is now what's called the history and tradition test. If you can show that something has a history and tradition in America, we're going to assume or presume that it's constitutional. Now,

History And Tradition Becomes Standard

SPEAKER_01 15:09

how about the Bible in schools? Is there a history and tradition of Bible in schools? Let me take you back and take you back to the beginning, because this is a lot more than constitutional.

Bible In Schools Since 1643

SPEAKER_01 15:18

We're going to go all the way back to the year 1643. That's the year the first public school law was passed in America. The second public school law passed in America, 1647. But all these early colonists that came over, they they brought their kids with them, and they're landing in places where there are no schools, and we need schools because we want our kids to be educated. And so they start these schools. Now, as a result of that, this is the first law book in America. It goes back to 1650. This book is called the Code of 1650. You can see right there the Code of 1650. This contains the first public school law. Now, that first public school law, what's the title of that public school law? Interestingly, it's called the Old Diluter Satan Act. Now that's a fairly interesting title for public school law. And it says this it says, it being the one chief project of that old deluder Satan to keep men from the knowledge of the scriptures, as he had. Every time we went to the scriptures, that's where light came and we made advances. And we're not going to have that darkness here in America. We're going to make sure everybody can read the scriptures. So said when you get 50 people into a community, you you get a teacher, and when you get 100 people in the community, you build them a school. So this is the first public school law in America, the older Luder Satan Act. Now that's 1690. And it's interesting that by the time you get even just several generations later, strikingly, because we educated both boys and girls, this backwood colony of Massachusetts had the highest literacy rate for women of anywhere in the world, higher than France and Spain and England, because you see, we thought everybody needs to know how to read so that you can read the scriptures, and so our literacy rate was through the roof. So even in this backwoods wilderness colony, a higher literacy rate than across the rest of the world. Now, if you go to another year, let's take 1690. 1690 is the year that our very first school textbook came out that was printed in America. Prior to that, we used textbooks that came from the continent, England or wherever else. This is that very first public school textbook, this right here. It is called the New England Primer. This little bitty book right there called the New England Primer. And we use that New England primer from 1690 all the way into the 20th century. This was still used as a first grade textbook. Now, when you go into it, they go through the ABCs, show you how to read, and then after they do that, they start associating certain concepts with ABCs. This is called uh the rhyming alphabet. You see up there, A, in Adam's fall, we sent all, B, heaven defined, the Bible mind. C, Christ crucified for sinners died. And by the way, their S's don't look the same as our S's today, like the word sinner and sin. That's because they had two S's back then, a hard S and a soft S. That was much of a German influence. We got away from that in about 1812. But prior to that, as you read old books, there's that F that often appears as an S. But nonetheless, it continues uh G as runs the glass, our life does pass, H, my book and heart must never part. Now, this is what we're learning in first grade. This is how we're learning the ABCs in first grade. And then you learn the ABCs by memorization

New England Primer And Early Textbooks

SPEAKER_01 18:28

of a passage associated with it.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

I got to do another quick break today, folks. Stay with us. You're listening to the Wall Builder Show.

SPEAKER_03 18:38

Hey guys, this is Tim Barton from Wall Builders. I want to let you know about a special landing page we have on the Wall Builders website. If you go to wallbuilders.com, there is a little box that says Wall Builders is celebrating 250 years of American freedom and independence. Click on that little box and it will take you to the landing page for 250 years of America. And on the landing page, there are several different little boxes you can click on. One of them is for events. It will let you know of some major events that are that are coming up that are going on that you can actually come and participate in. You can come here. My dad or I give speeches. Tell them the stories about the birth of the nation, about the founding fathers, the faith connection in America. There's also a tab for resources that you can click on, and it will take you to lots of different speeches and sermons and documents and proclamations from the founding era. And then there's also a little tab that will take you to the wall builder store with lots of resources, all the things that maybe a hat you want to wear, a shirt to wear, or other wall builders products to read. This is a place to go to celebrate 250 years.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

Welcome back to the Wall Builder Show. We're in the middle of rebuilding Liberty. We've started the week two or episode two Restoring Religious Liberty program today. Let's get a little bit more of that today, and then we'll get the conclusion tomorrow. Let's jump back in.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

By the way, you see the picture of the heart and the Bible inside the heart in my book and Heart Must Never Part. And that's what we're imparting from the very beginning. And you see here, A, I'll be a lessons for youth. A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a heaviness of his mother. That's a Bible verse. B embetters a little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble where therewith. Another Bible verse. C, come into Christ, all ye that labor are heavy laden, he will give you rest. Another Bible we're memorizing Bible verses in the very first public school textbook ever done in America. That's the way every student learned the ABCs, because that's just what we did in education. That's a history and tradition of education. If you go to 1781, in 1781, this is the end of the American War for Independence. We have just defeated the British at the Battle of Yorktown. And as a result of that, the British have laid down their arms, and for the first time since we back in 1607, we're no longer under British domain. They do not rule us anymore. And so as a result of that, the king, it doesn't matter what he says. Well, one of the things the king said was that if you live in any English-speaking country, you cannot print a Bible in English. You will use the one that we tell you to use. And so there were several Bibles that were fairly critical of the

Break And 250 Years Resources

SPEAKER_01 21:11

king, like the Geneva Bible that the pilgrims and Puritans brought with them. It was very critical of many bad practices that were not biblical in Europe, and it said so, and kings didn't like that. So they said, no, no, we'll tell you what Bible to use. Well, now that we've beat the British, we're not under that law anymore. So we beat them in 1781, and the first English language Bible ever printed in America came out in 1782. It's one of the rarest books in the world. They printed 10,000 of them. There's two or three dozen left today, and that particular book is is exceptionally rare. And it's striking that in this book, as you look inside it, there are several things that kind of stand out at you. Number one, it's printed by Robert Aiken. Why is that important? Because he's the official printer of the US Congress. He does all the printing for Congress. Congress. And you continue to look inside that, and oh my goodness, there's a congressional committee talking about this Bible. And you continue to look past that, and you see down here that it says United States and Congress assembled, recommend

Congress, The Aitken Bible, And Schools

SPEAKER_01 22:13

this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States. I thought our founding fathers were a bunch of atheists, agnostics, and deists who wanted a secular public square who didn't want the Bible in schools. And by the way, Robert Aiken, as he's going through explaining this to Congress, Robert Aiken told them very clearly, he said, this is a neat edition of the Holy Scriptures for the use of our schools. What a perfect Bible for every school to be able to use. And here's actually his handwritten document saying that to Congress. So you look back to 1782, that's a fairly significant time when it comes to the Bible and schools when you have a history and tradition test. So this is the first Bible printed in America called the Bible of the Revolution, first English language Bible printed in America, the Bible of the Revolution. Then let's go to 1789. George Washington is now president, and we have a lot of territory in the United States that is not yet part of the United States. It's called the Northwest Territory. There's also the Southern Territory

Northwest Ordinance On Education

SPEAKER_01 23:05

and Central Territories. But they said, you know, we've got the 13 colonies over here, now 13 states. What are we going to do with all this other territory? How did they become states in the United States? And so they went through and laid out the provisions, said, if you want to become a state, number one, number two, number, and they went through all the stuff they did. And so it's called originally the Northwest Ordinance because it was passed for the Northwest Territory. Now, 32 states after that came in under those provisions. But it's interesting. Article 3 says, religion, morality, and knowledge be necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged. So signed by George Washington to federal law, this is the provision whereby states can come into the United States if your schools are encouraging religion, morality, and knowledge. That's the way you become a state in the United States. Now it's interesting. We're told today, oh no, education's got to be secular. Just go back and check a number of the state constitutions. The number of the state constitutions say forever in the schools of this state, religion and morality will be taught as well as knowledge. Why did they say that? Because that's the requirement, become part of the United States given us by the founding fathers, signed by George Washington. Secular education was not part of their concept, but then again, the court never claimed that it was and just said we're going to do something different. And now all the legal experts in the last 50 years said, oh no, that's what the founding fathers wanted. No, no, no. Go back to the original stuff. It's quite different. 1790 involves a founding father named Benjamin Rush.

Benjamin Rush On Bible And Virtue

SPEAKER_01 24:29

Now, Benjamin Rush signed her the declaration. John Adams said he's one of our three most notable founders. So out of 250 founders, John Adams says Benjamin Rush is one of the three most notable. So when you look at Benjamin Rush, one of the things that makes him significant. There's a whole lot of stuff, by the way. He is an awesome guy. But one of the things is he's called the father of public schools under the Constitution. And that's because in 1790 he did this piece. He said, you know, we used to be 13 nations. Now we're one nation. What do we need to be teaching in our schools for us all to remain one nation? What do we have to teach to keep us unified rather than having 13 different nations? And so he goes through and lays out in this. And he says, in this, he says, the only foundation for useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this, there can be no virtue. And without virtue, there can be no liberty. And liberty is the object in life of all Republican governments. So here are some of his educational essays. This is where he says religion has got to be central to education. If we want a useful, and that's what he says, the only foundation for a useful education, now you got all sorts of other educations, but if you want a useful education, you got to lay it in religion. So the next year he came out with this piece, The Bible in schools. This little piece right here, he gave a dozen reasons why we would never take the Bible out of schools in America. Now, this is the father of public schools under the Constitution. He started five universities, three still go today. He did so much awesome work in education. And by the way, in this piece, he explains the Bible contains more knowledge to man in his present state than any other book in the world. This is why we teach it in schools. It's the most useful book out there. It has all the stuff you need to know about medicine, about science, about ethics, about law, about business, whatever. And that's what we believed about the Bible. That's why we taught it for so long.

Closing And How To Get Videos

SPEAKER_01 26:16

All right, everybody, we're out of time.

SPEAKER_02 26:17

For today, we will get the conclusion of week two, episode two, of Rebuilding Liberty called Restoring Religious Liberty. We'll get that tomorrow. All of it will be available at our website, wallbuilders.show. And then, of course, if you want to get the entire course, the videos, everything, and the workbooks and thumb drives and all that will be coming soon. But right now, if you just want to get the videos, you can get those in our dashboard as a coach, and that's free. So go sign up as a host or coach at patriotacademy.com. Thanks for listening today, folks. You've been listening to the Wallbuilders Show.