Abortions Drop to Their Lowest Numbers In Texas Since 1977: We call it Good News Friday because it’s a chance for David and Tim to share some good news from across the nation and around the world. In this episode, we talk about how there are Cabinet Bible Study meetings being held. How Texas abortions drop to their lowest number Since 1977. How Republicans confirmed a lot of judges while no one is looking. And more!

Air Date: 09/28/2018

Guest: Dr. Michael New

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

Listen:

Download: Click Here

Transcription note:  As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Faith And The Culture

Rick:

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. This is WallBuilders Live! Where we talk about today”€™s hottest topics on policy, faith, and the culture. Always from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective.

We’re here with David Barton, America’s premier historian and our founder at WallBuilders. Tim Barton”€™s a national speaker and pastor, and president of WallBuilders. And my name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas state legislator.

You”€™ve found us on a Friday. It’s Good News Friday around here at WallBuilders. We love talking about some of the great things happening in the culture. It’s an encouragement to us as we talk about them, but hopefully an encouragement to you as well.

You can get more of these good news programs at our website, WallBuildersLive.com, that’s our radio site. And then you can also go to WallBuilders.com for all kinds of great tools to equip and inspire your family. So, check that out today as well.

David, Tim, looking forward to some good news from you today. David’s up first. Go for it, bro!

David:

I’m going to start with something happening in Washington D.C. and it deals with the headline about Texas”€™ former Governor, Rick Perry, who is now part of the Trump administration, he’s the Secretary of Energy. And the story actually deals with a Bible study going on at the cabinet level. According to Rick Perry, this Bible study that”€™s going on is a weekly Bible study with cabinet members.

And the folks who are attending, these are some of the folks – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, you’ve got Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, you’ve got Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, you’ve got Secretary of Housing Urban Developments, Ben Carson, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Vice President Mike Pence, and on and on it goes. These guys are having a weekly Bible study on what is called Maturity in Christ. So, it’s not just kind of a light brushy kind of feel good Bible study. This is actually getting down into some growth, let’s be mature folks here, mature Christians.

Look at this Bible Study

David:

So, you look at this Bible study it is going on, and Rick talks about what’s going on, and he said it”€™s great because they get to see people outside their normal work environment. Because you interact, obviously, on work level, but this is Bible level.

He says it also sends the message that this administration bases his life experiences on biblical values.  This is what motivates so many of us here in the cabinet, so that’s what he’s explaining. And it’s a lot of fun because– and this has got to just twist people up when they hear this– Perry says it starts at the top from the standpoint of this is a president that’s not afraid to stand up and say, “€œHey, I’m not perfect ,but I know the guy that is perfect and I’m trying to follow those instructions.”€ And Rick said that’s a good place to start from my perspective.

So, this Bible study that is going on, Rick actually credits this back to Trump being the one who set the climate, and who’s helping facilitate this, and make sure that this White House Bible study that”€™s going with the cabinet members. But it really is good news to have some of your greatest national leaders engaged in a serious Bible study on living out biblical precepts and principles, being mature in Christ.

And it’s also interesting that if you look at it most of those things I was just talking about – whether it”€™s Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, recently Mike helped do what they called a ministerial on religious liberties across the world. The secretary of state is in there saying, “€œWe want religious liberties across the world and there’s a lot of nations not doing this. So, at the State Department we need to weigh in on behalf of religious liberties.”€ You didn’t hear much in the news about that.

So, when you take Betsy DeVos, or Ben Carson, or you take Sonny Perdue, or take Mike Pompeo, or Rick Perry, or these guys. Yes, the media does not spend much time on these guys. They’ve just kind of gone silent on them. And it is significant that you”€™ve got so many strong biblical leaders that are doing so many good things. And, in fact, they’re doing so much good stuff the media can’t even find anything to complain about, so they’re just being silent. I guarantee you if there was a scandal going, or some weakness going, you would hear about it.

Tim:

Well, and it could be because they’re so distracted with President Trump’s watch this shiny light in front of the cat.

David:

Yeah, that”€™s right.

So Many Positive Things

Tim:

He’s playing with them, right. They’re so distracted. But it’s one of the things we’ve talked about even what potentially could be the brilliance of the Trump administration is that he is he is keeping the media so busy that so many of the people around and under him are able to do so many positive things without having the pressure and the attacks coming from the media and the nonsense around them.

But, really, it’s cool finding out that there is so many people that care about having the God, Christian, perspective and what they do that they’re having this weekly Bible study. And that’s some pretty significant names in there, like you mentioned. So, it is really cool and good news.

Rick:

Is this unusual, guys? I heard the Bush administration had some Bible studies going on. I didn’t hear much of any of that happening in the Obama administration. But you go back, how far we got to go back, right, the founding era, obviously those guys were students of the Bible and outspoken on their faith. But I haven’t heard of an administration that had this many Bible studies going on in this in depth in my lifetime I think.

Tim:

Well, I do think it’s worth noting that probably every single administration that Christians in the administration, probably at least in my lifetime– So, going back to Reagan, every single president had some kind of pastors around them advising them on some level or some capacity. And of course, we could argue about the biblical nature of the advice they were getting. Or how biblically in tune they were to what was going on.  

Christianity in the White House

Tim:

I do think historically you can look and say there’s always been some level of influence of Christianity, of the Bible, in the White House. Even though we’ve certainly had very secular administrations. We’ve certainly had administrations that were not biblical. Generally speaking, there’s always been some level of Christianity or Christians allowed around the process. But certainly, the sheer volume of the height of the leaders and how many leaders in high up positions are Christians, that seems very unique at least in my lifetime.

And I guess, dad, going back to the founding era, so many of them were Christians. So, probably not unusual if you go back to the founding era per se necessarily, but certainly modern times it seems very unique.

David:

Let me see if I can put a perspective on this. This news story with Rick Perry talking on record about this. This is only the second news story that I have seen on this cabinet level Bible study since Trump’s been in office. So, we’re talking short of two years here.

But about 15 months ago they came out with this announcement that they’re having a Bible study at the White House, and the cabinet is doing it, and it’s about maturity in Christ. And they tried to make a scandal out of it then. The tone was, “€œOh my gosh, we have a theocracy coming at us. Look at the people that Trump has put in, and they’re having a Bible study in the White House, and this is unprecedented.”€ And that critical news story reported that there has not been a cabinet level Bible study in over a hundred years at the White House. Now, I don’t know if that’s true or not, but that was certainly part of their criticism.

And you both have said in your lifetime it hadn’t happened. I’m older than both you and I don’t know if it happened in my lifetime. I know of some cabinet members who did some Bible studies within their departments, but I don’t know of any Bible study that involved the cabinet members per se. And particularly, such large numbers of cabinet members.

So, if the critics are to be believed they say it’s 100 years since this kind of stuff has gone on at the White House. And that may well be true. But I do like the fact that they tried 15 months ago to make a big issue out of this and it didn’t go anywhere. So, now it’s back for a second time and it”€™s still going on. That Bible study is still going and look how many cabinet members were involved and that’s really good news.

Rick:

And what they intended as criticism we certainly considered to be good no doubt about it. We’ve got to take a quick break. We’ll be right back with more good news. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

Join Us In Israel!

Hey guys what are you doing January 28th through February 7th? If you said you don’t know, let me give you an idea. We are going to Israel. Rick Green, my dad, David Barton, Tim Barton, our families are going and we would love for you to go with us. We are going to the Holy Land if you’ve ever been to Israel this is something as a Christian that will make you forever read your bible differently.

To see where Jesus walked, where He lived, where He did miracles, where so much of the Bible took place. If you’ve ever read through the Bible and you’ve given it a mental picture, the mental picture will not do justice of what happens when you’re actually on the ground. If you’ve ever thought about the story of David and Goliath and you”€™ve envisioned what it looks like, we’re going to go to the actual field where it took place.

There are so many things that you will see that literally makes the Bible come to life. In fact, that’s the name of the tour group we”€™re going with is The Bible Comes to Life. Go to CMJacksboro.com. You can click on the link, it has an Israel itinerary, all kinds of details. Hope to see you on this trip this coming year.

Rick:

Welcome back. Thanks for staying with us on this Good News Friday here on WallBuilders Live. Next piece of good news is coming from Tim Barton. Tim–

Tim:

Alright, guys, I have a couple that are on the top of my stack. We have had so many good news stories related to pro-life, and pro-life legislation, and states that came out with regulations that put restrictions on the abortion facilities in their state – whether they had to have admitting privileges into hospitals, so if you have doctors that are performing abortions and something goes wrong, which is not unusual, because it”€™s a very dangerous practice procedure. Especially when you’re going into the third trimester. And when that happens the abortion facility needs to be able to instantly take that woman and admit her into a hospital to try to save her life.

And many, many, abortion facilities did not have the level of any kind of medical expertise that they were able to admit the women as a hospital to hospital kind of transfer scenario. So, that’s caused some restrictions on abortion industry and facility because if you are doing what are considered medical procedures and you need to be a medical professional on some level, therefore admitting privilege, anyway. So, a lot of a lot of laws have been passed in states and it’s caused a decline of abortion in many states. Not to mention, you have a very pro-life generation growing up.

Texas Abortion Drops!

Tim:

Well, this article headline says, “€œTexas Abortion Drops to Their Lowest Level Since 1977 as More Babies are Saved From Death”€. And this is published by, or this study came from the Texas Department of State Health Services. So, they published these abortion statistics. And 2016 is the most recent year of data available, but they published a study identifying that abortion has gone down. And actually, I have another headline which actually could even identify part of why these abortions have come down in Texas and really around the nation. This headline says, “€œA New Poll – Millennial Women Reject Pro Abortion Feminism”€.

So, one of the things that we certainly see from millennials is a very big social justice movement. And one of the big social justice movements, right, is feminism. And there’s all kinds of levels and branches of feminism. In fact, the “€œme to”€ movement is something that’s claiming it’s a part of feminism, and defending women’s rights. So, women’s rights is becoming a very big deal.

But one of the things that millennials and young people in general, young women in general, are not buying into is that being pro woman does not mean you have to be pro abortion. So, most or many young millennial women are rejecting this notion that you should have open abortion. In fact, of the polling, only 46 percent of millennial women identify as feminists. So, even the majority of millennial women are not saying, “€œHey, we’re pro–“€ and obviously it doesn’t mean they’re not pro women, right, but they’re not pro feminism and some of what the movement has become.

But when you look at millennials in general only 28 percent of millennial women, so big picture, all millennials, only 28 percent of millennial women believe abortion should be available for any reason. 72 percent of millennial women think there should be some legal protections for the unborn. Now, that might differ whether it’s no third trimester abortions, no abortion whatsoever, no partial birth abortion. There’s different levels that break down in this study. However, it’s only 28 percent that think abortion across the board should be legal. So, 72 percent think there should be restrictions and are pro-life on some level.

The Next Generation on Abortion

Tim:

So, it really is interesting seeing the next generation that is not openly accepting of so much of abortion. Which is, again, why in Texas we’re seeing this number come down because there have been restrictions legislatively put in place. But also, you have millennial women who are generally the generation giving birth to kids right now that are much more pro-life than previous generations. So, we’ve got in our stack really dozens, and dozens, and dozens, of good news related to life issues from so many states.

But the reason we’re seeing this in so many states is because it’s so much of the next generation is not accepting and open to all abortions for any reason whatsoever. Which was kind of what Roe vs. Wade was supportive of is that women should be able to have abortions and there shouldn’t be restrictions on them. The next generation does not support that idea.

David:

Well, one of the organizations that does so much to push the idea that abortion is a good deal is Planned Parenthood. And it’s interesting that right now, from what we read, the largest producer of sex education curriculum in the United States is Planned Parenthood. So, they’ve got this sex ed curriculum out and schools rely on it. On the one hand, while you have states defunding Planned Parenthood like crazy, you”€™ve got schools on the other hand puttin this Planned Parenthood curriculum in place.

And a study recently came out to say, “€œAlright, this Planned Parenthood curriculum, does it work? Is it having any statistical impact?”€ The reason schools choose sex ed curriculum is is to help kids with whether it be STDs, or lower teen pregnancies, or whatever. Is this stuff working? Probably the best analyst of all abortion studies out there is Dr. Michael New. He was at the University of Alabama and now I think he’s up in Michigan at the university there.

So, we thought, “€œLet’s get Dr. New on.”€ Because we just saw a study where that it looks at the results of the sex ed curriculum that”€™s done by Planned Parenthood that”€™s used across the nation. So, Dr. New, great expert on this. We have him speak to legislators. He is really good on all things pro-life, what works, and what doesn’t.

Rick:

Dr. Michael New our special guest when we come back here on Good News Friday. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

Pastors Only Briefing Trip

Tim:

Hi, this is Tim Barton with WallBuilders and I want to encourage all the pastors out there with a unique opportunity that we’re presenting it WallBuilders. We’re doing a special tour just for pastors that you can come and learn more about the spiritual heritage of our nation. Not just seeing the sights but understanding the significance of what they are and what they represent.

We get to go to the Capitol at night.  And we get to see the spiritual heritage of our Founding Fathers, of who we are as a nation, where we came from. We bring in congressman that will tell you about current legislation, about our religious liberties  and freedom, and what’s going on in Washington, D.C.

If you’re a pastor or if you want to recommend your pastor for this trip, you can go to our website at www.WallBuilders.com. And there’s a link that’s for scheduling.  If you click on that link there’s a section for pastor”€™s briefing. There’s more information about the dates, when it’s going, and how it’s going to happen. If you want to know more about our nation, our religious liberties, our freedom, our spiritual heritage, this is a trip you want to be a part of.

Rick:

Welcome back. Thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live. Dr. Michael New is back with us. Dr. New, thanks for your time once again.

Dr. New:

Thanks for having me.

Pregnancy Prevention Programs?

Rick:

So, it looks like, based on these studies– Now, I always question studies, that”€™s why I’m glad you’re looking at this as someone that’s trained in this kind of thing. But based on what we’re seeing from this study it’s saying that Planned Parenthood and their supposed pregnancy prevention programs are very ineffective. I’m not sure they actually want prevention when they make money on abortion. But anyway, when you look at this study, what do you see?

Dr. New:

Well, honestly, I kind of take the word of the Department of Health and Human Studies which conducted their own internal analysis. And typically, agencies want to make their own programs look effective. And they reviewed these programs, they”€™ve got these grant programs that started during the Obama administration. They found that a very, very, small percentage showed any ability to reduce either teen pregnancy or sexual activity.

Again, there’s a grant program that started under the Obama administration called the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program and multiple people reviewed them – both the HHS and wrote analysis and *, again, finds that a very small percentage of these grants showed any ability to reduce either teen pregnancy or teen births.

Rick:

Now Dr. New, we often hear Planned Parenthood say that they do all these things other than abortion. And this is one of the things they will try to tout to sound like they’re a moderate organization. What does this do to their reputation for how they spend their money. And this is, I assume this is, a lot of government money being spent on these programs.

Ineffective at Best

Dr. New:

Right, this is a government program. One of the things that the Department of Health and Human Services does is support grants. During the Obama administration there was a change in emphasis. They started issuing grants to sex education programs. They really emphasize contraception use. And one thing that we know from the studies is that programs intended to encourage contraceptive use among teenagers tend to be either ineffective at best or counterproductive at worst.

Then again, sometimes they do give contraception use up, but they also encourage teen sexual activity. And as a result sometimes you get more teen pregnancy and more abortions as a result.

Rick:

Do you think this will have any impact? Will the government officials that make these decisions of funding these kinds of things, will they look at these kinds of studies and say, “€œHey, this is not working. Wrong group to have administer this thing?”€

Dr. New:

To their credit, the Trump administration is trying to use the money more effectively. They do have some good people at HHS who do really want to start funding teen pregnancy prevention programs. They’re going to encourage abstinence and encourage sexual restraint. So, there are some good people there.

Unfortunately, they”€™re running into some problems that some of the people who were granted money under the Obama administration programs are suing. These lawsuits have been enjoying some success. So, it seems that the Trump administration is kind of resigned, at least for the time being, to keep funding some of these programs. Again, there are some good like minded conservative people there, they”€™re trying to redirect this money, but they’re just running into some legal obstacles right now.

Rick:

Yeah. Okay, well, I am hopeful that they will continue to make better decisions than what we’ve seen from government in the past. But from what you can tell in this study, definitely no question. This is not a good investment of our tax dollars.

Not a Good Batting Average

Dr. New:

No, absolutely not. And again, we have 40 programs and two, three, four, five, show some effectiveness. That’s not a good batting average.

Rick:

They are there, off the top of your head, are there other programs that work better? Are there other things that we should be investing in?

Dr. New:

Government programs, when they”€™re designed correctly, show some ability. There was one in Philadelphia which really kind of combined abstinence with some other activities that students might enjoy. Whether that be job training, whether it be athletics. And there was some evidence that this program in Philadelphia which I think was kind of geared toward middle school students did enjoy some success at lowering teen pregnancy rates and lowering teen sexual activity.

It’s very tough. It’s really kind of sometimes influenced teen behavior through curricula. But I think there is some evidence when these programs are probably designed they do some effectiveness.

Rick:

Yeah. Yeah. Okay, Dr. New, always appreciate your time, man. Thanks so much for coming back on while others live.

Dr. New:

Thanks for having me.

Rick:

Stay with us, folks! We”€™ll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

This Precarious Moment Book

David:

This is David Barton. I want to let about a brand new book we have called This Precarious Moment, Six Urgent Steps That Will Save You, Your family, and Our Country. Jim Garlow and I have co-authored this book and we take six issues that are hot in the culture right now.

Issues that we’re dealing with, issues such as immigration, race relations, our relationship with Israel, the rising generation Millennials, and the absence of the church in the culture wars, and where American heritage is, our godly heritage. We look at all six of those issues right now that are under attack and we give you both Biblical and historical perspective on those issues that provide solutions on what each of us can do right now to make a difference.

These are all problems that are solvable if we’ll get involved. So you can grab the book This Precarious Moment and find out what you can do to make a difference. This Precarious Moment is available at WallBuilders.com.

Rick:

We”€™re back on WallBuilders Live. Good News Friday today. Thanks for staying with us. Next piece of good news coming from David.

David:

Rick, you were talking earlier when we were talking about the Bible study at the White House– or I think, Tim, you mentioned it that it’s kind of like Trump dangling that little gold watch in front of the kitten and keeping it distracted and keeping it playing with that. And I think there were some of the same stuff that went on.

Tim:

And, by the way, I said a light – I’ve never dangled a golden watch in front of a cat.

David:

Oh, that used to be the old thing. Okay, so that”€™s my generation.

Tim:

I’ve never heard of that. That just seems really weird like getting out your pocket watch and dangling it in front of the cat. I don’t even know about that. Maybe listeners, they”€™re like, “€œOh yeah, I know. I remember when Abraham Lincoln did that. Sure.”€

David:

Yeah.

A Generational Thing

Tim:

Anyway, so light is what I was thinking, but if it’s a golden watch, I can’t afford a golden watch. But maybe previous generations– I don’t know.

David:

We are generational thing here because when people had pocket watches they would pull it out of their pocket, and dangle it in front of the cat, and the cat would play with it. So, you’re exactly right – that’s a generational illusion there.

In the same vein, back when Kavanaugh was going through his hearings and everybody was focused on Kavanaugh, and the Kavanaugh hearings, and all the things with that, nobody paid attention to the fact that in those two weeks, the Senate confirmed 15 new federal judges to the federal courts. So, we now have another 15 federal judges added during the two weeks of the Kavanaugh confirmations that nobody noticed, nobody talked about, nobody paid any attention to.

And again, the caliber of judges that are being added to the federal courts, there are so many that the percentage of really good constitutional guys is the highest in my lifetime. And that’s not that every one of them is perfect, but my gosh, most of them are really really good. There’s been a few exceptions, but even when you go back to previous Republican presidents, if you got 50 percent you were doing good. And we”€™re way the heck over that.

So, good news is another 15 judges were added to the federal courts recently during Judge Kavanaugh’s hearings.

Decades of Benefit

Rick:

It’s hard to pick what is the best news, right, of what the administration has managed to get done while, whatever the analogy, the cat’s distracted. But the judicial side, that’s probably what I would put at the top of my list anyway. Just so many, so many good judges, and that’s that’s decades of benefit from that good news happening.

So, a very very good news today, guys. Thanks for sharing so many different stories. Thanks to Dr. Michael New for joining us for our Good News Friday as well. And thank you for being here with us by listening today, but also by sharing. So, make sure you get these links to the program, and send them out on social media, and get other people listening to the program as well. And then make sure you go to WallBuilders.com and become one of our monthly donors.

Be a financial partner with us here on WallBuilders Live to help us spread this good news and help WallBuilders continue its good work in training legislators and leaders of tomorrow when we train the young people, but also in putting out these great programs. Not only the radio programs but the television specials and all the other ways that we take these truths from our nation’s founding, and these principles that work and that produce a good society, and we help infuse that back into the culture.

Abortions Drop to Their Lowest Numbers In Texas Since 1977

Rick:

Look, you know our schools aren’t doing it. Unfortunately, most of our churches aren’t doing it. It’s incumbent upon you, it’s incumbent upon us, to spread this good news, to teach these things to our young people, and frankly, to every citizen out there. So, come alongside us and help us continue to do that right there WallBuilders.com. Be a monthly donor at whatever amount works for you.

Five dollars a month, maybe you can give up one cup of coffee a month to be a WallBuilders donor. Some people can do 50 dollars a month or 100 dollars a month. Whatever you can do, we greatly appreciate your support at WallBuilders.com. Thanks so much for listening to WallBuilders Live.