Americans Share Trump’s Pride In America’s Past: 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. We don”€™t often hear good news from major media, however, here on WallBuilders Live, we love sharing news worthy of celebration! Tune in now to learn more!

Air Date: 07/26/2019

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

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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”€™re talking about today”€™s hottest topics on policy, faith, and the culture, always doing that from a Biblical, historical, and Constitutional perspective.

We’re here with David Barton, America’s premier historian and the founder of WallBuilders. Also, Tim Barton, national speaker and President of WallBuilders, and my name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas state legislator, national speaker, and author. 

Today we get to listen to all the good news from David and Tim and keep us on time going to break! It’s gonna be a great day! 

I’m looking forward to some good news today from David and Tim Barton. And if you enjoy this, if you want more good news, be sure and visit our website at WallBuildersLive.com because we try to do this almost every Friday, and a lot of those programs are available in our archives section. 

So if you’ve missed some of those, go back and listen. There’s been so many great things happening over the last few months in our country, some great things restoring America’s constitutional republic, and you want to be equipped with that, because if you only listen to the bad news, folks, it’s easy to get down it’s easy to get discouraged and think we’ve lost the nation. 

That is not true. 

There’s a lot of great things happening as well. On Fridays we like to zero in on those great things. So, David, Tim, let’s start diving into some good news for today’s program.

Secular Leaning Churches Shrink as Evangelicals Thrive

David:

My good news deals with the condition of the Christian Church in America. There are some really good things going on. They don’t necessarily show up in the overall trend of the Christian church, because the Christian church is made up of so many large segments, but there is some really good news coming out of some of those segments, which is encouraging. 

Now, when you look at the overall, it’s easy to point at the overall numbers of the church, top to bottom, said there’s some real problems. We’ve talked previously had the 72 percent of pastors as they say they don’t believe the Bible, don’t agree with it”€™s teachings.

So those are all big numbers. However, here’s a really interesting article that came out recently, and it asks the question, “€œIs church membership actually down over the last few decades?”€Â 

The answer is yes and no. It depends on what branch of Christianity we’re talking about. The liberal main liners, or the more conservative, biblically faithful, evangelical and non-denominational churches? 

So, according to Pew Research Center, the more liberal mainline churches they are hemorrhaging members. They’ve lost somewhere between five and seven and a half million members in just the last ten years.

Tim:

And traditionally today, the more liberal are the ones who are upholding the Bible, and biblical doctrines, and values the least. They don’t generally follow what the Bible teaches. So the five to seven million that have left over the last however many years.

David:

Ten years. Nearly a million a year. 

Churches That Are Not Proclaiming Biblical Truth are Dying

Tim:

So on one level, that’s not very surprising. If you want to be a Christian, and you want to follow the Bible, and you’re going somewhere that no longer teaches the Bible or that says the Bible is not true or not relevant, it doesn’t matter anymore. 

You might feel different, but that’s very interesting that you have churches that do not promote biblical truth that are not maintaining membership.

David:

Well, they thought they would because they’re not offending anyone. They’re appealing to the middle masses, they’re appealing what they think everybody believes, and they’re the ones they’re plummeting. 

It says, “€œCompared with other Christian traditions in the United States, evangelicalism is quite strong.”€Â 

Evangelicals are those that do believe the Bible, do believe we should apply its teachings to active life. They think you can have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. So that’s generally evangelical. 

Here’s what they say with Pew Research. 

“€œEvangelicals are not on the decline, but they grew from 1972, when they were only 18 percent of the population, to a level of about 80 percent of the population. Over the same time, the liberal mainline churches declined from 35 to 12 percent.”€Â 

That’s a three time drop. So Evangelicals have more than doubled. The mainstream has dropped by three times. 

Currently, only three percent of American adults say they’re atheist. Another four percent say they’re agnostic, and 71 percent say they’re Christians. 

Now, that does include the mainline Christians, but the growing part of that number is definitely evangelicals. So the conclusion they reached is the data does not support the increased secularization claims in America among Christians. It just depends on which group of Christians you’re talking about. 

LGBTQ Support Among Young People Plummets

So here’s here’s our conclusion on it. 

It says, “€œThe bottom line is this: faithful Christianity that which takes the Bible at its word, believes Jesus really is God, that He died on a real cross, rose from a real grave, and offered real freedom from real to all who ask, that branch of Christianity is doing quite well.”€

Rick:

That’s really good news, and it’s the opposite of what I would have thought by watching the rest of the culture. I would have thought lukewarm, God may spew us out for lukewarm, but I thought the culture was just embracing lukewarm. But based on that data, the opposite is true. 

Even the people are saying, “€œLukewarm is not what we want. We want something more solid and truthful to hold on to.”€

Tim:

Well, nobody likes mediocre. So even the idea that as Christians or as people who are maybe more modern in their faith, don’t rock the boat, just make me feel good, ultimately that doesn’t make you feel very good. You would rather have something that you can agree or disagree with. But being in the middle is not very much fun.

David:

It looks like the culture is also shifting on the LGBTQ issue, particularly with younger Americans—that would be your GenZers or your millennials, your millennials or the 18 to 34 that the gen zeroes are below that.

This new poll out by Harris Poll, points out that, just in a couple years, they said, “€œIn 2016, 63% of millennials consider themselves to be allies the LGBTQ movement. That number fell to 53% in 2017, and in 2018 it had plunged to 45%.”€Â 

So that is a massive drop in two years.

Like a Pendulum

Tim:

Well, I would point out also that that number is not because the next generation is becoming less “€œtolerant”€ quote unquote. 

It’s because the movement that they thought they were supporting has become more and more extreme, and they’re going, “€œOh. No, I don’t I don’t support that. I supported individuals, and I supported their freedom, and their expression, and even their choices, but now we’re going too far.”€Â 

We’ve talked about it before on the program, that when the pendulum is swinging from one side to the other, the further it goes to one side the more it’s going to lose people. This is what you have, a political party who is trying to push that pendulum so far to one side, eventually it’s gonna swing back because you’re going to start losing the momentum you thought you were gaining because you’re going too far.

And that’s what the next generation is with things in the LGBTQ community is it’s not that they’re less tolerant or less—and I’m using the words that culture uses, tolerance, and loving, and accepting, all in quotations—it’s not that they’re less of any of those things. 

It’s that the movement they thought they were supporting is becoming so extreme, and is becoming more intolerant, and more hateful, and more oppressive of groups who do not agree with them, that you have these young people that were supporting you going, “€œI don’t really support that that behavior anymore because you’ve gone too far.”€

David:

And that’s what the poll is finding out. Here’s some more numbers. 

It says, “€œ36% of millennials said they are not comfortable when they learned that a family member’s homosexual.”€Â 

42% of Millennials Uncomfortable with the Gay Agenda in Schools

Well, just a year ago that was at 2%. So you got a 25% increase overall numbers. And it says, “€œBecause they are observing the abnormalities associate with homosexuality close up,”€ so they’re seeing it in their family. 

Here’s another, “€œA startling 42% of millennial males are uncomfortable when they learned that their child has had a lesson on LGBTQ history in school, or if they have a homosexual teacher.”€Â 

Only two years ago that was at 27%. 

So now it”€™s up to 42. 

So, Harris polling, which conducted the survey and found these rapidly shifting numbers, this is how their CEO explained it. 

It says, “€œThe reason this is happening is simple. Millennials have had the gay agenda crammed down their throats their entire lives. 75% of them have at least one friend who’s a homosexual, which means they may have personally witnessed the pathologies that come with homosexuality. It looks like the more they know about the homosexual lifestyle, the less they like what they see.”€Â 

And that’s from a very liberal secular polling company. That’s Harris Polling. That is not that is not Barna Polling, that’s not a Christian group. 

This is what’s considered to be a liberal, left leaning polling, and that’s Harris. 

And this is what they’re finding, which means that not only is Biblical Christianity growing in America, but biblical viewpoints are also growing, even if it’s simply from watching the experience that the other side is, that the secular side and the anti biblical side, what they’re saying is not actually happening and what they’re wanting it’s not working out.

The Laws of Nature and Nature”€™s God Don”€™t Change

Rick:

Wow, man. That is that is chock full of good news, David. 

In fact, for our folks listening on radio stations, or in your car around the country, go to WallBuildersLived.com. You get download and read or listen to this first segment, because what you just laid out, David, I think is confirmation of things we’ve said on this program for years. 

Once you push such a liberal philosophy on a culture, that people are living in debauchery to the point that they’re going to have to live with the results. The laws of nature and nature’s God don”€™t change. They’re going to get the negative consequences from those decisions. 

What you just read and what you just said from a liberal polling company is saying exactly that. The American people are seeing the negative side effects of even their friends that have embraced this, and they’re seeing the negative side effects, they’re going, “€œYou know what? Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea to make this not only “€œacceptable”€ quote unquote, but actually pushing this agenda on our children and seeing that this influence on the on our kids.”€

That’s why those parents, as you said in the poll, more and more of them are saying, “€œYou know what? I’m not comfortable with this being forced on our all my children in their school.”€Â 

Quick break guys. We’ll be back with more good news. Tim Barton”€™s up next with some good news. Stay with us! you’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

Patriots Academy

Rick:

Have you noticed the vacuum of leadership in America? We’re looking around for leaders of principle to step up and, too often, no one is there. God is raising up a generation of young leaders with a passion for impact in the world around them. They’re crying out for the mentorship and leadership training they need. 

Patriots Academy was created to meet that need. Patriots Academy graduates now serve in state capitals around America, in the halls of Congress and businesses, in the film industry and the pulpit, in every area of the culture. They’re leading effectively an impact in the world around them. 

Patriots Academy is now expanding across the nation, and now is your chance to experience this life changing week that trains champions to change the world. Visit PatriotsAcademy.com for dates and locations. Our core program is still for young leaders 16 to 25 years old, but we also now have a citizen track for adults. So visit the website today to learn more. Help us fill the void of leadership in America. Join us in training champions to change the world at PatriotAcademy.com.

Americans Are Patriotic

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live. It”€™s Good News Friday today, which means we get to bring you some good news that you’ve probably haven’t heard in the major media.

I certainly don’t hear most of these stories in the major media, so I’m so thankful David and Tim research and find them for us, and then share them here on WallBuilders Live. Next piece of good news coming from Tim Barton. Tim?

Tim:

I”€™ve got a headline that says, “€œ73% share Trump”€™s pride in America’s epic past.”€

This actually goes back to the 4th of July when he did the big event in D.C., and there were so many critics of the event and leading up to the event because they said, “€œWe know what he’s going to do. He’s going to polarize America more. It’s gonna be a political event.”€Â 

Ultimately, it was just a Celebrate America rally, and it’s been a while since we’ve had a President actually celebrate America. 

What’s interesting is a lot of outlets have looked at the data after the event and realized, “€œWow, it wasn’t bad. He he said some great things. He said some true things. Americans seemed to enjoy it.”€Â 

Rasmussen came out with a survey that identified that 73% of likely U.S. voters agree with Trump’s statement in the July 4th speech that, “€œTogether we are part of one of the greatest stories ever told: the story of America. It is an epic tale of a great nation whose people have risked everything for what they know is right.”€Â 

Only 12% of Americans Disagreed With Trump Over American Exceptionalism

Only twelve percent disagreed with the President’s statement. So you’re seeing that the vast majority of Americans are still actually in favor of thinking America has some good things, and, not that we don’t have problems we want to fix, because everybody can identify problems, but to recognize that we’re still a land of opportunity and we’re one of the greatest stories ever told, and that together we can make this place even better. You can have some patriotic pride. 

It was cool to see the President come out and acknowledge that, and now the media hasn’t really talked much about it since. However, everything they thought it was going to be did not prove to be the case, and the American people were rather pleased when they found out what was said and what he did. 

So kind of a cool piece of good news, that Americans are not as anti-American as we would believe if you just listened to certain news outlets, or listened to certain professors or academics with how bad America is. 

Nope. 

It’s still a land of opportunity, and we can make it better together. A good piece of news looking back to July 4th.

Celebrating the 4th

Rick:

Man, I love this story Tim. This is so encouraging. Those numbers are so encouraging. 

If you just pay attention to what’s been reported by major media, you can start to think that man most Americans no longer love our country or want to teach their kids to fulfill American values, and enjoy the freedom they’ve been given and that it’s worth fighting for, and all those things. So to see this this is these numbers are out. Absolutely outstanding. It should encourage us as you give us confirmation, and I would say the listeners out there, that should confirm what you felt in your gut, that you knew was right, and you were beginning to wonder, “€œAm I the only one? Should I be embarrassed about being an American instead of being proud to be an American?”€Â 

All those questions.

This is great news that you’re not alone. Most of the country feels the same way, and as you said, Tim, so great to have a President that spoke that way, and that pushed through this event even when they tried to prevent him from even having this event.

What a great thing to do. This is really fulfilling John Adams”€™ vision that we would do these kind of things on the anniversary of our independence. I love this story. Such great news. 

Quick break, David Barton”€™s up next with good news. Stay with us. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

Share a veteran’s story

We Want To Hear Your Vet Story

Rick:

Hey friends! If you have been listening to WallBuilders Live for very long at all, you know how much we respect our veterans and how appreciative we are of the sacrifice they make to make our freedoms possible. One of the ways that we love to honor those veterans is to tell their stories here on WallBuilders Live.  Once in awhile, we get an opportunity to interview veterans that have served on those front lines that have made incredible sacrifices have amazing stories that we want to share with the American people. 

One of the very special things we get to do is interview World War II veterans. You’ve heard those interviews here on WallBuilders Live, from folks that were in the Band of Brothers, to folks like Edgar Harrell that survived the Indianapolis to so many other great stories you heard on WallBuilders Live. 

You have friends and family that also served.  If you have World War II veterans in your family that you would like to have their story shared here on WallBuilders Live, please e-mail us at [email protected].  Give us a brief summary of the story and we’ll set up an interview. Thanks so much for sharing here on WallBuilders Live!

83% Proud to be Americans

Rick:

We’re back on WallBuilders Live. Good News Friday today. We”€™ve got two more segments of good news, and this one goes to David Barton. David?

David:

Well, it’s really following in the same vein of what Tim just had. He had a poll showing what people felt about the Fourth of July, and President Trump’s speech, and what he said. 

Here’s another one. 

So this poll has to do with the tone of stuff that’s been coming out, the media has been pointed out, Colin Cappernick. He’s got a lot of coverage because he called on Nike to get rid of those shoes that had the American flag on them, and they did. They pulled it, and he came out with the tweet. 

He said that we shouldn’t be proud of the 4th of July. So there’s all this stuff about not proud to be an American, and we’ve done so many atrocities, so the National Poll and Rasmussen Polls, here’s what they found. 

They found that 83% of American adults are proud to be American. Only seven percent of Americans are not proud to be American. I would never have had that sense from any national story I’ve seen recently. I don’t care what outlet would have covered it, I’ve seen nothing. 

And the measure of 83% proud, 7% not proud, I thought it was a whole lot larger than 7%. I thought as a whole lot smaller than 83%. So that in itself is good news, which tells me that people have somewhat an interest in our history more than we would know today, which leads me to the next one.

What do Americans Think of American History?

What we do at WallBuilders and the organizations we work with in trying to present history as we say America’s forgotten history and heroes. So we hired some private pollers to look at what people think about history in general. 

Do they like it or not? 

Because we’ve seen a number of universities are now even dropping history majors. If you like history, you can’t go there and get a history major. I think it’s nearly two dozen state universities in California no longer offer a history major, University of Wisconsin chain deleted history as a major, so this is a big trend. We know that we’ve seen other reports that roughly four fifths of the elite colleges and universities in America no longer offer courses in American history for history majors. So we’ve seen that, so is that where the American people are? Are these colleges doing this because people really aren’t interested in history anymore?

What we found was absolutely amazing. We found that 60% of Americans are very interested in American history. Now, that’s not the polling I would’ve thought. I thought we’d been down in 25-30% is what I would have expected. So we got that. 

But here’s where it gets really interesting. 

We presented to them thesis on how you present American history. 

Questions like, “€œDo you think that American history should be presented honestly, showing the good, and the bad, and the ugly? Do you believe that we should cover the big ideas on which America was founded, that is, should we cover the founding principles and the impact that the founding principles had on America? Should we directly counter revisionist history with truthful honest history?”€Â 

Liberals and Conservatives Agree on Teaching History Honestly

Now these are the questions we asked to all people, and as national pollsters then break it down and do demographics of age, and race, and whether you’re conservative, liberal, or moderate, etc. 

Here’s the results, and this really shocked me, as to presenting honest history, including the good, the bad, and the ugly of what makes America unique, 76% of liberals said, “€œYes. That’s the way history should be presented.”€

72% of conservatives said that. 

More liberals to conservatives said, “€œWe want honest history that shows why America is unique. We want history that shows the good, and the bad, and the ugly.”€Â 

And as liberals typically point out the bad and the ugly but not the good, that was surprising.

Tim:

That could also be because they think, “€œWe want to emphasize the bad and the ugly, and it’s not getting emphasized enough. Yes! Tell the truth! Tell true history, good, and bad, and ugly!”€Â 

So their motivation could have been in different places as they are checking that box, but nonetheless they did say, “€œWe want to be honest, and let’s tell the whole story instead of just how bad America is.”€Â 

David:

And honest is the word that we used specifically to define what they thought. Then when it came to whether we should teach the founding values and principles, and the impact the founding principles had on America, 63% of liberals said yes, and 63% of conservatives said yes. 

So both sides think we should teach founding principles and the impact they had. 

When it comes to countering revisionist history, 64% of liberals said yes to countering revisionist history, 63% of conservatives. When it came to showing the big ideas that shaped America, it was 63% liberal 64% conservative.

Colleges Pushing their Own Agendas

I was just floored at how, across the board, liberal moderate or conservative moderates were the lowest in everything. It’s like they didn’t care as much. But if your passion on either side, you had a real interest in history and presenting American history.

So when you take that and combine it with the poll that Tim just said about the Fourth of July, and the one I started the segment with on, “€œAre you proud of America? Are you proud of the nation?”€Â 

There’s just huge support out there, which means that the colleges are going in the opposite direction, almost as if they are deliberately trying to remove this and to move the nation in a different direction. I thought part of it was just people weren’t interested. Now I’m convinced that people are interested in good history, and colleges are very interested, generally, in not teaching good history. They just don’t want it out there.

Rick:

What’s so interesting—you had that as good news, guys, because we had a great letter from one of our listeners about how, when you do get the good history into the hands of kids, they enjoy it and actually win competitions. 

Wait until you hear with this story. We’re going to take a quick break, and come back and read that letter from Tom Sears. It’s fantastic. I love it. Stay with us, folks. More good news for you on our final segment today. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

Front Sight Training Course

Rick Greens here, from WallBuilders Live. What do Dennis Prager, Larry Elder, Ben Shapiro, Rick Green, Tim Barton, David Barton, have in common other than the fact that they’re conservative commentators that defend the Constitution?

They’re raving about Front Sight Firearms Training Institute. Go to my website right now at RickGreen.com. You can watch the video of Dennis Prager training at Front Sight, or Larry Elder, or Tim Barton and myself out there. It’s an opportunity for you to learn how to defend yourself and your family. It is a fantastic place to train. They train 30 to 40,000 people a year, and they’re just wonderful to work with. You can go with us. We’re headed back out.

We’re going to have a great time out there, and if you’re a supporter of WallBuilders, we’re going to treat you. If you’re a donor of WallBuilders, you”€™ll be able to go to this Front Sight class for free. It normally cost a thousand dollars, go to FrontSight.com right now. You’ll see that it’s a thousand dollars to attend their two-day class. You are going to be able to go for free, if you’re a supporter of WallBuilders Live.

So, check out that information at RickGreen.com and join us. We are going once a month for the next three months. You can pick one of those classes. All of our previous classes have filled up. Make sure that you get online today and get signed up. Whether you’ve never shot before, or you’ve shot your whole life, you will enjoy this class. You”€™ll enjoy the fellowship. We’ll be training on the range during the day and studying the Constitution at night. What a great combination. Check it out today at RickGreen.com.

Americans Are Still Proud of America”€™s Past!

Rick:

Welcome back, folks! As I said, going to break. We’re good close out today’s program with this letter from Tom Sears about exactly what happens when we do teach history when we teach the truth about history.

Here’s what Tom’s letter says. This from a private school in West Virginia that used WallBuilders material as resources for many years, two generations worth of students. “€œOne student recently competed in a competition using WallBuilders materials for research, and got first place in the entire state of West Virginia. Won a $500 scholarship. Another student, several years ago, won first place in an American Legion contest in West Virginia, then advanced and placed third in a larger regional and national level. Because of that competition she got a full scholarship to the University of West Virginia. She used WallBuilders materials for much, if not all, of her research.”€ What Tom”€™s saying is, “€œThank you! Thank you for truth, thank you for teaching history and truth.”€Â 

WallBuilders is so blessed to get to give you those kind of materials and make those available to you. They’re available right now on our website at WallBuildersLive.com and WallBuilders.com.

So much of it is just right there. You just download it right there on the on the Internet. Others you can get the DVD or download the videos or the audio programs to equip and inspire the young people in your life to have an appreciation for the greatness of the system that America put in place, and how to preserve it for future generations. Be sure to check it all out at WallBuilders.com. Thanks so much for listening today to WallBuilders Live.