Censorship Against Conservatives And Christians – With Lt. Col. Oliver North: What is going on in the publishing industry with the continuation of cancel culture? Can you get published in America if you have the “wrong” political view? These are challenging and dangerous times as our precious freedom of speech is being shut down. But the free market offers a glimmer of hope. Tune in to hear Lt. Col. Oliver North share about his new publishing company and more!

Air Date: 02/11/2021

Guest: Lt. Col. Oliver North

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:

You find your way to the intersection of faith and the culture. It’s WallBuilders Live, where we’re talking about the hottest topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. Good to have you with us.

My name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas legislator and America’s Constitution coach. And I have the honor of being here with Tim Barton. He’s a national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders, and David Barton. He’s America’s premier historian and our founder of WallBuilders.

WallBuilders, by the way, comes from that scripture in Nehemiah that says, arise and rebuild the walls that we may no longer be of reproach. This was founded 30 years ago by David Barton for the very purpose of rebuilding the foundations in America. That scripture in Nehemiah, if you kind of get a time machine and you go back to that day, if your city did not have those outer walls, you would be run over: you needed those walls for protection, for strength. 

And in the same way, our value system, our foundation in America, that’s what makes us strong. And when we lose those foundational values, when we lose the principles, the timeless principles of liberty that made America the most powerful, most free, most benevolent nation in the history of the world, if we lose the principles, then we lose the great benefits that come from those principles. 

And so, WallBuilders is all about restoring those principles, restoring our constitutional republic, by restoring the timeless principles of liberty upon which our nation was built. Those are, of course, biblical principles.

Join Us!

So we’re sure glad you’re here with us. We always look at these things from whatever the hot topic is, and it could have to do with politics, it could be some sort of policy, it could be election issue, it could be a cultural issue locally, and entertainment issue, you name it. But we are always going to take that biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. And we’re glad you’re here to join us in that conversation.

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And that basically makes you a force multiplier. It allows you to help us multiply our voice, reach more people, and therefore educate more people on how to be good biblical citizens in modern America. I hope you’ll consider doing that today at wallbuilderslive.com.

Alright, guys, because we’ve talked a lot here on the program about the whole canceled culture thing, freedom of speech, fundamental rights in America under attack in these areas. And one of the places in the culture where this is becoming really bad, especially for former Trump officials or even Trump supporters is in the publishing industry, the place where a lot of your free speech actually happens, where you actually articulate your ideas, and put those ideas out there in detail. 

And I mean, massive numbers of publishing houses saying they refuse, they literally want to blackball anybody coming out of the Trump administration, there’s a chilling effect, and definitely a next level canceled culture.

An Attempt to Censor WallBuilders

David:

Well, let’s take it past the Trump administration, let’s take it here to WallBuilders. There is a particular book we’ve offered for a number of years that we are having trouble getting any publisher to reprint now, it’s a very popular book, but it’s just not part of the narrative. And so far, the only publishers willing to reprint this book right now are in China, and we’re not going to China… Yeah, we can’t get American publishers to want to publish a super popular book with that.

And granted, it’s a difficult print. I mean, it’s Indian paper. It’s really thin paper. It’s very few printers in America that can do it. But the American printers that can do it. And it’s not the mom and pop printers, is a specialty printed. The American printers that can do it say, yeah, we really don’t want your business anymore. And so we’re talking something that in every previous generation America, publishers would have been thrilled to publish this particular book. 

But now in this canceled culture, it’s not just the Trump administration, is like, wait a minute, we’re not going to China to do this. So do we have to pull this book down off the market, this popular book we’ve had for years? Yeah, that’s kind of what we’re looking at now. So the canceled culture really has gone pretty far.

Tim:

Yeah. And looking even beyond us at WallBuilders, certainly, we’re saying that because that’s a problem we have now realized. And the guy we’re working with who has traditionally done our publishing, saying that I can’t find any of these printers are willing to do this. This is something that we’ve seen Josh Hawley, we’ve seen at different senators and congressmen who if you have the wrong political view, right, and for WallBuilders, you get the wrong ideology compared to what the printer wants to promote.

Shutting Out Truth

It used to be that in a printed book, this is where not only can you defend a position you are taking, you can give an explanation for it. But for us of WallBuilders, we footnote the mess out of everything; we want you to see this is not just our idea, this is not just something we are promoting. This is something that historically is verified and backed up.

And so really you’re taking away not only the voice of somebody that might view something different than you, you are actually even taking away the ability for someone to present the truth from that documentation. Because that’s part of what we do in our book, is we lay this out, we show the documents, we show the footnotes, etc. And so it’s not only silencing voices we disagree with.

But, it’s not allowing truth to be communicated. Because now it’s not saying, well, you and I read that document differently, but we’ll still let you show that document. Is saying, we’re not going to let you show that document anymore. We don’t want people to know anything about history anymore.

Cancel culture has taken a very dangerous turn. And we’ve seen this with big tech. We’ve seen it with major industries. And now when it’s the publishing industry, certainly, we do believe the free market will come out there and there will be people in the market are saying, okay, well, if we’ve seen that you guys are going to play that direction, there’s going to be another solution, there will be competition. 

We do like that about the free market. But right now, it certainly is a very challenging and maybe even dangerous place, as we are seeing the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression being shut down.

Welcome Lt. Col. Oliver North

Rick:

Well, one of the guys that definitely appreciates the work of WallBuilders and is helping to get the word out there on international relations and public policy out of Washington DC through his publishing is Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North. Now we’ve got a probably a lot of young people that may not be as familiar who Ollie North is, as we are. So tell us a little bit about Ollie North before we go to the break.

David:

Yeah, Ollie North was a very large figure in the Reagan administration. Back at the time when communism was trying to spread into America and we’re trying to stop the flow of communism, this actually goes back to John F. Kennedy, when communist Russia moved nuclear missiles into Cuba, trying to target the United States. And communism is a very aggressive government that wants to take over free governments and put them out of business.

And so at the time of Reagan, Russia, the Soviet Union was very aggressive toward America. And they were trying to come into America up through many of the countries in Central America. And one of the people who helped fight that was Oliver North. And so Oliver North Lieutenant, Colonel was very engaged in operations, fighting communism, became part of public hearings as the Democrats tried to embarrass him and expose him.

And so there’s a lot of things that people remember about Oliver North. But he is a patriot. He is a guy who loves America and he’s put his reputation neck on the line numerous times to preserve America as a free nation. So he is a hero to many that go back to the Reagan administration, those Reagan years in his efforts to fight communism and its expansion into America.

A Moment from American History

Rick:

And a lot of people may have seen him on FOX, he had the war stories with Oliver North and just a great champion for our veterans as well. He’s had several great books out the last couple of years, but his publishing company Fidelis publishing, is stepping up to fill the gap on this canceled culture thing for all of these officials coming out of Washington DC that worked hard during the Trump administration and have stories to tell about it. So stay with us, folks, Oliver North when we return on WallBuilders Live.

This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. Founding Fathers, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson originally worked closely together but later became ardent opponents. This trouble Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration, who knew both of them very well. In the Bible, 2 Corinthians 5:18 tells us that God has given each of us the ministry of reconciliation. Dr. Rush believe this and set out to bring the two back together. It took a while, but Adams and Jefferson once again became close friends.

And looking back on his role and helping bring about this reconciliation, Dr. Rush stated, “It will give me pleasure as long as I live to reflect that I have been in any degree instrumental in affecting this reunion of two souls destined to be dear to each other and motivated with the same dispositions to serve their country though in different ways.” For more information about Dr. Benjamin Rush and his other remarkable achievements, go to wallbuilders.com.

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us today. Honored today to have Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North with us. So good to have you, Colonel. Thanks for your time today.

What Is the Far Left Trying to Destroy?

Oliver:

Always great to be with you guys. And there’s no time like the present for WallBuilders, the country needs it.

Rick:

Well, same to you. And you know, I’m almost glad we weren’t able to get the interview a couple weeks ago, we were working on for some of the books you’ve got. Because since that time, so much has happened and there’s so many things I want to pick your brain on.

But I got to tell you, as I told you off air, I was moved to tears just reading the press release that you put out for your publishing company in the wake of this silencing in this great purge that is happening, you stood up and said no, not on my watch. 

We’ll publish these folks and gladly have great debate. Tell us a little bit about what’s going on in the publishing world, then we’ll get to the your specific books that we were going to talk about.

Oliver:

Yeah, the executives of darn near every major publisher in America and some overseas by the way, but over 570, I think it’s up to over 600 now have pledged that no who worked for the Trump administration should ever be able to publish a book. And of course, the normal process for leaving office is the President will publish a book, apparently, he’s not going to be able to get a publisher either. Although, my guess is he can self-publish, and he’ll sell over 70 million copies of it, you know, the auto and not give those guys a penny.

Getting Rid of Competition

So, the reality of it is, is that there’s a censorship movement going on against conservatives and Christians, aimed directly at silencing any opposition to the far Left in America. And I say the far Left, not meaning it politically, but I’m talking about the secular Left in America is trying to destroy the value system that was put in place by the founders of this republic. I mean, and I have spent time doing this, reading the words of our founders. And certainly, you guys have done remarkable stuff.

I mean, Nehemiah is needed right now in this country desperately and Nehemiah would be silenced. He would not be able to rebuild his stone upon a stone. And what we’re looking at today is an effort, not by the private sector, not by the government, the oath that I took hundreds of times, because every time you enlisted a Marine, every time you’d promote a Marine, every time you’d have an award ceremony, we would raise our right hands. And from memory, I can tell you, I do solemnly promise to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, to bear true faith and allegiance to the same. 

I take this willingly without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. Hundreds of times. Okay. But that’s to protect the Bill of Rights that are part of that Constitution. And the constitutional process doesn’t say word one, about the private sector.

And we now have a private sector, not just in social media, not just in getting rid of competition for Twitter or Facebook, but we now have private sector publishers who are saying we will not publish a book, pledging not to publish a book by any of the criminals that work for the Trump administration, that my friends, is desperately, desperately wrong.

Attempts to Silence Opposition

Rick:

And chilling. And it’s interesting, you mentioned Nehemiah. And they attempted to silence him. His opposition did everything they could to silence him. They even sent the letters off to the king and tried to getting cut off, you know, all of those things, but he refused to back down. And I think that’s what you’re doing with your clarion call to say, look at our publishing company, we will gladly, we want the public square. 

There was a time when you’d publish someone that you disagreed with, right, just to get the word out there and allow for that debate to take place. Why is the other side so afraid to let people just speak what they believe and allow the opposition to have their say so you can actually have true debate?

Oliver:

Well, what these folks are doing is they’re saying we don’t want enlightened debate or discussion, because we don’t want the public to even know. And that’s why I say this is a secular attack on Christianity, on the Judeo Christian principles on which our country is based. And when I look at those kinds of things, I say, just the last paragraph of my press release, “Fidelis Publishing works with authors who share our passion to invite the sovereignty of God into our nation and over our people. 

We do this by making the book publishing process, a true partnership between publisher and author, with the Bible as contract and guide.” Now, that’s what we do. And that’s what we’ve been doing very successfully.

I mean, I would tell you that the 147,000 or so responses that we’ve gotten on this thing and they’re overwhelming, we’re a small company. But we’ve already had initiatives taken by others to come to us to say, will you look at publishing my book? And some of these are very well known officials.

Veterans’ Lament: Is This the America Our Heroes Fought For?

I mean, Mike Pompeo has been one of the finest secretaries of state the country has ever had. He’s used our book we talked about before, which we refer to as adversary, been America’s #1 Adversary, and what we must do about it now, he and the director of National Intelligence for President Trump’s administration, use that book to start working against the Communist Chinese, the Confucius Institutes of which there are over 90 in this country, near colleges and universities are out there preaching the gospel of Karl Marx. 

What they’re telling Americans is when things don’t go quite the way you want, do what Maxine Waters wants, get in the face of people who absolutely disagree with everything that they’re doing. The threats that are out there, I mean, the false news about who it was that led the attack into the Capitol of the United States on the sixth of January, those weren’t pro-Trumpers. 

They’re the same people that are riding, burning and committing arson. They’re anarchists out in Portland, and Seattle, and Los Angeles and Philadelphia…

Rick:

And still rioting, and no word from the President, or Nancy Pelosi, or Chuck Schumer or any of these others about what’s happening. And I want to definitely talk about your book from back in October, Veterans’ Lament: Is This the America Our Heroes Fought For? Because what you saw happening in the in the summer, and over the last couple years, the things that they’ve done, I mean, I think that’s a question that most veterans that I talked to you right now are asking then, this is not the country I fought for, we’re losing what I was willing to lay my life down for.

Pray for Our Country

Oliver:

Over 500 veterans that we interviewed, David and I, both Marines, interviewed guys and gals from every branch of the services, and some active duty, a lot of veterans, people who they can speak freely, who are looking at what’s going on in our country saying, well, this isn’t what I did. I was not fighting for this kind of behavior. 

And the idea of the anarchists, by the way, it’s a word that is rarely used nowadays. But that’s what this is, is anarchy, the same people who led the attack into the Capitol on the 6th of January are the same people who are leading these attacks against Biden, and, of course, profane language over all of the stuff that they’re doing.

And unfortunately, the mainstream media is not carrying it. It’s hard to find a single word about it in the newspapers. And you look at that, and you say, I understand why these guys are saying what they’re… In the introduction to this book, which lays out the premise of the book, the lament isn’t one of I’m just going to pull a rock over my head. 

But I tell everybody I talked to nowadays, you know, if I go into the supermarket, and somebody recognizes me around my mask, right, and somebody say, Colonel, what’s going on? I say it’s anarchy and what we need to do is pray for our country.

You know, my grandkids, I’ll say that granddad’s filters are all off, granddad will say… The guy last night, I went to Costco, I’ll advertise Costco, right, okay. I went to Costco. And as I’m getting ready to get my car, and I got some more [inaudible 17:16], whatever stuff for my lovely wife, and one of our grandkids that’s staying over the house. 

And so I’m getting back in the car and this guy’s got a shopping cart, he and his wife has to be about 200 pounds of turkeys, because they’re getting rid of them, right? Because Christmas and Thanksgiving are gone and frozen turkeys. And he’s got boxes full of them. And he can’t pick them up by himself.

Embracing America’s Christian Roots

And so I go over to help him. And he recognizes me at the very end of this. So it goes on for about 15 minutes, it’s bitter cold. At one point…

Rick:

That’s a lot of turkeys too.

Oliver:

Oh, no, they’re not going to fall on the way home, just leave your windows open. And so the guy says you’re Oliver North, aren’t you? He says, you’re an old guy. And he’s like in his 30s. And he’s got all these… I said, what are you doing with these things? He says, we’re cooking them at church, and we’re giving them out to people who don’t have a job. God bless you. He says, nobody says that anymore.

I said every time I meet somebody, and you guys got to do it too. And that’s what he’s doing. He’s in a ministry. Obviously, they spent a better part of last night serving the turkeys. I said, you got a big kitchen? 

He said, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And I love the church. And they do. Yeah. In fact, it’s the old prison fellowship ministries that Chuck Colson started, it’s that church, [crosstalk 18:42] Bible. Yeah.

Rick:

Well, you address that too in the book, why embracing America’s Christian roots is so important. And one of the ones that that they tend to attack that on is finding any imperfection in a Founding Father, and then somehow that dismisses everything good that they did, that they were human just like us, right? I mean, how do we deal with that?

Faith of Our Founders

Oliver:

Well, the fact is, all of them, all of them, to include everybody says Jefferson was a deist. Jefferson mentions Jesus Christ in every executive order that he signs. He doesn’t just say in the year of our Lord, he says in the year of Jesus Christ. And he does that in letter after letter, he does it in all of his activities. 

Benjamin Franklin, largely described today as agnostic at best and an atheist at worst, but Jefferson says, and Franklin, both, that if a country doesn’t have a religious foundation, and rely on divine providence, and the salvation offered by God Almighty through His Son, these are quotes, right, those are the kinds of things that are ignored totally in the history books of this country today.

I mean, one of the reasons in my podcasts have been so successful is we put on people who reflect those values. And to me, if or whatever the good Lord is going to give me, I’m sure most of my life has gone at 77. But whatever time he gives me from here on out, I want to spread the word. 

My mission in life, is that at the end of my days when my gravestone is put there at Arlington, it will say, instead of all the battles and all the decorations, and the metals and all that stuff, I want my grandkids to put there, “He”, meaning me, “showed me how to fight the good fight, how to finish the race, and keep the faith.” right out of Paul’s letter to Timothy. Probably his last letter, very likely.

America’s #1 Adversary

Rick:

Amen. So good. So good. Alright. Listen, I want to encourage people to get America’s #1 Adversary. And I hope you are going to do a sequel to Veterans Lament, because even since this came out last year, so much has happened?

Oliver:

Boy, yeah. And I’ll tell you this. I’m grateful for every one of them. Every one of the folks that pick this up and act on it, just don’t read it and put it on the bookshelf, and to my way of thinking that’s how we’re going to solve this problem of publishers won’t publish, Internet Service Providers won’t let you go up in the internet. I mean, Mike Rowe show just got cancelled by Facebook.

Rick:

Oh, wow.

Oliver:

I’m sure that mine is on the list. I have no doubt.

Rick:

In fact, Colonel, that is the America that we fought for is the ability to have a voice and to be involved. And so to every American out there that might say, well, I’m not Ollie North or I don’t have a radio show, or I don’t do this, I can’t make it. Yes, you can. That’s a system that that our veterans did fight for, so that you could make a difference in your community. Everybody’s got a voice, right?

Fidelis Publishing

Oliver:

Amen. All true.

Rick:

Amen. Well, we need folks to be involved and the best way to get involved as get educated and get equipped. Thank you for all the new books that are going to be coming out in the coming years. I’m so excited about what your publishing company is going to do. And be sure and tell your folks to come on and promote their books on this show, we’d love to have them.

Oliver:

We’ll do so, brother. I appreciate that. Go to OliverNorth.com to see more.

Rick:

Olivernorth.com., and we’ll have links today at our website. Thank you, Colonel. Appreciate your time today.

Oliver:

Love you, brother. Semper Fi.

Rick:

Love you too, brother. God bless you, man. Stay with us, folks, we’ll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

The American Story

Hey, guys, we want to let you know about a new resource we have at WallBuilders called The American Story, For so many years, people have asked us to do a history book, to help tell more of the story that’s just not known or not told today. And we would say very providentially, in the midst of all of the new attacks coming out against America.

Whether it be from things like the 1619 project that say America is evil, and everything in America was built off slavery, which is certainly not true or things like even the Black Lives Matter movement, the organization itself not the statement, Black Lives Matter, but the organization that says we’re against everything that America was built on. And this is part of the Marxist ideology. There’s so many things attacking America.

Well, is America worth defending? What is the true story of America? We actually have written and told that story. Starting with Christopher Columbus, going roughly through Abraham Lincoln, we tell the story of America, not as a story of a perfect nation of a perfect people, but the story of how God used these imperfect people and did great things through this nation. It’s a story you want to check out, wallbuilders.com The American Story.

Rick:

We’re back here on WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us. And thanks to Ollie North for joining us today as well and the good work they’re doing at Fidelis Publishing. Back with David and Tim. 

Well, guys, I mean, Tim even said it earlier the free market and Colonel North definitely stepping up and saying they’re going to fill the gap on where a lot of these publishing companies are shutting down one entire side of the country’s viewpoint.

Free Market Answers

Tim:

Yeah, it’s something that I definitely think we will see more of throughout the nation. And a lot of people just didn’t realize the ideology that was going to be hardline promoted taking the stance that some of these companies are going to take. Because we’ve known a lot of these industries, a lot of these companies, we knew they lean secular, but we didn’t mind still doing business with them, because we both benefited from it.

But now, if they’re going to say we’re not going to let a certain percentage or portion of the population have the same access or ability or freedom to this industry, you knew there’s going to be somebody else stepping up saying wait a second, there’s still a lot of opportunity, there’s a lot of market out there that’s now untapped potential.

We’re going to offer something for these people who are looking for something in that industry. So we do trust a free market in some regards in that respect. And it’s great that Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and his publishing company is stepping up to help fill some of that gap in the market.

David:

Yeah, it’s interesting. I thought that the comment made was significant, where he said, hey, if you don’t know how we got here, you haven’t been paying attention to what’s been going on in schools in recent years. And that’s really true. Because from an economic standpoint, as a publisher, generally, businesses want to make money, that’s how you stay in business, that’s how you keep people employed. And for these printing businesses now to say, alright, Trump, we know you’ve got 88.7 million on your Twitter account.

Promoting Marxism

But, we’re going to shut you all out. We don’t care how many people followed you. We don’t care how many people in Trump administration have huge followings. We don’t want any of them. We would rather lose all of that business then let you have any voice in the culture at all. And that’s what’s new. And you say, where did that come from? Well, it came out of schools.

As Ollie pointed out, you know, even these Confucius Institutes, you got 90 of them near campuses. They’re promoting Karl Marx and socialism and Marxism and communism. And this is what’s going on and that’s what we’re seeing in the publishing industry. So to see Ollie North and Gary [inaudible 25:31], and these other guys step up with Fidelis, Jim DeMint and so many of the guys that we know are now publishing through this great company. This is going to be a breath of fresh air to come back and have some conservative voices again, be able to get their message out.

Rick:

Yeah, and it’s so important for the future of the country. We’ve got to have the opportunity for intelligent debate. We’ve got to have the opportunity for that civil discourse. That’s how you avoid civil war. That’s how you keep a nation together as you have the opportunity for all sides to be able to say their piece to say what they believe.

Censorship Against Conservatives And Christians – With Lt. Col. Oliver North

And then you can counter that. You can certainly counter and give counter arguments and that’s the American way. I mean, that’s what freedom of speech is all about; so super thankful for Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North and Fidelis Publishing and their efforts to do exactly that.

I hope that you will help us exercise that freedom of speech by going to wallbuilderslive.com today, making that one-time or monthly contribution. It helps us to amplify this voice and get more of this truth out there. And it is so needed in our culture today. So thank you for that consideration. Be sure to check it out today at wallbuilderslive.com. Thanks for listening today to WallBuilders Live.