Conservatism and Sports – on Good News Friday: We take time, today, to work through David and Tim’s stack of good news articles- The pull-out of US troops from Afghanistan is being reviewed in the House of Representatives. The Texas Rangers baseball team, refuses to celebrate pride night, against pressure from Major League Baseball. Gallup pole shows growing conservatism in our nation. God’s power is acknowledged in women’s softball. And Private property is defended against Unions. All of this and more on Good News Friday!

Air Date: 06/23/2023

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

 

Transcription:

Rick Green
Welcome to intersection of faith and the culture. This is WallBuilders, where we talk about the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. Get to do that here with David and Tim Barton. David’s, of course, America’s premier historian and our founder at WallBuilders, Tim’s a national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders. And I’m Rick Green, former Texas legislator and America’s constitution coach, we all three appreciate you much listening. And we encourage you to visit our website WallBuilders.com that’s WallBuilders.com , that name comes from the scripture in Nehemiah that says, arise and rebuild the walls, that we may no longer be a reproach. We’re rebuilding the walls in America, rebuilding the foundations, and we’re bringing back those foundational principles that made America great in the first place. They are, of course, all biblical principles. And it’s all laid out there for us in the instruction manual, if we’ll use it, if we’ll engage it, if we’ll sew it into the culture, everybody benefits. And of course, we teach you how to do that in other programs as well beyond this radio program, you can go to WallBuilders.com today and get some of those different materials, go get some of the kids books, go get the Biblical Citizenship class and start coaching it in your home or at your church or wherever else you can. But do what you can to engage in the culture. Be a part of the solution. Too many people are complaining about what’s going on right now, and not doing something about it. Don’t be one of those folks, be one of the ones that actually takes action. I figure you are one of those people or you wouldn’t be listening to this program, because we rail on you too much about taking action. So thank you to everybody out there that’s been participating in your neighborhood and your culture. Alright, let’s get into that good news. David Barton is going to start us off. Where we headed first, David?

David Barton
Well, going to head to the US Congress on the House of Representatives side. And this is something…

Tim Barton
Which I feel like is the only place you could infer good news in DC right now.

Rick Green
That’s exactly right.

Tim Barton
Not to take away, please, let’s go back to the US House.

David Barton
So, we’ve had a number of good things coming out of the house. And I like to emphasize this because this is particularly what so much of the mainstream media has completely left out, a victory for us in the house is like a defeat for them. And they’re not gonna tell you when they get their ears pinned back and they lose. So we don’t hear about this stuff. But there’s a couple things I’ll point to right off the top. And, of course, you know, since the house has flipped back in January, we talked a lot about the house, because they’ve done a lot of good things. And this is another. This goes back to something that we were actually involved with a year ago, the exit from Afghanistan, as Biden said, hey, we’re leaving, and we’re getting out by August, and it just fell apart. And it was really, really bad how it fell apart. And Biden said, well, we didn’t know that this was going on or it was going to be this bad or whatever. And so what has happened, the House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul has worked with the administration with Blinken using the powers of Congress, subpoena powers when necessary, etc, contempt of Congress and has gotten a hold of the cables that were sent from Afghanistan, by people in the embassy saying this is a really bad plan. Here’s what’s going to happen. Here’s the kind of disastrous things that will result if we do it. And this is the kind of stuff that the administration had denied was out there. They didn’t… they hadn’t been told this, if you’ll recall Biden talked about, he hadn’t been told certain things. So this makes it really clear that this was laid out. And one of the things that McCarthy promised to do if they got a hold of the house was to look at the disastrous exit from Afghanistan. And he’s kept his word on that. And they’ve dug into this. And so that’s just good news. The Sunshine effect, of course, it needs more sunshine, media needs to talk about this. It’s not, but we are and we’re going to point out that that’s good news. The house kept their word on this, they went back to look at some of the disastrous things and all the deaths and everything that occurred as a result of a really terrible pull out. And the other thing that I’ll jump on with the house having done good stuff, relates to what happened in June with June being Pride Month, and so that’s the month when you have all this emphasis on LGBTQI+ kind of stuff. And strangely enough, Pride Month was celebrated in military bases, including Nellis Air Force Base out in Nevada, and they had a drag show there, one of the drag shows at Nellis Air Force Base. And it was offensive as it is so often everywhere, and you’ve got all these families on air base. And now here, you got the military sponsoring drag shows, and so Matt Gaetz congressman, Republican Congressman out of Florida, in hearings, really took on the Department of Defence over this, he got on Secretary defense Austin, he was talking to Milley over the Pentagon and he was really chiding them for this. And both of them say well, we don’t do that. We don’t support that. And he said, well, it’s going on. And he went through and listed all these military po sts and bases and forts where it was happening. And Austin just kind of dismissed it. Well, that’s not our position. We don’t… Well, if it’s not your position, the military is under your control, and you’re doing this stuff officially. And you’re spending government money to do it. Because when you bring this in and have staffing, everything else, and so Austin just kept dismissing it. But I was really pleased with Milley. He kind of dug in a lot deeper, and he wanted to know more about it. And so Geatz just gave him a list of all the places it’s happening. And I thought well his response was really good. He says, I don’t agree with those. I think those things shouldn’t be happening. And so they got it stopped at Nellis and elsewhere. So again, the fact that you got a Republican congressman who dug into this stuff, and who challenged it, and he stayed in there, despite the fact that they kept dismissing him. And I’ve got to say, as disappointed as I’ve been with Mark Milley in other places, I was really glad he was willing to make that commitment here and did a really good thing. So I think that’s really good news. Again, that’s two good things out of the House of Representatives. We’ll see if we get different news. After the next election. If we got a house and a Senate and president, we’ll see what happens. But at least right now, even having the house, some good things are happening.

Rick Green
Yeah, and I think it’s also good reminder to all of us that, you know, even when you feel like the odds are against you, or you feel like, let’s say the school board is totally stacked against you and you can’t do anything about it. I’m sure that’s how these members of Congress feel about the Pentagon. They feel like it’s stacked; that’s got all of Biden’s generals and people in charge and they’re all woke. And so why do anything? Well, this proves you can do something, you can push back, you can show up and testify, you can raise these issues, and sometimes, not always, but sometimes, gain ground and get them to back off. So really good news, in terms of a report, but also good news for everybody to hear. And then act on it in your community. Alright, Tim, what’s our next piece of good news today?

Tim Barton
Well, this one is coming from baseball, which I know will bless you, Rick. And actually, it blesses me in a lot of ways now too. It involves the Texas Rangers, which I’m already happy to talk about because the rangers have a really good team this year. And it’s been a while since the Texas Rangers have been really good. The last couple of times was very disappointing, how they lost in World Series or playoffs as the case might have been. Nonetheless, what is so unique… There’s been a lot of conversations surrounding baseball, specifically with the Dodgers, what they did attacking faith, just some really ridiculous positions. Christians showed up there to protest. That was great. There were Christian players that came out from various teams, identifying this was a major problem [with] what’s happening. You had people getting benched. And I mean, so much drama surrounding this, what is so unique in this situation with the Texas Rangers is they were the only team that did not cave to the pressure and do… a publicly scheduled pride night, where every team who said you know, on this night we’re going to celebrate Pride night whatnot. And that was something that the Rangers did not embrace and do. Now, it’s possible that before the month is over, that maybe they do go that route. But as of now, they have not embraced pride night and done something to that extent. And that’s really encouraging, when we have seen so many corporations embracing wokeism. And maybe Texas took a little bit of a lesson, I mean, the Texas Rangers, maybe they took a little bit of lesson from Bud Light from Target, maybe even from the Dodgers, from some of these organizations or corporations, as the case might be, that have embraced some of this wokeism principle, and maybe the Rangers are able to see, this is not what’s resonating with the American people. This is not where the American people are. And this is a major problem. And this is something also, the notion of having a pride night, it… This was something that was always relatively controversial, but it’s now become even more heightened since Bud Light since Target and this is where I’m not only encouraged the Rangers have not done something to this point. I am more encouraged by the fact that what so many in this LGBTQ alphabet soup, whatever plus minus sign divided by, I don’t know, right? Well, what all they have done, it is so much more encouraging that they have heightened the awareness on some of the actual cultural battles happening for the soul, the heart of the next generation, the soul and the heart of America. And instead of the Rangers caving, they have opted not to. And this is something again, a couple years ago, this would not be nearly the big deal it has become, because people would say it’s a pride night. What’s the big deal? Right? That’s just what corporations do. But because of this transgender movement, because of this sexualization of young people, again since COVID, as we’ve seen what has happened in a lot of education facilities, institutions, public schools, etc. It has brought a heightened awareness to this and it’s let people know they’re not happy. And so whether the Texas Rangers are just feeling the pressure. Or and I’m not sure they are because every other team caved to it. Or whether there’s somebody inside principled enough to say, yeah, we’re just that’s, that’s just not what we’re going to do. We’re going to be about sports. I am so encouraged that finally there is an athletic team that is saying, let’s just make the night about baseball instead of some other sexual agenda. It is so encouraging. So I feel like I’ve rambled a little bit but this is so, so great to me to see the Rangers not cave to this in the midst of political pressure, in the midst of this corporate woke pressure, this DEI stuff that’s going on. The Rangers to this point have at least not gone with the pride night that every other team has. So that’s really encouraging.

David Barton
And I got to say that it helps shift some of, you know, as a Fort Worth / Dallas guy, I’m living here in Texas, it kind of shifts my loyalty back in directions, I kind of given up on the Mavericks, used to like them a lot. And they got so woke and started doing so many crazy things I don’t even watch them anymore. And I was kind of the same way in baseball. I’m back to being a Rangers fan now. And they’ve got that kind of backbone, I’ll support them just because they’re doing the right stuff. So, you know, Rick, you got another baseball fan kind of pulling your direction. I’m normally a basketball fan. But now because of the Rangers, I’ll be back to being a baseball fan for a while.

Rick Green
Well, I wonder too. I don’t know anything about… no pun intended, the inside baseball here, and what happened behind the scenes, but I wonder if the Rangers taking this stance had anything to do with MLB finally backing off of the pride jerseys, because you know, that’s another thing that happened. They said they weren’t… they were yanking all the pride jerseys. Last year, they did that… some of the pitchers from the Tampa Bay Rays said they refused, you know, to wear them. And so there’s been a few players that have stood up and who knows that this stance did not do a pride night for the Rangers might have had something to do with it. And I’ll have a public confession. You know, I have been boycotting MLB for three years because of the Black Lives mafia and all that, and they went for all that stuff and put it on their website and then all the pride stuff. And even though I didn’t get to enjoy it, apparently my wife and my son, as part of this Texas history curriculum that we’re making right now, they went to a Rangers game a couple of nights ago without me. So they spent money with MLB and went to a Rangers game. So the boycott has been broken. I haven’t decided yet whether or not I’m going to join the breaking of the boycott, or just write that off as it had to be done for the Texas history curriculum. But it went into the bottom of the nineth with you know, three runs down bases loaded, no outs, and that was the last text I got from my wife, so I still don’t know who won. They’re still like driving all over Texas doing this Texas history curriculum. So I still don’t know what happened at the end of the game, but okay, there you go. But you’re right, David, baseball… And by the way, baseball was the last sport to go woke. Everybody else went woke first. So at least they held out longer than anybody else. Maybe that means they’ll wake up first. And that is what, wait, that doesn’t make sense: wake up. Maybe that means they’ll, be un-woke first. And maybe that’s what’s happening, now. I don’t know. Let’s take a break. We’ll be back with more good news, folks. Stay with us. You’re listening to WallBuilders.

Tim Barton
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 we, 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 in 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 Green
We’re back here on WallBuilders. Thanks for staying with us on this good news Friday. We had some sports good news, some House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Good news. David, where we headed next with our next piece of good news?

David Barton
Well I’m going to pick up with what we’re talking about before the break that, you know, Tim mentioned that maybe people are just looking for some backbone for somebody to stand up and the Rangers did that. And they went against the kind of the current with major league sports. And I think that that desire to stand up is kind of contagious. This is a headline, it says Gallup poll shows Americans more conservative than they’ve been in a decade. So you take the COVID years, you take the last couple of Biden years, you take what’s going on. And I’m just going to read a few paragraphs out here because it’s really… it summarizes really well, it says according to Gallup, Americans who identify as conservative or very conservative, jumped eight points in the last two years. The poll found 38% say they’re conservative or very conservative on social issues, while 29% say they’re liberal or very liberal. Now notice that. The very conservative are way over the very liberal on social issues. And social issues is an area where that Republicans have had trouble for a long time. They would be economic conservatives, but not social conservatives. But that number is growing. And I find that to be really, really good news. It says the number of conservatives has not been that high since 2012, Gallup noted in the report. The survey comes at a time when many states are considering policies regarding transgender matters, abortion, crime, drug use, and the teaching of gender and sexuality in schools. The increase in conservative identification on social issues over the past two years, is seen among nearly all political and demographic subgroups. And that’s really big, because that means it’s all over the nation. It’s not just conservatives or Republicans or whatever. It says, in particular, more adults, ages 30 to 64 are identifying as conservative, and that be your Gen X and Gen Y. And it says more Republicans and independents also consider themselves to be conservative, than in previous years. Number of Democrats basically stayed the same. It says on economic issues, Americans are also leaning to the right politically, with 44% identifying as conservative or very conservative, compared to 21%, who say they’re liberal or very liberal. And that’s what economic stuff. So that’s kind of knocking the feet out of that socialist movement that was going for a good while. And now by two to one margin, people are conservative or very conservative on economics, opposed to liberal or very liberal. That’s a really good news for the direction of the nation, that we’re getting stronger, and a bigger group of very conservative folks, which bodes well for the future, if they will stay involved, and if they will keep that conviction of conservatism and know why they have it and stand up for it. That can be really good in the future.

Rick Green
And could mean that it’s going to get even better, you know, and this is that the left pushes way further, they don’t know how to control themselves, no self control, so they push so crazy on all this transgender stuff and everything else. You know, we were talking about baseball earlier. So like for the Dodgers to support the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. I mean, they just go so far, that it makes those people in the middle say, I’ve got to choose a side here, I can’t just be neutral. And they’re choosing conservatism because of this craziness. So I bet those numbers get even better in the future, David. Alright, Tim, what’s next man?

Tim Barton
This one’s going back to the sporting world. This one is going to the women’s softball team from Oklahoma. And the only reason that I would go to a women’s sporting event, and I’m not trying to hate on any women out there. The athletes, I’ve got two young girls, I will teach them sports as well as firearms and jujitsu along the way, nonetheless.

Rick Green
Now, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, I got to say, Tim. Fastpitch softball is pretty remarkable. I mean, I don’t know how… they have less time. You know, I’m a baseball guy, right? I’m a fastpitch… I don’t like slow pitch softball. But these girls, I’m telling you, that thing is coming in fast. And they’re closer than regular men’s fastpitch. So actually, I’m going to defend the girls on this one man, girls. Fastpitch softball is amazing.

Tim Barton
And right, I mean, to your point, they… I don’t remember what the number is, but because of how close they are, It’s the equivalent of a guy trying to hit a 100+ mile an hour fastball, because the proximity and how fast they’re throwing it. So there’s no doubt, there’s a high degree of difficulty. I’m just saying, I’m not usually watching competitive women’s softball on my weeknights, right. It’s not normally how I spent my week nights. However, this is something that went viral, rightfully so, just incredible. First of all, the women’s softball team from Oklahoma, they won their third straight World Series. So kudos to them, great job. But in the championship series, they were up against Florida State. They won the first game. There was a press conference. And there were several players there with a coach. And they were asking… The press was asking them, how are you doing? How are you navigating this pressure? And this is just… I’m going to read part of the interview. And it highlights the good news from this. So the reporter said, how do you handle the unique pressure that comes with that? How do you keep the joy for so long when anxiety seems like the thing that could very easily set in, and Grace Lyons responded. She’s an infielder. Well, the only way that you can have joy that doesn’t fade away is from the Lord. Thankfully, we’ve had a lot of successes here. But it was the other way around, joy from the Lord is the only thing that can keep you embracing those memories, moments, friendships. That’s really the only answer to that because there’s no other way that softball can bring you that because of how much failure comes in it. And just how much of a roller coaster the game can be. Another player there said a thousand percent agree with Grace Lyons. And they began talking about this. One of the girls said, when they won a championship her freshman year, she said, I didn’t know what to do the next day. I didn’t feel filled, the kind of the joy, the excitement, she said, I had to find Christ in that. There were players talking about how when they came to find Christ, they were able to find fulfillment. She said you can’t find fulfillment in an outcome, whether it’s good or bad. I think that’s why we’re so steady in what we do- the love for each other, the love for the game, because we know the game is giving us the opportunity to glorify God, to turn people to Jesus. And on and on, they go. And they consistently are pointing back to God, to Jesus to confidence in their faith, to joy in the Lord, regardless of the outcome. Now, they won 61 and 1, so I imagine they have a reason to be very joyful this year. They were on a 53 game winning streak when they won the championship. But it’s so refreshing. And I feel like we’ve talked a lot about this over the last year or two, about so many athletes that have been much more vocal about their faith. And certainly when you look at the women college softball ranks, you don’t often hear a lot of Jesus talk surrounding this. And I think probably that the reporters, whether it’s ESPN reporters, whoever else was there, I don’t know they were trying to coax a Jesus answer out of these players, I think probably they’re really just asking about the game. But it’s so encouraging to hear the faith component of this professional, relatively team, right, this women’s college softball team that’s won three World Series in a row. They’re a very, very good team. And that God, that Jesus is at the center, the core of who they are and what they do. Just so encouraging, because this interview did go viral. It’s all over the place. And now you have all these young up and coming female athletes who want to have an ambition maybe to play in college, maybe to win a collegiate World Series, and they’re hearing this kind of testimony, just absolutely incredible. So kudos to the women’s softball team from Oklahoma. But man, absolutely incredible what God has done in that team. And now what God is doing through that team to help reach people with part of the gospel message.

Rick Green
Yeah, you know, Tim, I actually had seen this on social media, came through and I watched the interview, and it was so impressive. And one of the things that was cool, all three girls, you know, were so strong in their faith. And they kept referring to their coach, too, and how the coach set that environment and it was just cool, man, it was really, really good testimony. They were well spoken about it. It wasn’t like a, you know, self righteous thing. It wasn’t an in your face thing. It was literally joy. It was the joy of the Lord, that was shining through them. It was really, really cool to watch. David, alright, what’s our next piece of good news?

David Barton
Well, this one is a decision reached by the US Supreme Court. And it deals with something that we don’t necessarily talk about much, but it’s unions, and what happens with unions and with a strike. Now I’ve got to say, this was an 8:1 decision, but I’ve seen so many more decisions the last couple of years, where that even the liberals are going with the conservatives on things I didn’t think they would, like when we won that Boston City, Boston has to fly the Christian flag. That was a 9:0 decision. So even the Liberals are saying, Hey, you can’t keep Christians from flying a Christian flag over the city of Boston, at the city hall, etc. Just things I wouldn’t expect, you know, that had been polarized before. This one deals with unions. And one of the Union tactics that previous courts have upheld back in the liberal days were that it’s a valid tactic for a union to be able to destroy the property of the business owner as part of their negotiation tactics. So if they call a strike, and the owner holds out against the strike, the union members can go and destroy part of the property and they don’t have to pay for it. That’s part of the negotiations, which is a crazy thing to do. Private property is private property, it should be protected. The fact that there’s a strike going on doesn’t remove constitutional protection for private property, etc. Well, it happened that up in the state of Washington, there’s a concrete company up there. And the strike was called by the union up there for the employees and so the employees left a real bad situation, costly situation for the company, where that after they mixed up all the concrete and the trucks, they walked off on the stripe, leaving all that concrete in the trucks. They did it deliberately, to injure to damage not only the trucks, other things, but it was just a bad situation. Just that’s a lot of costs, in there, all those loads of trucks, and you lose the truck, you lose the concrete, you lose all sorts of stuff as a result. And so that truck company sued and said no, the union needs to pay damages on this, for all the damages. And previous courts, liberal courts have said no, that’s just part of negotiations. This court by an 8:1 margin said, no, no, no, you can’t destroy private property. That’s not a valid campaign tactic in a union strike. You can’t do that. So great decision, by the US Supreme Court not heralded much anywhere I haven’t seen it talked about much at all. But it’s a great decision upholding basic constitutional rights, including the right of private property, that constitutional right doesn’t go away just because you happen to be a union. And just because liberals happen to like unions, you don’t get to destroy somebody else’s property. So great decision by the US Supreme Court.

Rick Green
Alright guys, lots of good news, today. We talked so much baseball, I’ve got to add just one thing as we’re closing out, today, I’m assume… I guess you could call this a good news thing from a humility point of view. David Freese, a great St. Louis Cardinal. I called him a freak in 2011, because our Texas Rangers, our beloved Texas Rangers, who lost the World Series to the St. Louis Cardinals that year, barely, because of David Freese. This guy was amazing in that playoff series. It was unreal, the homeruns he hit at the right time, the base hits he had at the right time. I think he leaped 400 feet into the air to steal a line drive from the Rangers a couple of times. Just a little bit of an exaggeration there, anyway, he’s declined to be in the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame. He says he wasn’t good enough throughout his career. It was just one crazy good season. Wow, what humility! Unbelievable! Anyway, I don’t know if there’s more to it or not. But I will never forget the guy because of all of the pain and heartache and crying he caused me that year in the World Series in 2011, between the Cardinals and the Rangers, but I’m impressed by his humility. Alright, that’s enough for baseball today. And enough good news. Well, there’s never enough good news, but enough for today, and we’ll have more for you next Friday. Thanks for listening to WallBuilders.