Welcome And Good News Setup

Rick Green 0:07

Welcome to the Intersection of Faith and Culture. It's the Walt Mulder show taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. David Barton, Tim Barton, myself, Rick Green, we appreciate you joining us. Of course, it's Friday, so we got good news Friday today. And uh, don't we need good news? Come on, we need to we need to know that what what we're doing makes a difference. I love these Friday programs and uh love how David and Tim go gather these stories that most people have not heard about. So we're gonna dive into those. Be sure and visit our websites today, wallbuilders.Show for the radio program wallbuilders.com for everything else, including that one time and monthly contribution. Check that out today at wallbuilders.com. Let's not waste any more time. Let's get into the good news.

Citizenship Tightens With Deeper Vetting

Rick Green 0:43

David, what's our first piece of good news today?

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Okay, guys, my first one starts with I guess it's I don't know how to say this. We've been watching Trump do a lot of things on tightening up immigration, uh, close the borders, uh, make sure that people who come to the United States have the permission in the United States to come and approval, etc. And this is an article I saw that just really kind of caught my attention. I had to think about it for a bit and read it for uh a little while to figure out exactly what they were saying. But it says that U.S. citizenship approvals have dropped by a whopping 72% in 2026. So not only has he sealed the borders, but he's not the and I say he, I mean the Trump administration is not giving much approval for those who are coming. At least so far, it's dropped by, as a, as the article says, a whopping 72%. So when I went in and started reading it, it's actually because the people that are applying, they're doing extensive background checks to make sure there's no criminal activity, to make sure their associations aren't with terrorist groups. They're actually just starting to spend a lot of time um to find out who's coming in. Are are they gonna be a tributor, contributor, or are they looking to get in here and and get on welfare and get free money and whatever? And so I was really kind of impressed as I went through because I again I didn't know exactly what it was was gonna do. But they're also r restoring the version of the civics test for the immigration test. Immigration test has civics in it, and they're always also installing the more rigorous version of the civics test that had been used before Biden. And so they're just really trying to to go back and and see what's there. And so the the the way they explained it, they said naturalization is a privilege, not a right. And I thought, you know, that's that's a really interesting statement. It's not a right, it is a privilege, and they're treating it like one. And so what happens as a result? Uh they're actually looking at tax returns, uh, they're looking at the moral character, they're doing interviews with neighbors and co-workers, and they're just doing a lot to really kind of make sure that what's coming in the United States is is is really significant. And so where we were looking at uh really a couple million, two, three, four million a year coming across uh borders, sometimes more than that, so far this year, they've only approved 173,000 people. And that is a significant drop. As they said, a 72% drop from just a year earlier. And so it's not that they're just uh shutting the border and shutting the United States and saying no immigrants welcome. That's not a draw. They just want to make sure that those that come are going to be a contributor and and not a drain. That that they're here to contribute to the country, not to tear it down. And so it's this is pretty impressive me. And again, it took me a while to go through and read it all and figure it all out. But I think that's a really good thing for the overall health of the country long term. And I'm glad that they're not just looking at at the United States as a landing pad for anybody who wants to come here. You come here, be a citizen, and contribute. We'd love to have you. And that's what America's been all all throughout our history is a place where people from all nations come. American doesn't mean a nationality or a race uh per se. It means someone who's joined to be part of the United States. I love that. So I I thought that was a great story. And again, kind of caught me by surprise because that is such a dramatic change of years and years of recent years. It's it's really good to see.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Well, and Dad, one of the things I think is so good about it too, is not just that we're we're actually being more selective of the people that are coming in, it's also because we have an administration that recognizes that right now, one of the reasons we have a skyrocketing uh housing crisis uh, obviously financially, but just the amount of homes that are available, which of course impacts what the amount is, they recognize we have we have brought in tens of millions. I heard somebody from the uh Trump administration say maybe a week or two ago that now the estimate is 25 million people that came illegally into America under the Biden administration. And so recognizing that we're not in a place to be bringing lots more people in, first of all, but then secondly, to say, hey, if they are going to come in, let's make sure that we're bringing in the right kind of people. That is overall really encouraging. And Dad, I'm chuckling right now, also, uh, because I see you're at the airport. Uh, you are in route uh as we have all been traveling this week. I actually fly out tomorrow. But all of us have been on the road so much. So for people, if you hear background noise, uh it's because my Dad's in the airport and you might hear an announcement of a gate, uh, hopefully not another delay, which is actually why we're having this conversation now. Uh, because American Airlines apparently really likes to delay flights whenever the Bartons are on them. Um, sometimes Rick Green, too. That's that's happened for all of us here on the wall builder Show. Uh, but Dad, I would say overall, it is really encouraging that we have an administration that is thinking of the American people quite strategically and intentionally to slow down the people that are coming in and competing for jobs, competing for homes, etc., and then making sure that we're only approving the people that are coming here to make America better. That is such good news.

Rick Green 6:04

That's great news. I mean, that is exactly that's how we get to the assimilation, right? We've got to, we've got to do that. Tim, what's your first piece of good news?

DOJ Data Shows Crime Falling

SPEAKER_01 6:13

All right, guys. Well, my first one is dealing with a report from the DOJ. The DOJ has information that came out that identified in 2025 violent crime and property crime fell. Now, this is one of the things that as we have heard different pundits talk about uh all of the problems under President Trump. We've had a lot of friends reach out to us. A lot of people ask us to come be on different shows and programs so that we could tell them some of the things that actually had gone on that maybe are the positive things that a lot of people have not thought about or that have that maybe they've overlooked, especially in uh this kind of media cycle where we are right now, where it's gas and groceries or uh the war in Iran or Israel or whatever people want to throw out there, that might bring division, that might bring frustration, that might make people not want to Show up and turn out, all those kinds of things. But the reality is, if if you can remember just a couple of years ago when we were seeing things happen all over the nation, uh, Washington, DC not being the least of them. But Washington, D.C. is a great example where Dad, I mean, and Rick, all of us, we were in DC often, really over the last many decades. We've been there hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times. And we would talk about and tell people that DC is an incredible place to visit. But if you get maybe more than three blocks away from the mall, from the Capitol building, it becomes one of the most dangerous cities in the entire United States. And when President Trump decides that, you know what, DC shouldn't be a dangerous city anymore. He brings in the National Guard, the things he does there. In fact, even when the Democrat mayor phrases President Trump for helping bring an end to so much of the violence that was going on in DC, I don't remember what the the the final number ended up being, but it was it was weeks that they went without having a murder in DC. And this was like unheard of. Nobody could remember the last time it had gone that many weeks without, and I know this is crazy to think about, but this is the reality of Democrat cities is it's very common that when you have that many people and you have people that uh that are in the population, citizens that are rejecting law, that don't have the underpinning moral values of Christianity, it's not unusual that there is a murder uh on average every day or two. There's several murders a week. When you have weekends, it can even increase the rate. And President Trump, what he did with his policies, he really worked to bring safety to the American people. And so the DOJ, uh this is an article that is highlighting it's from Newsmax. Uh it says DOJ report violent and property crime fell in 2025. And the article identifies that in the United States in 2025, aggravated assaults fell 31%, motor vehicular thefts dropped 30%. Uh, it just goes on breaking down the data. Uh, it's down 25% in this category, 19% in this category. And the whole article is just highlighting how literally from 24 of 2024 to 2025, how America was so much more dangerous under the Biden administration than when the Trump DOJ got there, they decided, hey, we're actually going to prosecute criminals. We're not going to just turn these people back loose in the streets. Of course, in some of these Democrat cities, they're still turning people loose. Uh, they're still letting them go on low bonds and you know, whatever judges are determining that are putting these violent offenders back on the streets. But the reality is, because of President Trump's leadership and the DOJ, America is a far safer place. And again, this is just going through all of this different data, uh, burglary, uh, trespassing uh victimizations fell 25%, other household theft victimization decreased 19%, and on and on and on. This article goes. So, guys, I would just say one of the things that I think has been underreported, especially in recent weeks, because there's been so much else in the election cycle to draw people's attention. One of the things that is is being overlooked is how much more dangerous America was under the Biden administration. And one of the significant things President Trump has done. And again, we could talk about this, Dad, even this, I think probably ties in very closely to your good news with being more strategic in who's being approved to become an immigrant into America. The fact that you closed the southern border, that we're not just blanketly bringing people in and we haven't even gotten to the deportations. I'm just saying all of this is a contributing factor to the fact that America is now a safer place. So, guys, overall, really good news coming from the DOJ. Just the data they're outlining of how much safer America is today.

Rick Green 11:06

Yeah, man. I mean, even when Democrat cities are benefiting from Republican efforts, thank you, President Trump, and making the whole nation safer. David, back over to you. What's the next piece of good news, man?

Social Security Records Get Cleaned Up

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Okay, guys. My next story, actually, Tim, this built on your story that built on my story. So it looks like we got a sequence going here. Um, things happening in the government that are actually making the government so much more efficient, so much better, so much healthier, so many things going on. This one deals with 50 million errant social security number records. Now, the reason that's significant is social security numbers are what you use to get federal benefits. And so that's where a lot of money goes is to federal benefits of those who have paid in Social Security and have Social Security numbers and get debt benefits or get uh dependency benefits or get whatever benefits there are. So this number is astounding to me. They just released that they have cleaned up 50 million Social Security records. Now, what are they cleaning up? 17 million Social Security records did not have death dates on them. In other words, there's no death date, so the the money just keeps flowing, it keeps flowing, it keeps flowing, and keeps flowing, it keeps flowing to whoever has that account or is receiving that check. Now they've got 17 million, 17 million death dates to end social security payments that shouldn't be going to people who shouldn't receive them. Then another 25 million records did not have citizenship information. And Social Security is a benefit for citizens that have been paying into that system over their lifetime of work, the deductions that have been going across that time, and then they get their own money that's been withheld from them back later in life, kind of like a savings account in some way, except that the federal government's not as efficient as a savings account, but it's that concept. And so 25 million records were missing citizenship information. So you've got 17 million with no death tastes on them. You got 25 million that didn't have citizenship information, so money's going out and not knowing the citizens or not. And then there were 8.5 million that had citizenship information, but it was inaccurate. It w wasn't correct. So you're looking at 50 million records have just been cleaned up to eliminate how how much fraud would that be? Oh my gosh, I d I don't know how much it is a year. I don't know how much it is over 10, 20, 30 years, however long someone's retired before they pass away. But I mean, just the concept of how much money is being saved just in that one program. I mean, this is three stories in a row that we're looking at. And and all they're doing is fixing government. And uh it's you know, none of us are are huge fans of government. We know it's got a role, God ordained it. It's supposed to do it. But this is actually getting back to government, doing some of the stuff it's supposed to do, at least much more conservative in its outlook. It's not the it is it's not the I don't know, whatever it is that the mama and the papa that provides for every person in the nation. That it's not this is not a dependency government. It is just so good to uh to get back to seeing things really what they should be, much more efficient, much more aggressively efficient, get the fraud out of it, get the lying out of it, get the cheating out of it. It's just good to see. I don't know how else to say it.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

It is really shocking that Social Security has been running out of money. I I can't imagine where all the money's been going, why they think it's gonna be, you know, bankrupt in a few years. Oh, oh, I guess if there's 50 million accounts that you're giving money to that are not actually authorized to receive it, I guess, okay, that does make sense, which by the way, side note, but this is this is like why every every parent, every grandparent out there, when you hear things about like the Trump savings account and Elon Musk saying he's gonna give every kid one of these little stocks for his company. The reason this matters is because the system that has been in place, Social Security, is a very broken system at this point. And so strategically, parents and grandparents need to be thinking ahead for their kids and grandkids. If you haven't opened an investment account for them, or something where you can put in $20 a month, maybe $100 a month if you could, thinking about their future, because the reality is that Social Security very likely is not going to be the safety net for my generation's future that it was, Dad, I guess for your future. Rick Green, you're kind of in the middle. So unknown what it's gonna look like when you get there. But, Dad, to your point, it is really encouraging to see this. And I would even add on when you said, you know, we're not really a fan of government, I would clarify, which I think you totally agree with, we're not a fan of what the government has been doing in this capacity. If government was doing what the Bible laid out that government should do, that it rewards the righteous, it punishes the wicked, it bears the sword. If it did those basic things, we would be huge fans of government. We're not fans of how the jurisdiction of government has gone beyond the intentionality of why God created that institution. It's usurping the role of parents, of families, of church, of individuals. It is not effective in that capacity, but not to digress, it is really good news that the Trump administration, again, is identifying places of fraud, which I know this is a side note. Uh, it's probably gonna be in one of our good news later. If we don't get to this week, it's gonna be the next couple weeks, probably. But but just as we're talking about identifying fraud, guys, how incredible is it that President Trump says, hey, you can keep 1% of all of the fraud that you discover that we are able to stop. Boys, if we can find like Patriot Academy wall builders, we got to team up. If we could find fraud of like a billion dollars, boys, we just made millions of dollars keeping 1% of the fraud we found, which uh yeah, you know, for everybody else out there, maybe this is the new retirement strategy. Uh incredible, but to have an administration that's working to end fraud is so encouraging. And again, finding this now in Social Security Dad, as you're pointing out, it's so great the things they are doing to try to protect the American people and stop the fraud, the illegality that's been going on.

How To Listen And Share

Rick Green 17:28

Excellent. All right, we're gonna take a quick break. We'll be right back. Stay with us. You're listening to the WallBuilders show. Hey friends, Rick Green from the WallBuilders show, encouraging you to share the program with friends and family and listen to it on the podcasts that are out there. There's so many options out there for you to listen to in the car or from home or while you're working in them. You've got Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Castbox. I mean, there's so many options, and we just want to make sure you know we've worked hard to get it out there and make it available for you on all those different apps. Everybody's got their favorite app, so choose your particular app. And if it's not on there yet, email us, radio at wallbuilders.com and let us know about your favorite podcast app, and we'll make sure Wobblers Radio is listed there. But you can listen and most importantly, share it with your friends and family. That's how the program grows, that's how we get more truth in the hands of as many people as possible. And then, of course, wallbuilders.Show, super easy place uh to find all of those podcast apps and to just download right there from that website as well as be able to share it with your friends and family. So check it out today, wobblers.Show, or just go directly to your favorite podcast app, listen to the WallBuilders show and share it with as many people as you possibly can. Welcome back to the WallBuilders show. Going back to Tim for some good news. Tim, what's next?

SPEAKER_01 18:42

All

Rock Music Revival Stories

SPEAKER_01 18:43

right, guys. Well, this is one that uh I think ties into some of the broader conversations we've had for months now about revival in America. Uh, but this is one coming from a direction I never thought I was gonna uh be having a good news Friday on. Um, Rick, you will probably appreciate this. Uh, Dad, I can say for you and I, this is gonna be a little less connected and relevant. But John uh Cooper from Skillet, now we we know John Cooper. He's incredible. Uh, we love how God has used him, his boldness for faith and actually defending biblical morality and biblical worldview. There's a lot of things we love about John Cooper, but what is interesting is John Cooper uh did an interview where he talked about uh a spiritual revival that is sweeping through the rock music industry. Now, we've talked again about revival for the younger generation, but what's cool, guys, is it's apparently not just the younger generation that are coming to faith. He identifies so many people from these uh rock bands. And I'm saying this, Dad, again, you and I probably will not know most of these. Um, Smashing Pumpkins, I probably have heard of their songs. I wouldn't know who that is. Papa Roach, no idea. Creed, I know of them. Um, you know, growing up, we were not that that was not the genre we got to listen to. Um, for me, it was more like Stephen Curtis Chapman, you know, the Michael W. Smith. We got a little in a DC talk and third day. And like that was more the genre of Dad for you. Uh what I remember growing up with like the cassette tapes, uh, were like the Floyd Kramer, the Richard Klaterman, obviously, you know, you're being Crosby, your Frank Sinatra's the Carpenters, uh, Glenn Campbell. Um, is there anybody I left out from the cassette tapes that need to be remembered?

SPEAKER_02 20:25

Come on, man. Ann Murray and John Denburn. Oh my goodness, how many more did I need to go through? You did a really good job of remembering stuff. That's years ago, bro.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

Well, you know, and I was thinking, uh, we could go further because, you know, Dino, the piano guy. I mean, anyway, there's there's lots of them. All that to say is like that this is, you know, the Smashing Pumpkins, the Papa Roach, the Creed, that's not really uh the genre that we were into in our household. Not to digress. John Cooper goes through what is happening uh for prominent rock singers as they're coming out publicly about their Christian faith. And and and the article just highlights this and goes through even Brad Arnold with three doors down, and he's just listing people, the article has quotes from them as they're acknowledging their Christian faith, what God has done in their life, how they have come openly, and now they're talking about it publicly. Guys, growing up, and I'm again, I'm chuckling in my head, thinking all of these musical artists that I was not allowed to listen to, that now are coming to Christ. I still don't know if you know we would go back and listen to them for some of their stuff. Anyway, I'm not getting into that right now. But it's just it's cool to see that what God is doing in this nation, the revival that is going on, it is not just reaching young people, although that's that's probably the most significant group percentage wise. We see young men coming to faith in significant and incredible numbers. But the fact that even these these aging rock stars, as the article identifies, that these individuals are also coming to faith, guys, God is on the move. There's some really cool. Things happening in America. And this is just again good news to see the revival happening all over this nation.

Rick Green 22:07

Oh, I love it. Of course, John Cooper always uh been a big fan of his, first in music and then as a friend, and just somebody that had, I think, the best podcast in the country for the longest time. Uh so man, great one, great one. All right, David, how about you, man?

THC Study Finds Placebo Effects

SPEAKER_02 22:20

Okay, I get to take it home. So this story is really kind of interesting to me. And it deals with some things we we've covered before, really over previous years, as as we saw cannabis, marijuana just getting expanded. You know, Colorado is one of the early states moving to this Oregon, others. And so it has grown, and there there's been all these things. Oh, there's a medical need for this because of the relaxation, it brings lower stress, it takes the edge off people who are stressed. And so there's been all sorts of reasons for, and there are so many states now um that that deal with with cannabis marijuana.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

Hey, so so let me clarify when you're saying there's all these reasons for it, those are not reasons that we believe or argue, those are what people say are reasons. I just want to be clear. So I don't think anybody listening is like, hey, David Barton supports marijuana. But just in case, you know, crazy internet person that's gonna try to clip this and be like, David Barton supports marijuana. No, no, no. This is what people argue, and it's what they've argued literally for years. And Dad, to your point, it was these arguments that led to many states actually passing legislation adopting marijuana in their states. But I have a feeling that's not where this story is gonna end.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

Yeah, that's exactly right. And yeah, thank you for that clarification. Won't anybody make a bad assumption? Because we haven't thought this was a bad idea all the way through. We've shown what it's done to productivity, how that working productivity in Colorado specifically was one of the studies that was early done where when they went to cannabis and and and and TC and other stuff, that productivity went down. People just zoned out, just whatever. And so it has led it's always been a gateway drug for for other drugs, heavier drugs. But what's interesting here is Washington State University just did extensive research on this. Now, what they specifically targeted on was the active ingredient Delta 9 THC. And so cannabis marijuana, whether it's high, low, whatever, that's the active ingredient is how much you have in there. So what they did was they had um they had smokers, um, cannabis users use vape vape cannabis as they normally do. Except in the groups, they had control groups and they didn't tell the people they were part of it. So one group had a a kind of moderate dose, what would be considered 20 milligrams, that's that's a moderate dose. And others in that group, one third of the group had a high milligram dose of forty milligrams, which is pretty hefty. And then the third part of the group had none at all. They thought they did, and they thought they were smoking cannabis and delta nine, but they weren't smoking anything. And so they went through and did all the medical studies, they did all the inter interviews and people, and what they found was they could find absolutely no difference between the three groups. The three groups all had the same level of relaxation, and those who smoked nothing, thinking they were smoking a high dose, they were just as relaxed and calm, and oh, that was great, and wasn't that wonderful. And it's like, okay, you have psyched yourself into believing that this is something that helps you. And we have just proved to you that that it doesn't help you the way. So it was really a placebo, what they gave them, and they had the same results as those who who smoked a high amount or a moderate amount. So it kind of goes back to this really is crazy to have this legalization. Why don't you just put out packages, placebo packages that, oh, this is 40, 40 milligram cannabis and and just have nothing in it and have people think that they're getting really well well from it. So kind of a humor story at the end, but that's that's what I thought was good news. Is that as it turns out, the the hype about how this drug is good for you, that's not really the way that it works out, which is what we've kind of suspected and earned from the beginning.

Rick Green 26:09

Well,

Vote Tuesday And Final Thanks

Rick Green 26:10

David, that's a piece of good news we need to be spreading because unfortunately we've been losing on that issue in so many states. Uh, so at least that's more evidence and data to Show why you know we shouldn't be legalizing this in in so many states. Hey guys, thanks for gathering so much good news for us. Thank you to the audience for listening. Don't forget, obviously, Tuesday next week, it is time to vote. Uh, early voting is over in most states, so you got to plan on Tuesday, no matter how long the lines are. Plan your day for Tuesday to be able to go vote. Thanks so much for listening to our Good News Friday program today, folks. You've been listening to the WallBuilders show.