Be A VIP VoterThis Election  – With Christopher Harris: If you won a lottery ticket for a million dollars, would you feel comfortable mailing it in; or, would you claim your prize in person? The integrity of our elections is vital. Why is it okay to stand in line at the grocery store, but not okay to stand in line at the voting booth? If you want your vote to count, be a VIP. What is “Unhyphenated America” all about? Tune in to hear this important interview with Christopher Harris from Unhyphenated America!

Air Date: 10/20/2020

Guest: Christopher Harris

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, it’s WallBuilders Live, and we are looking at things from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective, whatever that hot issue of the day, that’s the right way to assess it. You got to look at this issue, whatever you’re talking about and say, wait a minute, what’s the Bible say about it?

 What’s the right way to treat each other based on what the Bible says? What’s the right way to form a society based on what the Bible says? And what does history teaches about it? What can we learn from the past, where we’ve done things the right way, where we’ve done things the wrong way, where we’re getting good results versus bad results? So much we can learn just by looking at that historical context, and then, of course, the constitutional perspective. How does our system here in America work?

My name is Rick Green. I’m a former Texas legislator and America’s Constitution coach. David Barton and Tim Barton are usually with us. David Barton is America’s premier historian and our founder at WallBuilders, Tim Barton is a national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders. And most of our shows, you can go on wallbuilderslive.com right now and get them in the archive section. Most of the time, you get to hear from David and Tim.

Today, we’ve got a special guest, we’re going to be diving right into that. It’s an extended interview with Christopher Harris from on hyphenatedamerica.org. Be sure to check out that website, we haven’t had Chris on in quite a while and we should have. I missed having him on, and it’s good to have him back, we’re going to be talking about voting in-person. They’ve got a specific program out right now, a VIP program encouraging people to vote in-person, make sure your vote is counted on Election Day.

Join Us!

Anyway, Chris will be with us when we come back from the break. I want to encourage you to visit our websites, we have two of them. Wallbuilderslive.com is our radio site, that’s the one I mentioned where you can get archives of the program from the last few weeks and months. It’s also where you can make a contribution. This is a listener supported program.

So as a listener, I’m asking you to support us. Pray about it. Think about it. Look at your numbers. What can you do? Maybe it’s a monthly donation. Maybe it’s a one-time donation. But let me tell you, truth is needed in our culture, oh, man, like never before. I mean, we are in a battle for truth right now. It’s an information war, and we have got to get the truth out there.

And every dollar you donate WallBuilders Live helps to expand that message; we get these shows and the tools that we give to people in the hands of as many people as possible, every dollar helps to improve that, whether we’re training pastors or young leaders or our legislators or citizens of all ages, all backgrounds, all over the country, on the Constitution, and how to take your biblical worldview and your knowledge of the Constitution, and be a good citizen and fulfill your civic duty and your biblical duty. All of that stuff happens because of those contributions. So we really do appreciate you going to wallbuilderslive.com today, and making a donation.

Now, I did say there’s two websites. There’s wallbuilderslive.com, the radio site and then there’s wallbuilders.com. Right now today, you can go to wallbuilders.com, you can get all kinds of great news of the day; you can also get great tools, whether it’s the Constitution class Constitution Alive or its Foundations of Freedom, our television series there, we’ve got all kinds of curriculum, you can read articles for free, there’s a ton of information, check it out at wallbuilders.com.

I’m going to take a break a little bit early here, we’re going to spend some time today with Christopher Harris. So stay with us, we’ll be right back on WallBuilders Live.

A Moment From American History

This is Tim Burton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. Many today assert that religion is something private that it has no place in the public square, and that it is incompatible with government, but the Founding Fathers believed exactly the opposite. They held that religion was absolutely necessary in order to maintain our free system of government.

For example, John Adams declared “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.” And signer of the Declaration, Benjamin Rush, similarly affirmed “Without religion, there can be no virtue and without virtue, there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments.”

The Founding Fathers understood that limited government required public morality from the people and that public morality was produced by the Christian religion. For more information about the Founding Fathers views on religion and public life, go to wallbuilders.com

Rick:

Welcome back, thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live. Christopher Harris back, what has been way too long. Chris, good to have you back, man. Thanks for some time today.

Chris:

Hi, Rick thanks for having me on.

Rick:

unhyphenatedamerica.org, oh, see the first time you and I talked about this was, is it been four years, three years, five years? It’s been a while.

Welcome Chris Harris

Chris:

About four years. It’s been about four years since we first talk.

Rick:

So you started doing Unhyphenated America several years ago, getting people to come together. But you’ve got a really specific call this year. Right here at election time, you guys have done a really cool program, “Vote In Person” VIP. Why do you think it’s important to vote in person instead of doing the mail in ballot?

Chris:

Well, the integrity of the election is really the most important thing that we have going on, Rick. And If you really want your vote to count, you should just be the VIP, the very important person that your American citizenship says you are, and show up at the poll and vote.

Rick:

Why are people taking, you know, is it just fear of the COVID thing, laziness, I mean, why do you think the mail in ballot thing is so popular this year?

Chris:

Oh, I think that there are people who have used COVID as the main thing to get people all ginned up with fear to believe that simply showing up as opposed is going to cause you to get COVID, meanwhile, they’ve been going to the grocery store every day for the past, what, six months or so. But yeah, they think if they go and stand in line at the ballot box, they’re going to catch COVID.

Don’t Take a Chance

Rick:

Yeah. Yeah. And it seems like, it doesn’t matter how much science gets put out, it doesn’t matter how many examples of us having thousands of people together, I mean, it doesn’t matter. They just keep cowering in fear. I don’t know how many symbols it’s going to take of us seeing people together for that not to happen.

I know, I had 650 people out here in my backyard for the watch party. Whenever Trump accepted his nomination, we had hundreds and hundreds of people at other events that we’ve had. And of course, we’ve had thousands in the streets in the protest.

I mean, we’ve had the Republican convention had thousands there. I mean, I just don’t know why people continue to be afraid to go vote. But your point is, man, this is your civic duty. This is the most important thing you can do as a citizen, to let your voice be heard. Don’t take a chance, show up and let it be counted on Election Day, not a week later, not a month later.

Chris:

Well, you know, I’m not advocating that anyone play the lottery or anything like that. But I have to ask people the simple question. If you want a lottery ticket for hundreds, thousands, let alone millions of dollars, would you trust it by mailing it in? Or would you show up at the polls to go vote? I think you and I both know the answer.

I mean, one, you know, God bless the US post office, and there are people out there who’ve been doing it for decades in the proverbial rain, sleet or snow, that they’ve gone out there to deliver the mail. So we’re not talking about all the individuals, there’s a lot of great individuals who work for the US post office.

Is Our Postal System Reliable?

But I think we all know that overall, the US postal system is unreliable for the most important thing. And besides the unreliability of the postal service in those regards, fraud is rampant, Rick. I mean, there’s so many instances of vote harvesting, just all sorts of things where people are taking advantage of your vote to advance their agenda.

Rick:

Yeah, no doubt and your best chance, not to give 100% that there’s not going to be fraud, or nothing’s going to happen to your ballot when you go into vote. But man, I mean, it’s much less likely as far more difficult to skew what you go in and do as a voter if you go in in person to do it.

You’ve actually got a great website where people can register to vote, they can check whether or not they’re registered to vote, they can get all the information that they need for their particular State and their locality. So some fantastic tools that you’ve made available to people and they can figure it out at their particular State as well, so “Vote In Person” VIP. And I guess you can get there easiest by going to your regular website which is unhyphenatedamerica.org, right?

Chris:

Correct. Or they can go directly to the website, which is the vip.unhyphenatedamerica.org. So if you want that direct, like, just go to vip.unhyphenatedamerica.org and that should pretty much give you all the information that you need. Now, I’m not going to tell you who to vote for, that’s up to you.

And I’m guessing that most of your listeners believe in the Constitution, they believe in unalienable rights, they believe that we’re blessed to be Americans in America, and that they’re going to vote accordingly to those who are there to help protect their unalienable right. But if you have any questions about how to go about and vote, or where to go about voting, you can check out that website.

Unhyphenated America

Rick:

Well, now we’re definitely going to have some people that we got a much larger audience in the last time I had you on and so we’ve said it several times, but we haven’t explained it yet. And I’m sure they’re wondering what are these guys talking “Unhyphenated America”, What in the world do they mean by that? So we had that conversation several years ago when you first came on. But let’s talk about that again, why did you start Unhyphenated America?

Chris:

Well, it’s real simple, Rick. I believe that America is best when it’s unhyphenated so that so we are exactly what the name means. I don’t refer to myself as an African American, I’m just an American who happens to have a permanent paint job. I’m black, I’ve got lots of melanin, right?

I came out of the womb with this paint job. And it’s one of those things where America is such a unique place. And I’ve heard you speak on multiple occasions and it really also touches my heart and stiffens my spine also because that’s the same message that we put out there.

America is a unique place, America is in fact exceptional, because it’s really the one place that you can come, and regardless of your ethnicity, whatever your mother country is, if you come here, and you decide to embrace the principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, then you’re an American. And there’s really no need for any prefix or suffix, you’re just an American.

Rick:

I got a wonder what it’s been like for you the last few months, Chris, this has been obviously difficult time in the country and your messages to people that, hey, we’re all Americans, we shouldn’t see each other as African American, Irish American or whatever. But man, there’s an effort right now to this intersectionality thing to divide us by race, divide us by income, whatever they can do to get us to not see each other as just fellow Americans. How have you responded to that?

#WalkAway

Chris:

You know, Rick, if I’m being completely blunt and honest, there are times when my spirit goes a little weary, I grow weary in well doing because there’s such a tidal wave by the Left, by the mainstream media of trying to separate us based on what is really the most superficial aspect of our humanity. But every time I really start to feel like that, God blesses me by having someone reach out to me or point me in the direction of some other story, where I start to realize that more people are getting it than not getting it.

There are more people who are sitting there going, yeah, that’s right, we could just be American, why do we have to be an African American or Hispanic American or any other type of American? Why are we falling into the Marxist dialectical cultural Marxism that seeks to separate us based on those really superficial aspects of our humanity? There are more of us who are getting it. Actually, sometimes I’ll go and look at the walkaway movement. I don’t know if many of your listeners are familiar?

Rick:

Yeah.

Chris:

But if you look at the #walkawaymovement, it’s amazing to see all the diversity of people of different ethnic backgrounds who are starting to get it and they say, you know what, I just want to be an American.

Rick:

So good and the way it should be, right? That’s how it should be. Christopher Harris, our guest. Stay with us, folks, we’re going to take a quick break, we’ll be back in just a moment. In the meantime, check out his website unhyphenatedamerica.org. Stay with us, you’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

This Precarious Moment

Hi, this is David Barton. I want to let you know about a brand new book we have out called This Precarious Moment: Six Urgent Steps that Will Save You, Your Family, and Our Country. Jim Garlow and I have coauthored 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, and race relations and our relationship with Israel and the rising generation Millennials in the absence of the church and 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:

Welcome back here on WallBuilders Live. Christopher Harris, our guest today, the website unhyphenatedamerica.org. Christopher, you were saying before the break that more people are getting it than not getting it and I couldn’t agree more. I felt the same thing in the last few months, you know, even as it felt like we were more divided than ever, and part of it depending on where you got your news and what your particular echo chamber was on whatever social media.

But it seemed to me and was really encouraging and kind of reignited my belief in the American people as I saw so many people coming out of this and going I have been awakened, man, now I see what the left has been doing. Because most people, when guys like you or me would go, you know, talk about the Marxist effort in education, the Marxist philosophy that’s undergirding a lot of this division and whatnot, people just kind of glaze over, right? I mean, it was like, what are you talking about? It’s not a philosophy class.

Big Tech

Well, now, they’re staring it right in the face and so they’re listening and like you said, more of them getting it than not getting it. Yes, the ones that don’t get it seem to be really loud, but the ones that are getting it. I’m just seeing a real awakening out there of people across the spectrum, saying, wait a minute, it seems like we’re losing everything that America stands for.

We’re losing everything that we’ve been working for to make America truly exceptional for all Americans and taking a step back in terms of division. So that’s a long, I’m sorry for giving a speech here, but I feel like you do and you’re reassuring me here in the same way, you’re seeing the same thing. I liked what you say, more people are getting it than not getting it.

Chris:

Well, the scales are being removed from people’s eyes, Rick, and that’s the very heartening thing. I’ll tell you, especially as a person of color, right, a black person, if you will, social media is a very fascinating place, because you can see the worst of humanity or social media, but you can also use it to connect with like-minded people. You can use it to be exposed to ideas that you never got exposed to, especially when we consider the fact that the Left pretty much control of the mainstream media and they control a lot of social media, and they’re trying to shut that down.

But people like myself, we were able to connect with other conservative minded people, other patriotic people through social media. We started to realize like, hey, you know, maybe I saw a particular way. And you’re led to believe that you’re kind of weird, that you’re the odd man out. Until you go somewhere on social media, and you start getting connected with groups, you realize, oh, my goodness, I’m not the only person who said, hey, something sounds wrong with this, something just feels wrong about what the narrative is pushed out there, and you get connected.

Young Blacks

And it’s really inspiring, it’s lighting a fire among a lot of young blacks. I’ll tell you this, there’s a lot of young black people who are starting to recognize that what they need is they don’t need handouts, they don’t need an entitlement mentality. They need liberty and they need access to opportunity.

And they’re realizing that there’s one party that wants them to be beholden, that wants them to be dependent upon them. And there’s another party that wants to remove the mental, emotional, physical financial shackles from them, and allow them to pursue happiness.

Rick:

Yeah. Yeah. No doubt, man. And I don’t know, I’ve seen various polls out there, I don’t really trust polls at all, especially these days. But I mean, I haven’t seen anything that says that President Trump would get a lower percentage of the black vote in America than he did last time.

Everything I’ve seen has said a significant increase and it’s for the very reason I think I’ll ask you that you just said, they’re saying, hey, I want prosperity and freedom and liberty just like any other American regardless of color of skin, I’m voting for this guy that’s brought that about in our country. I mean, I think he could do better with black America than any Republican president of my lifetime.

Booker T. Washington

Chris:

Well, you know, Rick, I have to tell you that anytime I get a chance to talk on the radio, I have to talk about something, someone who has been ignored out of history, especially by the public education system. Booker T. Washington, why affectionately referred to Du Bois, right? You’ve probably heard the name Booker T. Washington, but he was born as a slave in 1856 and he passed away in 1916.

But during the last 20 years of his life, he was easily the most influential, powerful black man, not only in America, but in the world. And he had the same message that you and I had.

 Some of the quotes may say, “The individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in the end, make his way regardless of his race.” And he talked about at the bottom of education, at the bottom of politics, even at the bottom of religion, there must be far raised economic independence.

He talked about character, not circumstances, making the man. But there’s a lot of things that he promoted. He talked about racial reconciliation. In fact, he talked about that 50 plus years before Martin Luther King talked about that. He talked about economic independence.

He also said that, it’s not that we want men and women of other colors as our brothers-in-law, we want them as our brothers. So this is the kind of message and they he was specifically ignored out of history, and when they do mention him, they try to denigrate him. So I would always advise, anytime I get a chance, I tell your listeners listen, look up the book up from slavery by Booker T. Washington, and you’ll start to see that the same thing that the left is pushing today they’ve been pushing for hundred years.

“A Whining Crying Race May be Pitied but Seldom Respected.”

But one of the things you’ll realize is that we even within 50 years after slavery, Rick, black people had prospered at an incredible level. We went almost from less than 10% literacy to over 50% literacy in a 50 year period. We went from owning little to nothing to owning 20 million acres of land in a 50 year period. Why? By applying these universal success principles, in those same principles which is what a principle is applied today.

Rick:

I’m glad you brought this up. it’s almost like you had the Booker T Washington philosophy and I’m going to blink on the other guy’s name W. Du Bois, right?

Chris:

Du Bois. Yeah, Du Bois.

Rick:

Du Bois, yeah. And then and then in the 60s, you had the MLK philosophy, which was very much like Booker T. Washington from what I can tell. And Malcolm X was much more of a division, he had more of a Marxist philosophy in his approach. And now today, we’re looking at a lot of the same thing.

We got great black leaders that are espousing the MLK version of content, the character, not color of the skin and the Booker T Washington philosophy, and then those that are saying we’re trained Marxist, and that’s what we’re about, and we want to move forward in that direction. Am I reading that right? And if I am, how do you help the good guys win this argument?

Follow Chris

Chris:

Well, there’s a quote from Booker T that says, “A whining crying race may be pitied but seldom respected.” So the question I have is, do you want to be respected? Well, you’ll be respected based off of your conduct; you’ll be respected based off of the content of your character, which is what Martin Luther King talked about. His dream was for us, all black, white, whatever ethnicity to be judged by the content of your character.

And this is something that the Left, they’ve been regressing, I mean, they like to refer to themselves as progressives. I call them Leftist, regressive, socialist-minded people. What they’re talking about is not progressive at all.

In fact, I have to give you another quote from somebody I respect greatly, which is Thomas Sowell Economist Thomas Sowell, he said “The time is long overdue to stop looking for progress through racial or ethnic leaders. Such leaders have too many incentives to promote polarizing attitudes and actions that are counterproductive for minorities and disastrous for the country.” How powerful, especially how point in is that? When you look at where we are today, Rick, does that nail it? Does that not say exactly what we are?

Rick:

Yeah, man, no doubt, no doubt. Christopher, how can people follow you, man? How can we get more info and keep up with you? Are you on Twitter or Facebook? What’s your outlet for social media? You’re doing Parler?

Chris:

Yeah, a little bit on Parler. You can find us on Unhyphenated America on Parler. But primarily, you can find us on Facebook at Unhyphenated America. And I have to say, here’s the crazy thing about the Left. This is why we’re in such a battle right now where we have over 50,000 followers, people who have clicked the like button to follow Unhyphenated America.

But on a regular basis because of what the Left is doing and big tech is part of the Left. They’re suppressing our voice. We literally on average, get about 1,000 responses on one post, out of 50,224, I just look it up right now. 50,224 people have chosen to follow and the stats they give me they lead about 1,000 people see each post.

Orwellian Society

Rick:

Yeah, I mean, it is the ministry of truth, brother, it’s the Orwellian society. And they are the ministry of truth, deciding what gets out and what doesn’t, and it’s absurd. So one of the best ways to get around that and we encourage our listeners right now to get on Facebook, like your page and share your post. We need to get this truth out there. I appreciate all you do, man. I love seeing you get on Tucker Carlson and all the other shows out there. I just hope your voice continues to be amplified. And let’s get you back again soon. This was way too long to wait for another time to come on. So let’s do it again soon.

Chris:

Definitely a pleasure, Rick, I appreciate you.

Rick:

Hey, thanks, man. Thanks for coming on. It’s Christopher Harris unhyphenatedamerica.org. And check out the VIP program vote in person. You can go to vip.unhyphenatedamerica.org, or just go straight to their website, and they’ve got links to jump over there. Chris, thanks for being with me, brother.

Chris:

God bless you, Rick.

Rick:

Stay with us, folks, we’ll be right back on WallBuilders Live.

Biographical Sketches

Hi, friends, this is Tim Barton of WallBuilders. This is a time when most Americans don’t know much about American history or even heroes of the faith. And I know oftentimes for parents, we’re trying to find good content for our kids to read.

And if you remember back to the Bible, to the book of Hebrews, it has the faith Hall of Fame where they outline the leaders of faith that had gone before them. Well, this is something that as Americans, we really want to go back and outline some of these heroes, not just of American history, but heroes of Christianity and our faith as well.

I want to let you know about some biographical sketches we have available on our website. One is called The Courageous Leaders collection. And this collection includes people like Abigail Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Francis Scott Key, George Washington Carver, Susanna Wesley, even the Wright brothers. And there’s a second collection called Heroes of History.

In this collection, you’ll read about people like Benjamin Franklin or Christopher Columbus, Daniel Boone, George Washington, Harriet Tubman, friends, the list goes on and on. This is a great collection for your young person to have and read and it’s a providential view of American and Christian history. This is available at www.wallbuilders.com. That’s www.wallbuilders.com.

Rick:

We’re back on WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us today. Just a few minutes left for today’s program, so I want to encourage you to take action. There is only a little bit of time left in this year’s election.

Not that everything has to happen between now and the election, I want you to get educated on these things so you can be a force multiplier after the election as well: someone that helps to spread the truth and to get people inspired and equipped and engaged in the process.

Be A VIP VoterThis Election  – With Christopher Harris

But even now, before the election, even in these final days, you need to know who to be fighting for out there, and you know, who, is the wrong word, what to be fighting for. Because when you go vote for someone, you’re not voting for their personality, you’re not voting for them because you just think they’re a nice person or they remembered your name when you met them, you should be voting for them because they represent the right values, they’re going to put in place the right policies. It’s not about party, it’s about principles and policies.

And so when you go vote for president this year, when you go vote for your congressman, your US Senator, your state legislator, your governor, your school board members, your city councilman, all the way down the line, to water district, you name it, make sure that you’re voting for someone that best represents. No one’s going to be perfect, you’re going to have something you don’t like about every candidate you vote for.

If you’ve studied them enough, there’s going to be something you don’t like about them, but overall, which candidate is going to best represent the values that we’ve been talking about, a biblical historical and constitutional perspective on things, and a value system that will preserve freedom for future generations.

Make sure that you’re getting your friends and family to do the same thing. Use your social media tools. Tell folks at your church to get registered to get out there and vote, spread the word. Folks, we better show up in mass, in person as Christopher has told us throughout this program today, Vote in person. Let your voice be heard, and your values count.

Thanks for listening today to WallBuilders Live.