Constitution Courses For Leaders, Christian Heritage Week, And More – On Foundations Of Freedom: Should Constitution classes be mandatory for public servants? What is a key to restoring our Republic? Have you ever heard about Christian Heritage Week? Should the American Flag be in the church? Should churches teach Biblical positions to the issues we face today? We’re answering your questions; so tune in for Foundations of Freedom!

Air Date: 11/03/2022

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. We’re taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective respective. Thanks for joining us. Be sure to visit our website, wallbuilderslive.com. That’s where you can get archives of the program from the last few weeks if you missed them. And you can also get a list of our stations across the country airing the program.

I’m Rick Green, America’s Constitution. Coach here with David Barton and Tim Barton. Tim’s the national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders. 

David Barton, of course, America’s premier historian and our founder here at WallBuilders. You can learn more about all three of us at wallbuilderslive.com. That’s also the place to make a one-time or monthly contribution. 

Thank you to all of you across the nation that are given on a regular basis, or maybe you’re just working towards that end of year tax deductible contribution, we greatly appreciate it, and it allows us to expand our message, expand our voice. You’re helping to get the message of truth out there to more people and engage them, educate them, equip them, inspire them, get them, move to action in saving our constitutional republic. 

So thank you so much for doing that. Check it out today at wallbuilderslive.com.

Also, I want to invite you to join us for a Constitutional Defense course right here in my backyard. Man, we’re going to be doing the dinner at my house and some Constitution training at my house. And then we’ll be heading over to a range not too far from us and doing five days of incredible training, handgun training during the day, constitution training in the evenings, and a great time of fellowship.

You don’t want to miss it. We’ve been doing this for, I guess, four or five years now. The Bartons’ have been, we had so many people go with us from across the country, they all enjoy it.

Constitutional Defense

Everybody, not only, you know, the people that have never touched a gun in their life, to those that have shotguns their entire life, everybody improves dramatically. And it’s absolutely necessary to be able to defend your family. So check that out today at patriotacademy.com. Click on the picture of Matt Walsh and myself shooting there, it says Constitutional Defense and get signed up. 

These are very limited classes, very small classes, can be very intimate. We’re going to have a great time right there on my front porch for dinner and then a wonderful time in the Constitutional Defense courses.

Alright, David and Tim, here we go. Let’s dive into these questions. It’s Foundations of Freedom Thursday, folks. You can send them into [email protected] First one is coming from Jan, and she’s asking about teaching elected officials. Of course, I love to say public servants instead of elected officials, but teaching them. 

She said, “Is there any way that current and newly elected officials are required to take your Constitution Alive or another of your constitutional courses every year? This should be, and I don’t like to say it mandatory not to only inform them, to remind them of the original intent of our Founding Fathers for the constitution, the bill of rights, along with the biblical values this great nation was built upon. Elected officials, for the most part, are the biggest problem and not the solution to the mess we are in.”

That almost sounded like Reagan’s first inaugural address, government is the problem. It’s not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem. But civic ignorance, biblical ignorance. We know that’s the root problem of all of these things. I don’t know though, guys, I always run from mandates, so I don’t even know how you could make it mandatory for them to learn it. But we can certainly encourage them. And we’re getting a lot more people that are elected that have been through our classes.

Everybody Needs…

Tim:

Rick this is already mandatory, bro. We call this a Civic and Government course, except we don’t teach Civics and Government anymore. What’s in Constitution Alive, Biblical censorship, that was the basic course we taught in school for years. It was a graduation course. The stuff that you’re teaching now, as Jan saying, this needs to be done by everybody. Agreed. 

Which is why this was a required course in all high schools. You could not graduate without a civics course and a government course, and there were two different courses. Civics is very different from government. Government is a philosophy. Civics is the way it works today. And so you had to know that so you could be a good citizen.

So what we’re really saying is, hey, we need schools to be teaching the Constitution again. I love the fact that it’s churches doing it now and citizens and others that are doing Constitution Alive and Biblical Citizenship. But this is something that was basic to everyone. Now, we already have a law that requires this. If anybody will go back and read the Constitution Day law, it used to be Citizenship Day, but then they changed the Constitution Day in 1984.

And so if you read the law, it requires not only that every citizen, but it says every federal employee is to have a thorough course in the Constitution and all the precepts principles and articles before you can work for the federal government. Now, I want you to find me one agency today that’s part of the entry course and proof that we don’t know the constitution? 

As Biden keeps saying we got to save the democracy, Pelosi keeps saying save the democracy, I’m been in state after state they have billboards democrats saying save the democracy. That’s proof you have no clue what the Constitution is because we’re not a democracy, we’re public constitution explicit. So we just don’t teach even our own laws. I mean it’s there.

Hopefully in the Future

Tim:

Well, and this is something that sounds like maybe we can promote if there’s a future Trump administration or if there is a DeSantis or a Kari Lake, somebody in the future, maybe we can remind and encourage them, hey guys, there’s something that is actually required for federal employees.

But Rick, to your point, anytime we talk about a mandate for elected officials, it can be a little scary because even if we said no, we’re going to word the mandate really, really well and say you have to read and study the Constitution and you have to take a constitutional course, well, who’s going to teach the course and how do you know what they’re teaching isn’t going to be one of these new judge or judicial positions where they say we can make the constitution into our image and it can be whatever we want it to be? There can be a scary thing when you mandate it.

But one of the things we’ve seen that’s been very good and very effective is when you have individuals, now whether this be a school board president, whether be a city council or mayor, whether it be a state legislature, when you have somebody take initiative and especially somebody in a leadership position in whatever that genre is, whether it’s state legislature or school board, city council–

Whatever it is, when you have someone take a leadership position and they can call for a team meeting right when the Republican party says hey, we’re going to get together and part of what we do for our yearly meeting, for our training or every month we’re going to get together, and they literally could spend a couple of hours going through Constitution Alive or going through the actual Constitution, going through Joseph stories, commenters in the Constitution, whatever it is. This is something that we have seen examples of.

State Legislators

We know some individuals in Congress from the 90s, the early 2000s, the early 2010s, we know different congressmen and women who were part of some of these training sessions when they were new freshmen elected to Congress or sometimes even state legislators when there were new state legislators that were elected in the state, there were individuals that had the initiative that took them under their wing and they would do constitutional training.

And I think at this point, the most practically speaking is you really need people to take initiative that are going to work, whether it’s the school board president or city council, but people in those positions where they can encourage a training and for their group, they’re going to come together and do things, that’s something that can be done, but it means that you need people on the city council, you need the mayor, you need somebody on the school board. That means you need state legislators to buy into that idea and that initiative. This is something that everybody should know.

And I really do think it’s probably worth us reminding some of our friends, if we see some different elected officials, especially in the White House, that maybe can have a little more say over some of these federal areas. It’s worth reminding them this is one of the things that’s actually what they’re supposed to be doing. However, between now and hopefully, God-willing, a 2024 election when Republican is back in the White House, between now and then, certainly this is something that we can encourage our state legislators, that we can encourage our school board or city council, even our mayors, to take initiative and to work to maybe show these videos. But we’re not just promoting our material, because if they want to go and maybe they’re Hillsdale people, they want to watch something from Hillsdale, they can totally do that. Maybe you want to read a Tuttle Twins book, that’s great, too.

If we can just get people going back and learning and studying and teaching the Constitution, absolutely something that every American needs to know. But certainly, if you’re an elected official, you need to be aware of, familiar with, and know the constraints and limitations in the Constitution.

Arizona

David:

I just got back from Arizona, and here in Arizona, where we’re doing some meetings, it’s interesting, Tim, I had some county party officials here. And at the party here in Arizona, we’re in Phoenix, they actually are teaching Constitution Alive to Republicans, and they’re meeting every week doing constitutional courses. And it’s the same kind of thing, Tim, that you’re talking about is get people teaching this. It’d be great to have them teaching to government.

But in the meantime, Rick, with Constitution Alive, you got Constitution coaches everywhere, and they can be teaching it in the meantime. But as we get these guys elected, Tim, you’re right, we need this taught at every level. Every state legislature needs to go through some Constitution courses. They may be conservative, they may be God-fearing, that doesn’t mean they know the Constitution, and those are good courses. And so Constitution Alive is a great starting place.

But, Tim, as you said, even things like Joseph Stories Commentary on the Constitution from 1833, great book, or we have at WallBuilders the Catechism of the Constitution, which is a reprint of a school book from 1828. Every single person needs to get that book from 1828 at wallbuilders.com and read this old school book on what was elementary Constitution for kids back in the day.

Rick:

Yeah. And we also have a new one, you guys know Scarlett Lanny, our super constitution coach, she put together a real easy 45 minutes slideshow for schools to use on Constitution Day because so many of our coaches were coming back and saying, okay, we can’t do a whole Constitution Alive class or any of that in one class for these 8th graders or 10th graders or 12th graders or whatever class they were getting into.

Constitution Day Presentation

So she put together a great 45 minutes presentation that’s typically for Constitution Day, which we’ve already passed. But you can do it any time of the year. And certainly, you can do it with your family as well. Which we often talk about here is, hey, got to start with yourself, right, each individually need to study these things and teach our family as well.

Tim:

Well, guys, along those lines too, one of the things I’m reminded of is as we’re coming up to Thanksgiving, one of the things that used to be something also done in America is what was known as Christian Heritage Week. And Christian Heritage Week is where schools would take some time and say, hey, let’s go back and relearn some of this history and it was time to emphasize things that were not necessarily part of the curriculum, but were historically true and accurate.

If you look at the Pilgrims, which for people that want to know more about them, we have articles on the WallBuilders website for free. We have a book called The American Story, great resource, where we go through the Pilgrims coming to America and really the religious foundation that led them to go to Holland seeking religious freedom and they didn’t really find as much freedom as they were looking for in Holland and the secularization of Holland happening and so they said, let’s find a different place, they come to America. 

The providence of the storm involved coming across and individuals following off the ship and then being able to get back on the ship and lives saved when the main beam breaks and the jackscrew that’s able to go up and keep them all afloat in the storm that doesn’t let them go to the Jamestown colony where they’re trying to go, there’s so many things. And I know I’m leaving a lot out, that’s the point, get the book The American Story. You can find out all these details.

Resources to Learn Our Providential History

But in the midst of it where they land and they meet Samoset, who introduced him to Squanto, and Squanto is the one that helps them learn to live. There’s so many providential moments and stories. And as you look at the foundation from the Pilgrims, really through the rest of American history, there are so many things that we still do to this day in America because of the foundations the Pilgrims laid.

But with the Pilgrims dead, their foundation was all of it in the Bible, it is part of the Christian heritage of the nation. And of course, there’s so much more. We can go through the American Revolution. You can go through the Civil War. There’s so many great moments we can point to with Providence, with God getting involved with these providential moments in history. Nonetheless, this is something that is we’re looking and saying, hey, every September 17th on Constitution Day, we should study the Constitution. That’s absolutely true.

And now, Rick, there’s something that I guess people go to patriotacademy.com, they can find information to get that little slideshow from Scarlett, they can share with people. And, of course, you’ll have resources and links for them there as well. But it’s something that we don’t just need to look at Constitution Day. There’s a lot of things we need restored in this nation.

Part of it is some of the understanding of what made this nation unique. If we don’t remember there’s a God, then it’s easier to discount the notion of God-given rights. So remembering the Christian heritage helps us remember our God-given rights, and then it helps us remember the role of the government is to protect those God-given rights.

But Christian Heritage Week is something that definitely we would encourage you to look into. We have information about Christian Heritage Week on the WallBuilders website. You can go there as well. But there are several things we would encourage people to learn and steady and even promote in their schools.

Christian Heritage Week

David:

Yeah. And Tim, with Christian Heritage Week, as you mentioned that’s on the website, let me kind of blow that up just a little bit. There’s a guy named Bruce Burrillo, West Virginia, he’s a pastor, he is a janitor in school there. And he took this on as a project and he wrote every single governor, every year saying, guys, we have all sorts of commemorative weeks, we have weeks on this, that, whatever, declare Christian Heritage Week because that’s so much a part of who America is today, our heritage. And he was able to get hundreds of declarations by state governors saying Christian Heritage Week, we’re going to take this week to remember the influence of Christians and influence of Christianity in America.

And so that’s something that can be done with mayors, it can be done with state legislators, state reps, it can be done at the state, the county, the national level. And so on the website, there are sample letters that you can take to send to these legislators or to the mayors or to the governors. Ask them to do this, they will respond. And there’s over 700 of those proclamations listed on the website so you can see what states have done, what governors have done, what’s been done in other places across the country and get that done in your place as well.

And then when it happens, man, you can do it at church. You can have your pastor taught by Christian Heritage Week and give a great summer, and like Tim said on the Pilgrims and Puritans and what’s happened there. On the website, there are actually five days of lessons to cover a full week and it covers so much of the history of the United States, not just the Pilgrims, but also going through the American war for independence and right on through. So there’s a lot of resources there and it’s a great way to get some good content back in your community.

But Tim, that was a great idea. Just everybody, please contact your mayor, contact your city council, contact your state rep, your state senator, contact your governor, they will respond. And there’s hundreds of examples out there that they can look at on how to word a proclamation if they don’t know how to. So there’s a lot of resources there at the website under Christian Heritage Week.

THE AMERICAN STORY

Rick:

Alright, guys, we’re going to take a quick break. We’ve got more questions coming from the audience when we return. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

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 out 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 the 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.

The American Flag in Church?

Rick:

We’re back here on WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us today on this Foundation of Freedom Thursday. We’re taking your questions and you can send them into [email protected], that’s [email protected] Next question says this. “Good afternoon. 

I’m extremely excited about some of the content WallBuilders has produced…” Like, what do they mean, some of the content? No, I’m just kidding, folks, all the content WallBuilders has produced are good, but they’re excited about some of the content, especially the podcast A Letter to the American Church. 

And, of course, guys, that was Eric Metaxis just a week or two ago when we had him on. Anyway, the question goes on to say, “I’m an active member within my church as well as a school board member for my ISD,” alright, this is good, “one question I have for WallBuilders is what is your take on flying the American flag within the church as well as singing the national anthem as a hymn on Sunday morning? 

I believe the placement of an American flag at the front of the sanctuary can result in ‘flag worship’, a form of idolatry. Even when the American flag is placed alongside the Christian flag, it signals equivalence between the kingdom of God and the United States.”

Okay, so this is an interesting question, guys. I see flags in a lot of the churches that I speak in, American flags and I’ve never thought about that. I’ve never noticed anybody worshiping the flag or felt like their attitude was a worship of the flag. It just reminded us that we live in a nation where we get to worship freely. But maybe some people feel like this is an interesting question to take, what do you guys think?

Christian Nationalism

David:

Rick, a lot of this question I think, is derived from a new movement that’s kind of resurrected itself in the last few months. It was here 20 years ago and 40 years ago and they’re calling it Christian Nationalism or Christian Dominionism now and they’re trying to get Christians to back out of being involved with their country. 

And what happens is if you stop having a love for your country, then you don’t care what happens to it, you’re not going to vote, you’re not going to whatever. Which leaves it to progressives and the others to take it. So they’ve really come after this thing saying, oh, if you’re a Christian nationalist or you have a flag while you’re trying to establish a theocracy, well, God’s kingdom is not of this world. And so it’s really become a way to get people to back off.

Tim:

And part of it too, dad, I think is worth pointing out that there are some good hearted people that just take this opinion in church you should only talk about Jesus and anything outside of Jesus is wrong. But these are also the people who oftentimes, and I’m saying this oftentimes, there could be an exception, but I don’t know many exceptions to this, these are the people that are promoting the Jesus only thought that also say, well, churches shouldn’t talk about political issues and political issues include things like marriage, include things like abortion, include things like religious liberty or a position with Israel, things that are very clearly biblical positions. So often people say, well only talk about Jesus and it very much is a limiting thought and idea.

And for so many of these people, they’re not trying to maybe take a wrong position. For many of them, they’re trying to be from a Godly perspective, but maybe they just have a different understanding. And I would argue it’s a misunderstanding of the whole of the gospel. When Jesus told the disciples that their commission was to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, he said, teaching them to observe all that I’ve commanded you.

The Word of God

Well, if you’re going to teach people everything, well now, first of all, she said, go make disciples, so already there’s a discipleship mandate, right. It’s not a conversion mandate. It’s a discipleship mandate. That is the goal, not just to make converts, to make disciples.

And part of this discipline when Jesus teaches them everything I’ve commanded you. Well, there’s a whole lot that Jesus talked about in first of all the four gospels. But if we really believe the beginning of the gospel of John, where it says was in the beginning was the Word, the Word is with God, the Word was God, through him is all things were made, etc, as it goes on, well, if Jesus was in the beginning and he’s the Word, and he’s the Word of God and from God, then arguably the entire Bible, if we believe the entire Bible is inspired by God, then everything in the Bible is from Jesus.

Therefore, everything in the Bible are arguably the words of Jesus to some level, to some extent, to some degree, how we’re defining that. But this is the word of God, therefore it’s the words from Jesus. So the whole Bible is what we should be teaching people.

Well, if we look at the whole Bible, there’s a lot more in the Bible than what most people want to relegate the role of the church to. And that’s where a lot of these people that are saying Jesus only, they don’t believe in teaching, all the Bible teaches, they just want to highlight a couple of things the Bible teaches and pretend like that’s all that matters.

David:

Yeah. And with that the Bible clearly talks and Jesus talks about economics, Jesus talks about education, he talks about foreigners and immigration. All that is covered by Jesus. So to say that we can’t cover this in church is crazy. But I’m going to go to another thought as well, and that is Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration Evangelical Christian, who started the first Bible society in the abolition movement and Sunday school movement, etc, he talked about how that the love of country is both a religious and a moral duty. Now why would that be?

Love of Country

Because the original root Patriotism means love of country. Well, if you have a love of anything, what do you do? If you love your family, you’re going to serve it, you’re going to seek the best for it, you’re going to sacrifice for it, you’re going to make sure that things go well with it.

If you love your family, that’s a good deal. If you love your country, that’s a good deal, because you’re going to try to make sure that the best stuff happens, that what happens to the people in it is good. And so he said it’s a religious animal duty.

And part of that is we’re told in the scriptures, in Acts 17, that God is the one who lays out the lines of the nations. God is also the one who chose where we would be born and when. God has put us in a nation. If everyone were to love their nation and seek the best for that nation, the whole world would better. 

You know, that’s what a missionary does. If a missionary says, I feel called to France, why is that? They have a love for the French people. They have a love for what’s going on in the country. They want to see that country be better. They want to see the people be better. They want them brought to Christ, which helps the whole nation.

So if everybody everywhere and God has put us all in separate individual nations, if everybody were to love their country and seek the best of the country like it was their own family, the whole world would be elevated. 

And so to say, well, God’s put me in America, but I don’t care about America. I’m not going to support it and I’m not going to defend it and I’m not going to protect it and I’m not going to love it, let’s see how long you’re going to enjoy being under a completely oppressive progressive administration, see what kind of religious liberties you have.

We’re seeing across the country Christians being targeted by banks because of their religious beliefs. Now, if you’re not going to be involved in the system, then just open yourself to persecution. You’re just begging, bring me more persecution. I’m not going to get involved in my government. I’m not going to get involved in policies. 

Higher than God?

And these pagan guys want to silence me, but I’m going to let them do… That’s not what God wants us. He put us here as stewards. And for us to say that we can’t fly a flag in the church, now, if that flag flies higher than God, that’s a problem. But we’re not talking about putting country higher than God.

We’re talking about doing country as part of our service to God, part of our service to others. And don’t be scared in this Christian nationalism stuff that’s going around. Back off from that. God wants us to love our country.

Tim:

Well, I think we could talk more about the Christian nationalism thing in a minute. But I think it’s worth noting. One of the famous verses in Christianity is Jeremiah 29:11, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. A very famous verse, right. 

And people look at it as their optimistic, hopeful verse. Whatever is going on, God has great things for us. And I totally believe it, right. Because God is so much bigger and greater than us. God’s plans for us are bigger and greater than we can think or imagine because we don’t have the thoughts and imagination of God. So God’s plans are bigger, they’re greater.

However, it’s worth asking, who was Jeremiah writing to when he said that? Well, if you back up and read earlier in the chapter of Jeremiah 29, just back up a couple verses, he’s writing to the people who are slaves in captivity at that time and what he actually told them. He says, when you’re enslaved in this land, he says, don’t despair and give up your life. 

Seek The Good Of…

He says, in fact, continue to marry, continue to have kids and raise families; he said, and seek the peace and the goodwill, the peace and prosperity of the land in which you live. He said, for when it goes well with them, it will go well with you.

Now, these are people literally enslaved in a nation who was conquered, destroyed, killed so many of their friends and family. And he’s like, hey, guys, don’t let this derail you, right, continue to marry, have kids, but seek the peace and the prosperity, seek the peace and the goodwill of the land in which you’re living, because when it goes well with them, it will go well with you.

Dad, this is to your point where the argument that Christians really shouldn’t get involved in America? Well, if we don’t get involved in America, the Bible tells us in Proverbs 29 that when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; when the wicked are in charge, when the wicked rule, the people groan. Well, we actually have a very significant voice in America that we can choose if we have righteous or ungodly leaders. 

And if that determines whether or not we are groaning or rejoicing, well, that’s part of seeking the good and prosperity of the nation which we live. We should be very much kingdom-minded, not just Jesus, when he taught the disciples to pray, pray let your kingdom come, where, on earth as it is in heaven. Well, who helps bring God’s kingdom on earth? Well, that’s certainly what Christians are supposed to do.

Constitution Courses For Leaders, Christian Heritage Week, And More

And the idea that Christians shouldn’t be involved or that even maybe it’s bad to have an American flag, dad, to your point, I think it’s great. If the American flag is higher than the Christian flag, that’s a major problem. But the American flag, if you live in America, that’s a great flag to fly because it reminds you to pray for your nation and to seek the good and the prosperity of the inhabitants of that nation.

Just like if you lived in Japan or you lived in China, you live in South Korea, wherever you live, for you to fly the flag of the nation where you live, yeah, fly the flag and let it remind you to pray for your nation and to be involved in promoting righteousness in your nation.

Rick:

Yeah. Guys, last thing I’ll say on that before we close out, I just watched a movie about a Jewish guy named Harry Haft who survived the concentration camps, was a boxer. They made a movie about his story. And at the end of this movie, when this Jewish gathering sings God Bless America, I cried like a baby, because the way the movie was made and the way they did that at the end, it was basically saying, thank God for America and for America allowing for religious liberty and freedom. 

And it just as a reminder to me of why we waved the American flag and why we fly the American flag even in our houses of worship, because it is truly a blessed nation to live in, and we should be reminded of those things.

Thanks for listening today, folks. You’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live.