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What Happens To A Nation When Values Stop Voting
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A lot of people woke up after the election feeling blindsided, but our read is more specific: it wasn’t simply a “blue wave,” it was a red side no show. We walk through the numbers and the story underneath them, including what appears to be a major drop in evangelical turnout and why that absence can make normal opposition turnout look like a political tsunami.
From there, we get honest about the church problem behind the politics problem. When Christians absorb culture’s definitions of love, acceptance, and tolerance without the full framework of Scripture, we become easier to persuade with Bible flavored slogans while overlooking what policies actually do to life, marriage, gender, and religious liberty. We also talk about why people rank the economy so high, how fear based “threat to democracy” branding shapes votes, and why we can’t afford to be personality driven in a party team system.
Then we shift into Good News Friday, because discouragement isn’t a strategy. We highlight a powerful Reformation Day proclamation that ties the Bible to America’s founding ideals and God given rights, plus a reminder that Christian holy days still matter in public life. We also share encouraging signs of an undercurrent of revival, including pro athletes who boldly speak about Jesus and the gospel on major stages.
If you want a clearer battle map, stronger biblical civic literacy, and real next steps for the next two years, hit play. Subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show.
Good News Friday Sets The Stage
Rick GreenIt's the Intersection of Faith and Culture, the WallBuilder show, taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. It's good news Friday. I know everybody is looking for some good news, but we're going to first start with some more of our uh kind of breakdown of the results in the election, and then we'll jump into some of the some of the good news stories. And there are some, uh there are a few pieces of good news from the election in terms of some of the ballot initiatives and uh some of the races like Brandon Gill and Steve Toth and others like that. Um, and then there's obviously the good news that you know what, God's gonna work this for good. And we're gonna we're gonna be able to take some of these negatives and he's gonna open some eyes with this and we're gonna be able to come back stronger. We don't have 2024 if we didn't go through 2020. Or 2020-20. Wow, even making up numbers now uh if we don't go through 2020. Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton, guys. All right, we got another 24 hours uh from the election. Another, I started to say eight hours of sleep. I don't know if any of the three of us got eight hours, but uh, but you know, had a little bit more time. First, just initial any initial uh thoughts uh added to what we said over the last couple of days.
SPEAKER_00I think there's a lot of thoughts to add over the last couple of days because we've got a lot more data and we've done a lot more analysis.
Not A Blue Wave A Red Absence
SPEAKER_00I think we can much more specifically point to what what happened and what caused what I think is a surprise in many ways. I don't think anybody saw a blue wave coming. But it you know what what struck me in the numbers, and we'll get into this later, it wasn't a blue wave that that hit on election night. It was the absence of a red, is what it was. It was not that the blue wave was that much higher, that much more powerful. I mean, we were looking just at evangelical Christian voting, and it's down significantly. So many Christians stayed home. And if you're gonna stay home, it's gonna make even a normal Democrat turnout look like a really super high Democrat turnout. And I'm not saying the Democrat turnout wasn't high, it was, but it wasn't the tsunami that they keep saying. It was it would it look like a tsunami because so many of the typical red guys did not Show up to vote. And that's that's the first thing that struck me was.
Rick GreenSo you're you're saying, David, it was kind of like uh, you know, if you've got 11 members of your football team, they're supposed to be out on the field. Nobody gets their whole team on the field these days, nobody has a 100% uh voter turnout. The other side had about eight of their players, and we only had about two of our players, and that's why it looked looked like such a tsunami.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I wouldn't quite go two, I'd probably go closer to five. We had five or six of our players, but even if you're playing matching up one to one, we can't cover everybody they've got at that point. So I we showed up okay, but Christians showed up oh, pathetic. It was really bad on the Christian side. And I I that's what surprised me. I I really thought there was a culture war kind of atmosphere that Christians would Show up and say, hey, we don't want to go into all the transgender stuff that Democrats want to do and all the Islamification and all the other stuff. I I I was surprised that with all that was at stake that Christians stayed home the way they did, and not all Christians did tons, we millions voted, but evangelicals underperformed by some seven million of what they've done in the last few elections, including off-year elections presidential. So about seven million evangelical vote. I said Christian, I'm gonna change that to evangelical, because Christians would include Catholics and and non-evangelicals, but there were about seven million evangelicals, and those are the really conservative Christians who stayed home this election that have been active in previous elections. I that's what stood out to me.
Tim BartonWell, and Dan, I would caveat, evangelicals are supposed to be the Christian conservatives because they're supposed to uphold to biblical truth, but there are people that would fall into the category of evangelicals that supported people like a James Talerico, that supported uh the quote-unquote pastor in Kansas. That's true. Uh, who literally as transgender people volunteering working there at his church, and and there were evangelicals that not only voted for them, I I saw on social media um people that that well, I actually know some some noted churches in the Dallas Fort Worth area where pastoral staff and uh not not just church members, like the leaders of these churches should be the more spiritually mature you would think. They were posting celebratory posts of James Talarico and how excited they are and the progress this means for Texas, et cetera, et cetera. And these would be considered evangelical, Bible-believing, Bible teaching churches. So the other thing I would point out is not only did evangelicals
Discipleship Gaps Inside The Church
Tim Bartonstay home, many of the ones that showed up clearly have not been as trained in biblical truth as they should be. It's it's an indictment on the church in a lot of ways for a really poor discipleship. Um, but but but one of the things again worth reminding everybody, we don't get discouraged in this. This actually is helpful because this brings clarity to the the battle map, right? To the landscape. If we're gonna give somebody directions and we want somebody, we live in Texas, if we wanted somebody to get to Dallas and they said, Hey, how do I get to Dallas? The first question I need to know is where are you? Because if I don't know where you're coming from, I don't know how to help get you to where you need to be. And so we we got a lot of clarity from this last election. And Dad, as you mentioned, there's a lot more data that's come out. We recognize a lot more that uh the overwhelming priority for people was the economy. Uh that there was things that further down the list, that number one was the economy, number two, and this was high, often number one for Democrats, uh, was the threat to democracy. And then you realize, oh, so one side's done a really good job of the framing of the branding that anything President Trump does is a threat to democracy. And it kind of makes you scratch your head and go, hey guys, uh, looking at the election now, uh, do you still feel like he's a threat to democracy? Because he didn't stop you from voting, he didn't stop the Democrats from gaining power in all these places, but that was that was the manufactured fear that was peddled and sold to so many people.
Economy Fear Messaging And Moral Priorities
Tim BartonAnd so when you look at the top issues, what is lacking from the top issues are the things that should have had the higher moral priority, like life and marriage and gender and girls, and you kind of go down the list of and this is not to say that this idea of the economy is not a priority, absolutely it is important, and and we don't want to be tone deaf and pretend like that there's not major challenges and problems. One of the things we also recognize is that President Trump made a lot of promises, and the White House did that they have not that they did not fully complete. And so there was a lot of people that stayed home because they were frustrated with this guy saying there's not going to be a war, now there's a war, or uh that we're gonna deport all these illegals and we haven't really deported them, that we're gonna bring down like day one, we're bringing down all the prices of groceries. It hasn't happened as much as people would have hoped for. I I would remind people that think it hasn't gone down. Uh, if you remember a couple years ago under Joe Biden, it actually was way worse than it is now, but it hasn't fallen as low that it's comfortable for people to be able to have any kind of bandwidth and wiggle room in their finances that that so many Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. And we can talk about the fact that the stock market is doing really good. Well, that's fine. But when it's it's just over 50% of Americans that have a 401k that are in the stock market, that that means a huge percentage of Americans are not even seeing that reality on paper, much less are they feeling it in their pocket. And so I think there's a lot of factors that we can weigh in on this. But again, part of what I would go back to is evangelicals that should be prioritizing biblical morals as a priority when they vote. It was very clear that that was not the leading vote getter, even among the evangelicals that voted.
SPEAKER_00And Tim, on that very point, you because you you started with something that caught my attention and it made me think through while you were talking, and you've come back to it. But you were talking about how that these Bible-believing Bible teaching churches in Fort Worth Dallas area were celebrating the election in Talo Rico. And it made me stop and think, but they can't be Bible-believing Bible teaching if they're celebrating abortions and men and women's sports and gender identities other than the two God gave. They may be evangelical in the sense that they teach a biblical view of salvation through Jesus Christ only, but they're not biblical in that the Bible addresses all of these other issues, and they're not taking the position the Bible takes. So they might have a biblical view of salvation and coming to Christ, but they sure don't have a biblical view of the culture and rights and wrongs and morals.
Tim BartonYeah, I completely agree. And I was saying it at that's the perception. Like these are the Bible churches. Exactly. And, you know, if you're listening on radio, you can't see my uh fingers doing the air quotations, right? Like these are Bible quote unquote churches. And and Dad, to your point, one of the things that the that the church has done, and we really, guys, we gotta get to some good news. We need to encourage people, but I do I want to land my plane. Uh and if you guys need to fly around a little bit more before you land your plane, that's great too. But uh I'm the I'm the only one of this group with a pilot's license. So that's not true. Our producer Justin has a pilot's license. You're right, you're right. So, sir, you and I can fly around.
SPEAKER_00You gotta stay out of the air. He and I will fly around.
Tim BartonWell, uh flying is not the bigger challenge. The landing becomes more important, but not that I gross on that. That's right. Uh the the the thing that I would point out is looking at what so much is of what's happened in the modern church is that people have been taught that Jesus is loving, he's accepting, he's tolerant. And so the the way that love is defined or acceptance or tolerance is defined is not what the Bible actually teaches. But when they see a candidate like a, for example, in Texas, a James Talerico, who seems like he's loving and tolerant and accepting, there's a lot of Christians that are, and I say Christians, people that believe in Jesus, believe that he died on the cross and rose from the grave, and that the only hope of salvation and eternity is through him. They believe that part. They just haven't really been discipled in the rest of it. That unless you deny yourself and take up your cross, you can't be my disciples, right? It's if if you love me, you keep my commands, there's a whole lot more that hasn't been added to their equation that he is light. In him, there is no darkness at all. What fellowship can light have with darkness? That the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. There's a whole lot again we could go through. And I think a lot of Christians in the modern era are far more connected with a grace and a mercy and a love and compassion and kindness and tolerance message. And a lot of times those biblical ideas get redefined in a modern cultural context that's not reflective of what the Bible actually teaches, and therefore it leads them to support things that are unbiblical because I think for a lot of Christians that supported James Talerico, they're not thinking about supporting abortion, they're not thinking about supporting the the gender mutilation of children of minors. They're just thinking that this guy more matches up with the the love and the acceptance and tolerance that they have embraced. That's what it means to be a Christian, instead of again reading the rest of the Bible and and actually defining those biblical words with biblical understanding of those terms. Uh, and that's where we see, man, there's a lot of work in discipleship to be done in the church. Um I had a buddy who texted me and said, you know, I I think uh instead of maybe looking and going, we need to primary some of these Republicans, he said, I think we need to primary some of these pastors.
SPEAKER_00And I thought, that's that's a really interesting thought. That's good. Yeah, that's very good. You
Politics Is Team Sport Not Personality
SPEAKER_00know, uh the one thing that really struck me out of this was seeing how, like in Texas, where we have just been creamed in a way we haven't been creamed in decades, um, Texas just lost so much ground so quickly in one election. And and I was I I've been talking to some of the state officials today, even on what that means and how much we're gonna lose as a result in just the next two years as a result of what we've been able to achieve that will now be turned back. And people were looking like it at Talo Rico and Paxson and looking at the individuals. And they forget that these guys are players on a team. You really don't have many individuals as senators in D.C. They're part of a team, and they vote with the team. And you may like Talo Rico, but he's going to vote with the Democrats, and that means all the super out there trans stuff, the Islamification. He he may not himself personally believe that. He will not vote with the Republicans, he's gonna vote with the Democrats. And so you really have two teams on the field, and it's like, here I'm a Dallas Cowboy fan, and man, what a terrible tie to be a Dallas Cowboy fan. The worst defense in the history of the NFL. And I look and say, hey, they've got a really good player. Yeah, but you know they got a really lousy team, and that really good player does not make a huge difference on the team until you get enough good players on the team to make a difference. And so we really let this election get into being personality driven, whether than team driven. And in politics today, as it was even back with John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, it's the parties. It's the Federalist Party versus the anti-federalist party, or it's the Whigs versus the Tories, or it's the Democrats versus the Emancipationists, or whatever it is. You're really choosing a team. You're not choosing an individual, and there's not much that that individual can do to change the direction of the team unless you just have a wholesale change of the team. And that's people gotta remember that when they vote. You're voting for a team, especially in modern politics, more so than an individual.
Rick GreenWell, I was already confused by the fact that you were using, you were dissing on the Cowboys, but then the fact that you used the Cowboys as the bad guys, I'm really confused at this point. I I don't even know how to respond. I I think we just have to go
A Silver Lining And A Clear Fix
Rick Greento prayer. No, no, one other thing on this whole thing, because I do think the the the silver lining is the fact that Talerico wrapped himself in the Bible. He he he made, I mean, literally his sign on on victory night, love thy neighbor. Like they know that that our people have those those values. They have the shallow Christianity, and so they're they're wrapping themselves in the Bible, selling it in in a deceitful way, of course, in the same way you know Saeed wrapped himself in the Constitution and made you feel like if you love the First Amendment and you love freedom of religion and you love freedom, then you'll prove yourself not to be a bigot by voting for him. Right? They did that masterfully. And what that what uh uh what I mean by the silver lining or the good news is they had to use our values and they had to wrap themselves, they covered up their poison with with our, you know, with our cloak. And and so we've just we've got to learn how to slice through that. That requires biblical and civic literacy instead of ignorance. The foundation that you're talking about, Tim, the the primary and the pastors, so that we have pastors that will actually disciple and teach our people these things, so that then you recognize the lie. They're not able to fool our people and fool the public in that way. So that's the that's the silver lining I see there. We'll be right back. We've got we do have some good news for you. So stay with us. It's good news Friday. You're listening to the Wild Builder show.
How To Listen And Share The Show
Rick GreenHey friends, Rick Green for the Wild Builder 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 out. 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 WallBulder's 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, wall builders.Show, or just go directly to your favorite podcast app, listen to the Wabbuilder show, and share it with as many people as you possibly can. Welcome back to the Wallbuilders show. Thanks for staying with us on this Good News Friday. Okay, guys, final 10 minutes of the program. Uh let's send people into the weekend with some good news. So, what are what what's your top piece of good news you want to share with us today, David?
A Proclamation Linking Bible And America
SPEAKER_00Oh man, if I have to go top piece of good news, I'm gonna I'm gonna choose the one that happened just before the election when President Trump came out with a proclamation. Um, and it was a proclamation for the nation, and it was a proclamation on what's called Reformation Day. And I'm just gonna read part of that proclamation. He says from the early that and this this is so wholesome, so good. Just before the election, it got overshadowed. I don't think many people even knew about it. But the national proclamation says, from the earliest days of our Republic, prayer and faith in Almighty God have stood as the foundation of our strength, the source of our unity, and the fount of our greatness. Five hundred years ago, William Tyndall, inspired by the work of Barton Luther, advanced the devotion to holy scriptures through the publication of the first New Testament printed in English, shaping the language of Bibles that would fortify the truth and resolve of America's founding generation. The sacred scriptures helped form the religious convictions that formed our young nation's founding ideals of God-given rights and individual liberty, a spiritual inheritance we honor as we continue to reveal, and he just keeps going on and on. And I I mean this is such a powerful declaration of how the Bible shaped America. It came out right before the election. Nobody really paid attention to it. But I love the fact that this is now part of our historical record in America. The president has laid down how much the Bible has done in America, and we're honoring the reformation that really brought Massachusetts and New England into being, that brought America into being. It's great.
Rick GreenYeah, and David, there's going to be more of that. I mean, let's not forget the president's got two more years to do those types of things. And just as Obama, you know, came out even stronger after his shellacan in the midterms, and Bill Clinton, same thing after his shellacking, they didn't give up. They didn't, you know, back off. They they they did more of their agenda. President Trump will have the chance to do that. And there's there'll be many more things like that, I believe, that we can still look forward to. Tim, how about you, ma'am?
Reformation Day And Recovering Christian Memory
Tim BartonWell, let me let me actually stay there for a second because I I just think it's interesting. Most people think of Halloween as obviously lots of thoughts there. And I don't want to get into the you know triggering of people that are listening and what's there or not. Um, a lot of pastors say a lot of things about this, there's a lot of convictions, but I just want to kind of high-level this for a second. A lot of Christians forget that Halloween is also Reformation Day when Barton Luther did his 95 thesis on the door of the church in Wittenberg. It's also known as uh All Saints or Hollows Eve, uh, because it happens right before All Saints Day. And All Saints Day is the time remembering some of those uh uh what and again you can kind of link this to some denominational thoughts, but um, some of these saints that have gone before, and it's uh uh Solomon T is on I'm reading definition here, uh, in the Roman Catholic Church. It's also observed in many Anglican, Lutheran, Methodists, and other Protestant traditions um to remember some of those that have gone before. But I say this because what what what has happened in previous years is there was a president uh presidential administration who would light up the White House in all kinds of colors and have all kinds of different remembrances and celebrations and days, and it's honestly only been this president that has set aside days to remember Christian holidays or for some Christian holy days. And it is just so encouraging, guys, and refreshing that even in the midst of processing the election that went really poorly, and and again, we can analyze for lots of reasons, it's still understanding that we have a president and a team around him that is still doing things to help people remember the Christian tradition of our nation, uh of our past, and even working to help restore that, and we at times get to help play a part in that as well. It is so encouraging what's going on. Uh, and so I really do hope that that Reformation Day gets a comeback, that that all Hollows Eve gets a little bit of a comeback, and that people will remember some of the the religious ideas, the Christian ideas behind it, and not just uh the the ghosts and the goblins and whatever else it's largely become. And the fact that the White House is helping draw attention to that is just incredible.
Rick GreenIt it uh you know, one of the things I I think we could see is the Josiah generation rising up here because of these types of educational moments where all of a sudden the scroll has been brought out and they're realizing, oh, this is why we do this or why we have this celebration, or this is how we remember the former days, and once we remember them, why we get motivated to do the right thing and and uh and tear down the idol. So um, all right, so that wasn't your piece of good news, so it's still in your court, yep.
World Series Players Speaking About Jesus
Tim BartonOkay, well, Rick, you are the only one of us that has a chance uh because the Texas Rangers were not a part of this, so I don't know what happened. Uh Rick, did you track any of the World Series?
Rick GreenYou know, very little. I watched a few clips. I knew that both teams had not won a World Series, so that was kind of interesting. Like who's gonna who's gonna finally get their first World Series? Um, and I and I saw some headlines that and I was wondering if you were gonna have this in your stack, and I'm glad you got to it today. There were a lot of believers on these teams that had a lot of great statements.
Tim BartonYeah, so so for any of our our our friends that are uh Milwaukee Brewers or Tampa Bay Rays fans, um, you're gonna have to forgive us. But the Astros and the Rangers were not there, so we you know we didn't really track a lot. Now I can't
Rick GreenAnd say I have to if a World Series happens without a Texas team, did it really happen? Is it if a tree falls in the No, I'm sorry. That's right. I mean, that's right.
Tim BartonThat's how we feel about it. But I I have nephews that love baseball. They were tracking and watching it. But yes, Rick, to your point, one of the really cool things that we are seeing more and more of, and and it seems like probably every other Good News Friday, we're talking about some athlete or some coach that is boldly proclaiming faith in Jesus Christ that is that is upholding the Bible. I actually have uh more coming up in my good news stack that I know I won't get to today. But this one identifies nine World Series players who boldly love Jesus. Now, I would uh also defend and point out there's more than just nine, but this is an article that highlights nine examples. The article's from crosswalk.com. It says nine World Series players who boldly love Jesus. And I also uh know I can't pronounce all these names, but I'm gonna I'm gonna give it a little bit of a shot. So second baseman is shortstop for Milwaukee, Bryce Turing. Uh, there's a lot of quotes from these guys, but one of them it says the highs and lows of life and just being able to love him God every day and the amount of grace and forgiveness that he gives us. I mean, I wouldn't be here without him. And this was uh in an interview he did with CBN Sports. It just goes through the list. You have Dustin May, who's a a starting pitcher for Milwaukee. You have Aaron Ashby, who's another pitcher from Milwaukee, and Garrett Mitchell, a center fielder from Milwaukee, and Tyler Wells, who's a pitcher for Tampa Bay, and on and on it goes, just highlighting these guys and having some of their statements from again, some of these interviews where boldly they're just talking about it. Uh I'll I'll read one or two more real quick. Drew Rasmussen, it I think I said that right. Rasmussen, I don't know. Uh Drew, I apologize. Uh it however, uh, when he was interviewed about this, he said he God has definitely shown me favor, and I don't know why. Uh, and it says in this, he's talking about God and Christ. I mean, I am just truly blessed every single day. And just to have the opportunity to do what I love is I I love to do, and you just hope that you can do it to the best of your abilities to glorify him. Now, I understand that as I'm reading some of this, uh, that I'm reading portions of their interview. So it doesn't, it might not come across as clearly as their longer interview is, but again, the fact that you have nine players on World Series teams being highlighted in this article that are all boldly proclaiming their faith in in Christ and Jesus in God, it's one of the things we have talked about, the undercurrent of revival. And I think also it's worth noting with these elections. If you look back at the first and second Great Awakening, when there were significant moves of God happening, there were many moments in those revival that if you were alive in the 1740s and 1750s, it probably wouldn't have felt like a revival for you in those moments. If you were alive in the 1820s and 1830s, depending on what state you lived in, it might not have felt very much like a revival. And yet, what we see from history is that at times when, and in many of these occasions, when God was doing some of the most significant work that historically you can look back and track it. You can see it. When God was on the move, there was incredible opposition. There was at times disappointments. It did not mean God wasn't on the move. It's just a reality. Historically, we can look back and examine this and go, man, every time God's on the move, there's opposition, there's frustrations, there's a counter move by an Enemy who doesn't want God's plan to prevail. And so I think in the midst of us, maybe some people being very frustrated and disappointed because of an election, it's worth remembering God is on the move in lots of ways in this nation. And there are more athletes and more coaches than ever, which is the reason it's important, is because so many young people are watching sports. And when you have athletes that are courageously proclaiming their belief in God and Jesus in the Bible, it is going to continue to feed and fuel this move that God is doing right now in the nation.
Weekend Charge And Practical Next Steps
Rick GreenAmen, brother. That's a great way to go into the weekend. Don't forget God is in charge. None of this surprised him, as David likes to uh remind us. And there's so much good that you can do in response to this. So let's make sure that our response glorifies God. No, no, no being depressed, no being, you know, uh, you know, discouraging other people because you just keep recounting all the negative. Start thinking about what you can do in response to this. Start planning now. What are you gonna do between now and two years from now for the in the next big election? What are you gonna do to multiply, force multiply yourself and get more people to join us in this cause? Start thinking now, go to our website today, wallbuilders.com, get you some of those materials, get signed up for a Constitution class or hosting a class, but get involved and be a part of the solution. Have a great weekend. You've been listening to the WallBuilders show.
