Americans”€™ Political Views, Trump”€™s Promises, and More “€“ Good News Friday: Do the majority of Americans support socialism? How are churches and Planned Parenthood alike? How many promises has Trump actually kept? Tune in to hear the encouraging answers to these questions and more!

Air Date: 02/07/2018

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 found your way to the intersection of faith and the culture, it’s WallBuilders Live. We love talking about the hottest topics of the day. We always do that from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. Here with David Barton, America’s premier historian and the founder of WallBuilders, Tim Barton is with us, national speaker, pastor and president of WallBuilders. My name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas legislator and America’s Constitution coach.

We’re thrilled you’re with us today and looking forward to getting in some good news today. This is a Friday, so we get good news from around the nation, sometimes around the world. David and Tim scour all the news and articles out there and bring as much of it as we can get into one program on a Friday.

And listen if you enjoy having an optimistic view on what’s happening, if you enjoy, and I don’t mean a Pollyanna, kind of fake, we’re excited or fake, we feel good. I’m talking about just realistically looking at things with a providential point of view that recognizes that there’s nothing new under the sun and then in the context of history, you can see patterns in cultures and societies. And that if we just hit them head on, if we look at that constitutional, biblical and historical perspective, we can have an optimistic view. First of all, because our attitude is not determined by what’s happening politically. Our joy is based on whose we are not where we are. And we are given so much freedom to participate in improving the process and having the freedom to enjoy this talent of freedom that God has given us that we should all be optimistic and excited and willing to do our part.

Encouraging Victories

And we know if you’re listening to WallBuilders Live, that’s you. And we appreciate the opportunity to encourage you a little bit today as we share some of the victories out there and some of the positive things that are happening. This doesn’t mean we’re ignoring the tough stuff, believe me, we tackle those throughout the week as well. But today is our day to look at some of those bright spots and we’re going to dive right into those right now.

Alright guys, let’s jump into some good news. We’ll start with David Barton. David.

David:

We’re going to start With the national poll is out on what Americans believe, philosophically, politically. And in this poll, you can self-identify as conservative, liberal or moderate. Now, given what we know about the nation and the trend and the direction is heading, where academia is, where media is, etc, what numbers would you associate? Let me ask this, which of the three groups is going to be bigger and by how much? How would you rank the groups 1, 2 and 3, which is the biggest liberal conservative moderate, what order would you put them in?

Tim:

Well, just based on an outside perspective, which I think I have a little behind the scenes knowledge, but just from an outside perspective, it seems like the country is more divided than we’ve ever been. So it would make sense that you’re going to have a greater splits with conservatives and liberals, assuming that’s kind of the categories that they fall in. Just knowing how divided we are.

The Philosophical Views of Americans

Now, I think that’s just from an outside perspective based on what the news portrays, based on the drama that is continually stirred up on social media, everywhere else. That is the outside perception of what is there. Now, I think you’re going to clarify some things, but I think that’s the outside perception. Rick, would you see that differently?

Rick:

Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, my outside perception would be mostly moderate and then those crazies on the far right and the far left is kind of the typical perception.

David:

Well, as it turns out, the biggest group by far was conservative. They were 37%. Behind them”€¦

Rick:

Even bigger than moderate?

David:

Yes, they were bigger than moderates. Behind them are moderates at 35% and the liberals came in last at 24%. So conservatives are one and a half times larger percentage-wise than are liberals.

Tim:

Which would seem to indicate that the majority of Americans are not going crazy and supporting socialism, if that was the smallest number demographic. Because Rick, as you pointed out, what is probably the better insight understanding is there’s a lot more modern, so people realize and then you have extremes on both sides. But if there are, in this case, even more conservatives and then a big number of moderates and the smallest is the liberals or the progressives in this sense, it would seem to indicate that the majority of Americans are not in favor of that extreme position of socialism, of kind of burning the house down, removing the Constitution, abandoning the free market, etc, which is very optimistic and encouraging.

3 Out of 4 Americans Are”€¦

David:

Well, if you add the numbers together of conservative and moderate, you’re 72% for center, center, right. So if you’re looking at center of the country and center right of the country, 3 out of 4 Americans are center and center right. That’s really good news. And this is where we’ve seen in previous state by state polls that I think there’s only four states in United States where that professed liberals outnumber professed conservatives. So it really is kind of stark, we just don’t see it that way or perceiving it that way.

Tim:

And it doesn’t mean that moderates are going to take a conservative position necessarily, but it does mean they have not taken the liberal position, at least not in their own acknowledgement of their position. And most likely, if you’re going to be supporting socialism, you’re going to say, oh, I’m a liberal, because that’s something you’re going to embrace as opposed to saying I am a moderate would seem to indicate that you’re not embracing that liberal position. So to say they’re moderate doesn’t mean when you say center, center, right, sometimes it might feel like, well, maybe they’re on our side, well not necessarily, but it does mean that they’re not fully embracing the other side, which is good news.

David:

The other thing that goes with this, is we’ve seen also in separate polling on different stuff, that all of these groups, the one who is the loudest and speaking and giving their opinions are the liberals. So they certainly seem like the loudest biggest group and they are the loudest group, not the biggest group. They’re actually the smallest group, but they”€™re the guys that do dominate media and they do dominate academia and education, etc. So that’s where we hear the more.

Conservatives Need to Speak Out

But, what we need to do is get the conservatives who polling shows they’re the least likely wants to speak out about their opinions. They’re the ones who need to make a little more noise. They need to share a little more views on social media and they may need to talk to their friends and they need to share here’s what I believe and that they need to be more outspoken about who they are.

Tim:

And I do think we’re seeing more of that under President Trump, where I think President Trump has emboldened everybody to be more outspoken, because people have realized, wow, if he can tweet stupid things, I can say stupid things, too. So I think on some level, people have been more emboldened. But still, statistically, you’re right, the people who are the most likely to speak out are going to be people that tend to be more liberal, more progressive and interestingly, also people that just based on statistics, no less of the information they’re talking about. And this is where conservatives oftentimes don’t want to speak out because they don’t want to say something that they don’t know to be true, although we don’t see that same reservation from the other side all the time.

And I do think we’re seeing a different trend under President Trump; that’s something he’s emboldened people to step forward. So I do think we’ll see more of that even though that’s not statistically born out yet.

David:

Now with this, I’m going to take a little spin off on the side because talking about liberal versus conservative, etc. I want to take a quick shot at something. When you think of nonprofit organizations, what jumps to your mind is a nonprofit?

Churches Are Like Planned Parenthood

Rick:

A type of non”€¦ but you mean like specific one?

David:

Yeah. Give me the types of entities that are nonprofit?

Rick:

Educational, like the poor, feed the homeless, church and army”€¦

David:

Churches are nonprofit, religious.

Tim:

I specifically didn’t say churches, because we’ve had these conversations many times, even though that’s a classification designation. Churches are unique when it comes to the nonprofit world that they kind of stand in their own category, but they are not taxed.

David:

That’s right.

Tim:

They’re tax exempt, which in this case would be kind of one of the clarifications of a nonprofit.

David:

So if churches are tax exempt and we’re told they cannot get involved in politics, right? I mean, that’s what everybody tells churches, you can’t get involved in politics. May I point out something I did not realize this until this week from the standpoint. Did you know that Planned Parenthood is the same nonprofit that church is? Now has anybody told Planned Parenthood, they can’t be involved in politics? Oh my gosh, they’re endorsing candidates like crazy. They’re pouring millions into electing Democrats. How come we’re not”€¦ we ought to be saying to churches, hey, you”€™re nonprofit, Planned Parenthood is nonprofit. Don’t tie your hands behind your back. Why don’t you get as bold as Planned Parenthood? I mean, there’s speaking out about candidates and philosophies, about who needs to be in office. I just thought that that was a really cool reminder. That when you look at Planned Parenthood, nobody goes after them saying, hey, your nonprofit, you can’t get involved in politics, but they’re going after churches.

Pastors”€™ Briefing

So we need to recognize that we’ve got greater standing than we think we do. And my gosh, don’t tie our hands behind our backs and get solid, especially as this elections approaching.

Rick:

Alright, guys, quick break. We’ve got a lot more good news today. So stay with us, folks, you’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

BREAK

Hi, this is Tim with WallBuilders. And I want to encourage all the pastors out there with the unique opportunity that we’re presenting at WallBuilders. We’re doing a special tour just for pastors that you can come and learn more about the spiritual heritage of our nation, not just seeing the sights, but understanding the significance of what they are and what they represent. We get to go through the capital a night and we get to see the spiritual heritage of our founding fathers of who we are as a nation, where we came from. We bring in congressman that will tell you about current legislation, about our religious liberties and freedom and what’s going on in Washington DC.

If you’re a pastor or if you want to recommend your pastor for this trip, you can go to our website, www.wallbuilders.com and there’s a link that’s for scheduling. If you click on that link, there’s a section for pastors briefing. There’s more information about the dates when it”€™s going, how it’s going to happen. If you want to know more about our nation, our religious liberties, our freedom, our spiritual   heritage, this is a trip you want to be a part of.

Rick:

We’re back here on WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us, it’s Good News Friday and Tim Barton is got the next piece of good news. Tim.

Trump”€™s Kept His Promises

Tim:

Yeah, guys, this is a headline that says “€˜Trump list shows 319 results and promises kept in three years”€™. Now this article breaks down that President Trump part of his getting ready for the 2020 campaign. His administration released a list of achievements they”€™re 15 categories. And in those 15 categories, there were 319 things they listed as results, positive impacts, Mike Pence spoke about this and simply said, look, these are promises made and promises that are kept.

And this is something that we we’ve talked about on the show many times on Good News Friday, the positive things that President Trump has done. We have celebrated many of those things. But guys, even with our knowledge, I would suggest we’d have a really hard time coming up with 319 things he has done, even much less. There were 15 categories of things he’s worked in. Now, we might get 15 categories, but that wouldn’t be easy either.

And this is something that I think a lot of times is lost in the drama is how much positive things has happened, how much he has kept promises that he made on so many levels. And so in this article, there’s a pollster that was interviewed. And the pollster says, “€œLook, because of what he has done, this pollster said, I think you see the genius of why Trump was elected in 2016 and will probably not be hampered by the democratic impeachment and probably will win reelection in 2020.”€ Because even though we’ve talked about right now, his polling might not look great on some states, in some areas and some of the democrats running against him look even stronger right now just in polling, he has not started the campaign against any of these democrats yet.

An Impressive List

And so when he’s able to start pointing out what he has accomplished and some of their records and some of what they have opposed, he has a much more impressive list of accomplishments than anybody he’s running against and that’s something his article points out. With these 319 results, guys, this is something that there is so much good news in this list.

And so, just for a second, Rick, what do you think would be the highlight over the last three years of a good news thing from President Trump, because we’re not going to list 319? But I thought if we just started thinking about this, certainly we’re not coming with 319. But what are some highlights? I would think of how many presidents over the last several decades have promised to make the US Embassy in Israel to be in Jerusalem. And President Trump was the one who kept that promise. That was incredible. Especially as people of faith, we recognize Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel. So that is one. So Rick, dad, what is another thing you recognize?

David:

987 Judges right off that, I’ll go Judges first.

Rick:

And that they’re good, you know, because every Republican presidential candidate says, I’m going to appoint strict constructionist and I’m going to appoint, you know, conservative justice and all that and then typically, it’s 50-50 even from what we thought of is pretty good presidents in the past. This guy is what, 99% on his Judges actually been the type of Judges that he said he was going to appoint. It’s been incredible.

Judicial Appointments

Tim:

Yeah, it’s strong 90% for sure, guys, we’ve been very impressed with and a lot of our friends who work in those worlds. Some of our friends who have some of these big law firms, who helped defend religious liberty are in cases the US Supreme Court have said how impressive these Judges and these picks were to them. And so certainly we’re hearing that resonate. Okay, so Judges, dad, Rick, what is something that stands out to you as something impressive.

Rick:

Man, you know, even though the regulatory, even though it’s very difficult to roll back regulations so that the economy can be freed and Reagan promised to do that in his eight years and was never able to accomplish that with the bureaucracy in the fourth branch. Trump has been much better at that, much more successful at that. And even as hard as it is, he’s been able to actually roll back regulations and we’ve talked about some of those things on the program. So I’d say being successful with not completely draining the swamp because I think that’s impossible for somebody to in just eight years as a president, but at least getting rid of some of the swamp.

Tim:

So Rick, along those lines, as you started saying this and right, we had not talked about this before, this was off the cuff we’re having this conversation. But I looked, the second article down in my list is this headline, “€˜Trump beats his own record for fewest new regulations issued in a year”€™.

Fewer Regulations

So 2017 he had one of the lowest list of presidents in the recent memory. 2019, he had even fewer regulations by several hundred in 2019. And so in this idea of deregulating, of allowing the free market to govern, of allowing businesses to thrive, encouraging entrepreneurship, encouraging startups, this is something that certainly we have seen born out.

Again, I have this article here. And it goes for several pages about some of the deregulation and the impact it’s had and how there’s been a positive impact, which is what we’ve seen with the economy and how the economy has been the strongest the biggest economy ever now. We also could look and go, wait a second, we’re inflating a bubble. And that’s always dangerous, but at some point, the bubble is going to pop, certainly there’s reason for concern. We obviously want to get back to a balanced budget. There’s a lot of things we can say. Nonetheless, where we are right now, President Trump has done a lot of very healthy, strong things for the economy and a lot of it has been built on this deregulation process.

So certainly, when you look at that list of more than 300 things, this article points out he’s done, these are just a couple of those highlights. But this is why this pollster on his article said that he thinks that Trump is going to be elected 2020 because what he’s done has been more impressive than anybody he’s running against.

Doing What He Said He Would

Rick:

And just keeping his work, just doing what he said he would do more so than any president in our lifetime and it’s just absolutely incredible. And we could probably do Good News Friday”€™s just on those 319, that could take all of our Good News Friday’s to do in 2020. So we can’t do every single one of them, but it is phenomenal what he’s been able to accomplish. We got take quick break, guys, we’ll be right back and more good news. You’re listening to the WallBuilders Live.

BREAK

This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. Alexis de Tocqueville, a political official from France, traveled to the United States in 1831 and pinned his observations in the now famous book, “€˜Democracy in America”€™. Being from France, what he found in America was completely unexpected to him. He reported, “€œUpon my arrival in the United States, the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention. And the longer I stayed there, the more I perceived the great political consequences resulting from this. In France, I almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America, I found that they were intimately united and that they reigned in common over the same country. De Tocqueville recognized that it was biblical Christianity and the morals that produced that made America great.

For more information about Alexis de Tocqueville and the positive influence of Christianity in early America, go to wallbuilders.com.

Franklin Graham

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live, Good news Friday today. We appreciate you staying with us. We’re working through a good new stack that is way too big to get it all in one program. So David, pick another story out of that stack.

David:

I’m going to go to Franklin Graham. Over the last few years, I’ve made a couple of comments that I really appreciate the fact that he’s starting to address some things with boldness and clarity. We’ve talked on numerous programs about how polling shows that the generally, pastors are just not willing to take a stand on so many issues or at least speak out on. They might have a personal stand, but they’re not telling others what that is or not sharing it with their congregation. They’re not addressing many issues their congregation faces. And so we’ve shown and talked about how much polling shows that we really need to do that.

Well, Franklin Graham over the last few years has been like that. And he’s been encouraging folks to, look, you got to get involved in the civil arena. He’s been holding gatherings at capitals, prayer gatherings at that, but he’s been doing at the capital and just getting passion to a capital for any reason has been big. But he’s been having these prayer gatherings at the capitals, all 50 states and he’s been speaking out on issues, has been really good.

And so as we’re approaching this next election in 2020, with the presidential election going and all the democratic debates right now, and I’m trying to figure out who their nominee will be against President Trump. Newspapers and magazines and media outlets are starting to take positions.

Christianity Today

And so in the Christian world, one of the more respected voices in the Christian world has been Christianity Today. And Christianity Today was actually founded by Billy Graham years and years ago, I think back in the 50s. And so they came out with that editorial that just basically said Christians should not reelect Trump, he should not be reelected. He’s a bad guy. He’s been impeached. He deserves to be impeached and just really opened up and launched on Trump.

So that doesn’t make much news and most of the religious world is certainly made news in the secular world as the secular world, CNN and others picked it up and what look what the major Christian news organization, Christianity Today says about Trump, he should not be reelected, etc.

Tim:

And guys, it’s worth noting, right that now nobody argues that President Trump is a Billy Graham or Mother Teresa. I mean certainly in his past, he did some things. Now as president, he”€™s not held those poor moral positions that we’ve seen previously. But here’s what’s crazy about this article Christianity Today was they pointed out his moral shortcomings and largely, right he says mean things and he’s not always a nice person. But that’s their argument of why he shouldn’t be there.

So my question is, well, what about the people running on the other side who support killing babies after they’re born, right, who don’t believe in traditional marriage, who don’t believe in sexual boundaries?

Hypocrisy

I mean, if you’re going to say he has morally poor positions, which I would disagree with much of what he’s done as president as far as being immoral, but if you’re going to hold that position, you’re now making yourself to be a major hypocrite saying he’s not moral, but apparently people running against him are because they have not attacked anybody on the other side. They’re saying he should not be there.

And this is one of those things that we certainly recognize the moral hypocrisy and the position they’ve taken saying that he’s not perfect as if somebody else in this race is and really when you compare the platforms and the positions of President Trump and the people running against him from a biblically moral perspective, which is what Christianity Today claims to have, it’s not even a comparison where President Trump supports life, supports marriage, supports religious liberty, supports Israel and arguably nobody on the other side does, but this is why there are was really ludicrous.

David:

And this was so significant that Franklin Graham was a guy to point that out. I mean, he is a very major recognized voice in the Christian community, in the evangelical community. And he had no qualms pointed that out. I wouldn’t read part of his statement because I thought it was so strong.

He said, “€œChristianity Today released an editorial stating that President Trump should be removed from office and they invoked my father’s name, I suppose to bring legitimacy to their statements.

Who Would Billy Graham Vote For?

“€œSo I feel it’s important for me to respond. Yes, my father, Billy Graham founded Christianity Today, but no, he would not agree with their opinion piece. In fact, he would be very disappointed. I’ve not previously shared who my father voted for in the past election. But because of this article, I feel it necessary to share it now. My father knew Donald Trump. He believed in Donald Trump and he voted for Donald Trump. He believed that Donald J. Trump was the man for this hour in history for our nation.”€

He continued, he said, “€œLook at all the President has accomplished in a very short time. The economy of our nation is the strongest it’s been 50 years. ISIS and the caliphate have been defeated. And the President has negotiated trade deals to benefit all Americans. The list of accomplishments as long, but for me as a Christian, the fact that he is the most pro-life president in modern history is extremely important. And Christianity Today wants us to ignore that, to say that it doesn’t count.

“€œThe President has been a staunch defender of religious freedom at home and around the world. And Christianity Today wants us to ignore that? Also, the President has appointed conservative judges in record number. And Christianity Today wants us to ignore that? Christianity Today feels he should be removed from office because of false accusations that the President emphatically denies. Christianity Today said it’s time to call a spade a spade. The spade is this, Christianity Today has been used by the left for their political agenda. It’s obvious that Christianity Today has moved to the left and is represented in the elitist, liberal wing of evangelicalism.”€

People of Faith Should Be Taking a Right Stand

I go, wow! Now when’s the last time we’ve heard a pastor take a stand like that, a religious leader? And so, I mean, this is really, really, really strong stuff. I say, kudos to Franklin Graham for standing up.

Tim:

And one of the things I appreciate too about Franklin Graham is that he has not just taken a conservative position. And this is something as people who are people of faith, we shouldn’t be saying, we want our side the conservatives or the democrats or the republicans or the liberals to win. It shouldn’t be picking sides of a party, it should be saying what is biblical and we support what’s biblical. And if one party supports that issue better than other, then I support that party on that issue. And this is where Franklin Graham has done a very good job, I think of not just endorsing a party, but saying this is a good policy.

And so certainly, he’s endorsed President Trump unserved several policy positions. But the only thing I’ve really seen him do a blanket endorsement on President Trump for was saying, we all should be praying for this president and that he does a good job. Well, that should be the position every Christian has of every religious or every leader, as religious people, that should be our position. So I’ve really appreciated that he’s been speaking out on issues that are biblical in nature because the Bible gives guidance to it. And not just saying, this is my side and I want my side to win. He’s really tried to hold to biblical positions, which has been great.

Join Us!

Rick:

And no better person to respond, in this case, just as he said at the beginning of the letter, I mean, it’s his dad that started Christianity Today and for them to invoke his name in a way that he totally disagrees with, really good that Franklin Graham was wanting to speak up on this.

Well, folks, be sure visit our website today, wallbuilderslive.com. That’s where you can get archives of other programs you can listen to from wall builders live from the last few months, all available there at the website, as is the contribution button. Yeah, no, I mentioned it every program and it’s because every program is a listener supported program, which means we need you as a listener to become a supporter of this program. It helps to expand the program. We reach more people we get on more stations. We do more trainings with legislators and with pastors, with young leaders, with teachers, with all kinds of folks that are helping to restore freedom and you get to be a part of restoring freedom. When you make that contribution, it’s invested in the culture, it’s invested in our society in a very positive way. It teaches people about the Constitution, about the Bible, about historical lessons we can learn and teaches them how to be good citizens. So a part of being a good citizen is to give of our life, our fortunes and our sacred honor: all three of those. Our life is our time, being willing to be a student of freedom to study these things. Even listening today to the program is part of that.

Americans”€™ Political Views, Trump”€™s Promises, And More “€“ On  Good News Friday

We encourage you to study the constitution, to take one of our constitution classes, get Constitution Alive! today at Wallbuilders.com. Or, sign up to be a constitution coach and actually host a biblical citizenship class in your church or your community. You can do that today at constitutioncoach.com. Learn more and get involved and be the catalyst in your community to help restore biblical and constitutional principles at a minimum life and then fortunate. At a minimum, you can make a contribution today at wallbuilderslive.com. Very easy to do, click on contribute. It can be $5, $500, whatever the Lord puts on your heart and whatever you can do monthly or in a one-time contribution, whatever works for you. We greatly appreciate it. It makes a big difference. Shout out to all those people across the nation that have been doing that. Thank you. Thank you, thank you for what you do. We sure appreciate you listening today. You’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live.