Kavanaugh Hearings Positively Affect An Atheist, Good News Friday: We don”€™t often hear good news from the media but here on WallBuilders Live we are about to share with you just some of the good things happening right now. In this episode, we talk about how Gov. Matt Bevin publicly signs bill allowing Kentucky’s public schools to teach the Bible. How the Hawaii district court strikes down law targeting pro-life pregnancy. How Baltimore must pay $1.1 million after trying to force promotion of abortion. And more!

Air Date: 10/05/2018

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:

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. This is WallBuilders Live! Where we”€™re talking about today”€™s hottest topics on policy, faith, and the culture, all of it from a Biblical, historical, and Constitutional perspective.

We’re here with David Barton, America’s premier historian and the founder of WallBuilders. Also, Tim Barton, national speaker, pastor, and president of WallBuilders. And my name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas state legislator, national speaker, and author.

 

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Rick:

We always talk about things from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. Today is Good News Friday. So if you’d like more good news after you hear today’s program, which you probably will because it’s going to be great, if you want more than go to WallBuildersLive.com. That’s our radio website. You can get archives of the program. So pick up some of those Friday programs over the last couple of months and get some more good news.

You can also head over WallBuilders.com, that’s our main website, and that’s where you can get all kinds of tools for your family, for your church, all kinds of videos and books. You can also get pastors signed up for our pastor”€™s briefings in Washington D.C., or young people sign up for our leadership trainings.

Go check it out at WallBuilders.com.

Let’s get into that good news. David Barton will be first with good news today.

God Stalks the Kavanaugh Hearings

David:

I have an article here that came out and in the midst of the Senate hearing on Kavanaugh and with all the stuff that was going on there.

It was real interesting because it came from a guy named Roger Simon. This article, by Roger Simon, is called, “€œGod Stalks the Kavanaugh Hearings.”€

Now, with all the controversy that was going on, I want to just read the first part of the article.

He says, “€œFar be it from me, someone who spent the better part of his life as your typical secular agnostic, to talk about God. But that is what I’ve been thinking about in the hour since I spent my day, as many, invested watching the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings.”€

Tim:

And let me just interject. This is the guy saying, “€œI’m someone who didn’t even know or believe that there was a god. I don’t really know if he’s real and exists.”€ But as someone who’s seemingly fairly secular, he’s watching this. So this is what he’s taking in from what he has seen.

Again, just kind of a perspective where this guy”€™s coming from.

God was Present with the Founders

David:

He continues. He says—he’s talking about this spiritual thing that he sees— He said, “€œI guess it first hit me when Judge Kavanaugh, in the midst of his powerful and heartfelt opening statement, one few expected him to make, choked up, fighting back tears, as he spoke of his 10 year old daughter’s desire to pray for Dr. Ford.”€ He said, “€œI have trouble choking back my own, and it dawned on me, I was watching an event that I thought was political being transformed into a spiritual one.”€

And it goes on through this article. It is a candid article of a spiritual transformation that was starting to happen in him. He makes a note in here that I think is significant.

He said, “€œFor the first time, I had a visceral understanding of what Dennis Prager meant when he said God was involved in the American founding. I’ve been reading his book on Exodus—“€

Tim:

Which is a very good book by the way.

David:

It’s a great book.

Here you have an epiphany from a news reporter, who’s gone from secular agnostic to at least feeling something spiritual.

By feeling something spiritual he says, “€œI think I may be starting to understand something about the American founding, because I’ve been reading this Dennis Prager book.”€ And I just thought it was an epiphany.

You go to a spiritual moment and then you say, “€œHey, maybe that’s what was going on in the American founding.”€

There”€™s Spiritual Aspects

Kudos to Dennis Prager for putting out good material, but man, the honesty of this reporter, I just found fascinating. That he would be willing to fess up and say— and again, the name of the piece is God Stalks the Kavanaugh Hearings, by Roger Simon, and it was in PJ Media. So really, really good tone that came out of this article. Again, I was really blessed by the article. Just seeing his openness, and his honesty, and the transformation he apparently is going through right now.

Rick:

Well, we’ll put a link to the article on WallBuildersLive.com today, to make it easy for people to get over to it. I agree, you sent that to me, David, and I just was really surprised.

He’s taking it from a secular perspective and saying, “€œLook, there’s no question. There’s spiritual aspects to this whole sordid. The details, the way that Kavanaugh”€™s responded, you could just tell the heartfelt response there.”€

I thought it was a great article,  people ought to read it for sure.

Tim, do you want to get into a good news before we go to the break?

Kentucky Governor Signs Bill to Allow the Bible into Public Schools

Tim:

Yeah, I”€™d be happy to.

So this one is from Kentucky, and the article says, “€œGov. Matt Bevin publicly signs bill allowing Kentucky’s public schools to teach the Bible.”€ And actually, I think we had an article talking about when this came out of the House and the Senate in Kentucky. It was going to Governor Bevin to sign it. So he did sign.

It’s really interesting that the guy who was the primary author of this bill, it was House Bill 128., Rep D.J. Johnson said, “€œThe Bible really did set the foundation that our founding fathers used to develop documents like the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, all of those came from principles from the Bible.”€

Now this is a pretty good perspective, and it’s certainly one that we could historically validate and back up, but that you have a state that has the House and Senate vote majority to approve this, a Governor that signs this in, and what happens is the bill will allow the school board the option of developing a Bible Literacy class as part of their social studies curriculum.

This is part of the influence the Bible played. This is not a required course, it’s an elective. You’re not forcing students to learn about the Bible, but it’s acknowledging that no, this book did play a part, and if you want to see you can come in and study this in this class. So it’s just a really cool thing Kentucky’s doing, and it is really good news.

Rick:

Quick break guys. We’ll be right back. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live on Good News Friday.

Join The Bartons and Greens In Israel!

Rick:

Hey Friends! Rick Green here from WallBuilders Live. The WallBuilders team is going to Israel and we’d love to have you go with us. It”€™s going to be January 28 through February 7th, a Holy Land tour that is the experience of a lifetime.

Just imagine sailing on the Sea of Galilee. Imagine going to the Elah Valley where David slew Goliath and even picking up pebbles from the very brook where he picked up those stones to slay Goliath. We’re going to go to Jericho, the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane, the pool of Bethesda, and so much more. And you can go with us.

David and Tim Barton, and myself, Rick Green, you”€™ll just have a great time. The Fellowship’s going to be phenomenal and the Bible is going to come to life right before your eyes. Join us January 28th through February 7th, 2019. But you need to get in and make your reservations now. Check it out at WallBuildersLive.com for this very special trip to the Holy Land.

Moment From America”€™s History

David:

This is David Barton with another moment from America’s history. In the minds of many today, Government is a purely secular institution and is not in any way to be joined to religious principles. The result is that too often our public policies are now enacted without any consideration of their spiritual consequences. However, the Founding Fathers believed that even a political act should always be examined from a spiritual viewpoint. For example, in his inaugural address President George Washington declared, “€œWe ought to be persuaded that the favorable smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained.”€ President George Washington believed that the blessings of heaven would reside on this nation only so long as its national policies embraced godly standards. For more information on God’s hand in American history contact WallBuilders at 1-800-8-REBUILD.

“€œSelfless Acts of Compassion”€

Rick:

Welcome black to WallBuilders Live. It”€™s Good News Friday today, and David Barton”€™s got more good news.

David:

I’m going to do another real turnaround kind of piece, just as we had a journalist turn around. This one deals with Australia. There’s an office in Australia called the Governor General. The Governor General is appointed by the Queen of England, to Australia, in conjunction with the Australian Prime Minister. So with Australia, they still have the official connection with Great Britain. Even though Australia has its own parliament, and its own states, and each state has their own government, they have the national parliament as well. The Governor General is the official representative of the Queen there in Australia.

So this story is about an 85 year old, he is now the former Governor General of Australia, but at 85 years old he’s been an atheist his entire life. He spent, as the article says, a great deal of his life in denial of the Creator. Now interestingly, at 85 years old, he just came to Christ and got baptized. He said that he’s been watching over the years so many selfless—as he said, quote, “€œSelfless acts of compassion by Christians over his lifetime.”€

Here’s a guy who is seeing Christians actually do things. As a result, after having been an atheist for 85 years, he now renounces his atheism and becomes a Christian because of seeing the service of other people.

Now, I find that a really cool thing at such a high level, that a guy who’s 85 years old, been atheist his whole life, is willing to make that change.

Nones, not Nuns

That goes to a study that I saw here in America, just a few weeks ago, that really captured my attention. For anyone who watches the religious demographics of America, the fastest growing religious group in America is those that are called the Nones. N-O-N-E-S, not nuns like Catholic nuns, Those who have no religious faith at all. Within that, atheism is exploding percentage wise. It has multiplied very quickly here in America.

The study has confirmed, and has multiple studies now to confirm this, that people tend to become atheist when their parents are religious hypocrites on their faith. When folks don’t live out their faith, and they’re raised in a home where their parents don’t live out their faith, the kids are more likely to become atheist.

That’s part of the reason that we have this growing boom and atheism among millennials, among young people, is they’re just coming out of homes where the faith is hypocritical. It’s not a real Biblical faith.

So that’s a good reminder for us.

You want your kids do right, but don’t just take them to church and drop off or tell them, “€œHey you shouldn’t do that.”€ Demonstrate. Live it. Take the Bible, live it, read it, act on it. That’s the best way not to lose your kids, is to not tell them to get religion while you’re squishy about it, become serious about it. When you do, you see things like what we see in Australia with the Governor General, at 85 years old, having watched Christians his whole life, and evidently he got to see a bunch of good ones, having now become a Christian. So, great piece of advice for parents, but a great bit of news coming out of Australia.

We Have to Live Our Faith

Rick:

What better place to see Christianity actually lived out than in your own parents and in your own home as are as you’re growing up?

Just quick clarification, when you were talking about that group that’s growing, the Nones, so that’s not none as in not a particular religious affiliation, that’s none as in no faith at all?

David:

No religion at all. They have no religion, have no attachment to any religion. Those are folks who don’t want any kind of religion. They’re not interested in religion.

About 90 percent of them are not atheist, they don’t have any kind of interest in God particularly. They’re not saying there’s not a god, but it’s just not of interest to them. There’s nothing there for them.

Tim:

It’s possible that maybe some of them are interested, they’re just not sure He exists.

David:

That’s right.

Tim:

Because it could be, and I know some young people that are in that camp, and probably many of our listeners would identify, they might even have some in their family that just question, “€œIs God real?”€

And again, it could be because the example they’ve seen from people around them that claim to be Christian, is not something reflective of the God that they’ve heard about, or the God that maybe even their family preaches, and they’re not living consistent with the God they say.

So it’s not even that they’re not interested. It’s just, “€œI’m not sure if this God’s real because I don’t see it the way you’re living your life.”€

This is the Situation

David:

Yeah exactly.

So there’s about 90 percent of those Nones that are not hardcore atheists in the sense that there is no God. Period end of story.

There’s 90 percent that, perhaps, could be turned, but they need some people living out and showing—just like this Governor General of Australia— they need to be able to see that this stuff works and see it lived out. We need more of that in America.

The book we just came out with a couple of weeks ago, This Precarious Moment, one of the sections is the condition of the church right now. You look at the condition of the church, and Christianity in America, and it is certainly in worse condition than it has been in generations polling wise.

So we’ve got to get our act together, or we’re going to see those Nones continue to grow, which is not going to be healthy for the future of America.

Rick:

But the good news is, when we do live out biblical Christianity and represent that, then people do see that just like this—how old did you say he was?

David:

85 years old.

Rick:

85 year old.

David:

He’s already passed the average lifespan, because it’s about 81 now, so he’s past that. At 85 years old, generally that’s where you think people were kind of set in their ways. Nonetheless, he made the right decision.

Rick:

More good news when we return. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

Pastors Only Briefing Trip

Tim:

Hi, this is Tim Barton with WallBuilders and I want to encourage all the pastors out there with a unique opportunity that we’re presenting it 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 to the Capitol at 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, D.C.

If you’re a pastor or if you want to recommend your pastor for this trip, you can go to our website at www.WallBuilders.com. And there’s a link that’s for scheduling.  If you click on that link there’s a section for pastor”€™s briefing. There’s more information about the dates, when it’s going, and 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.

Baltimore VS Pro-Life Centers

Rick:.

We”€™re back with WallBuilders Live Good News Friday. Today, Tim Barton”€™s got our next piece of good news.

Tim:

All right guys, this one is in Baltimore, and the good news relates to something the city did being overturned. Unfortunately, there are many large cities that have become very secular, that have become very liberal in their ideology, very anti the Bill of Rights, very anti the Constitution, very anti the general American way of life.

Well, Baltimore kind of did something going that direction.

There was a pregnancy center, which actually was a pro-life Center, the city of Baltimore in 2009 voted that if there’s any kind of pregnancy center, if they do not perform abortions, they have to put information on their wall explaining where the individuals can go to get an abortion. So you have these pro-life pregnancy centers that were being forced to put up advertising for abortion. In a pro-life center.

Of course they felt like that was a violation of their First Amendment rights of freedom of speech. They took this to court, and they actually won at every single level they went to, and the city kept appealing, saying, “€œWait a second. No, we should be able to tell them what they have to have in their own privately owned business. They should do what we tell them.”€

One Point One Million Dollars

So the city kept appealing. The U.S. Supreme Court turned down being able to hear this case. They lost everywhere along the way, and actually part of the ruling from the last case, or the last quarter, was that before it was appealed up, the city was required to pay all of the expenses for this pro-life center in this case that they had won every step of the way.

It is very interesting that the guy who is the director for the pro-life center, or I guess he’s the chairman of the board of directors for this pregnancy center, he—and I’m saying pro-life center, it’s a pregnancy center but it is a pro-life pregnancy center—but he said, “€œIt’s very sad that they would keep appealing this, because it’s costing the people so much money. It’s one point one million dollars,”€ Is what this article says is what they are going to be paid from the city.

It’s really good news that the city was not able to uphold this freedom of speech ban that they had against this pro-life pregnancy center. The bad news is that the people of Baltimore are on the hook for an additional one point one million dollars. This is where we talk so often about how elections have very practical consequences, and in many cases directly affecting our pocketbook.

Why We Should Pay Attention

I would actually argue that many, if not most, of the people of Baltimore have no idea about this, or this additional expense they are now going to have to pay.

This is why I think it really is wise to pay attention, to know what’s going on so that you can say, “€œWait a second, what did they just do? I have to pay what? OK. No I’m getting somebody else in there.”€

This is why we need to be alert and pay attention, so we can replace people who are doing a bad job of leading. However, this is really good news for this pro-life pregnancy center. They’re not going to be required to violate their own consciences promoting abortion, which is obviously very contradictory to the very things they believe.

So overall, very good news in the sense of the freedom of speech and of the rights of conscience. It”€™s a little sad if you live in the Baltimore area, because you now are going to pay a little more in taxes to cover this. Nonetheless, good news for the freedom of speech.

What About the Other Side?

Rick:

I’m just curious if you guys were thinking about what would happen if the opposite had occurred? If we had required NARAL and other abortion folks to actually have posters in their offices and in their lobby as people come in that say abortion is murder, or protect the unborn, or no, pro-life is the right decision? Has anybody tried to make that happen yet?

Tim:

I don’t know of much coercion or much attack from the other side.

David:

The pro-life people all the time are pulling their guns out and pointing to people going to abortion clinics and saying, “€œWhat”€™s wrong with you?”€

Tim:

That’s kind of the way the news might depicted it sometimes. That the pro-life people are the aggressors, and they’re intolerant, and they’re unloving, and they’re hateful, and you know, Rick, it really is kind of funny. My wife and I are actually in the midst of going through an adoption process. I think so often about the government bureaucracy you have to go through and how much money we’re having to pay.

It’s kind of ridiculous, right? We want to be able to parent a child who is in need of parents.

This is where I think about some of these pro-life sinners, where they say, “€œHey, there’s families out there who would be willing to adopt your little boy/your girl right now. They”€™ll help cover the medical bills—“€ things that would go on, and yet those are things that you don’t see promoted in these abortion facilities.

The Double Standard

They keep saying, “€œNo, no, no. I don’t want to tell you there are families out there who would gladly cover your medical expenses and would gladly adopt that child. They would help you in the midst this process. They would fight tooth and nail for having that kind of, what we would consider a very positive message, put up in their facility.

And yet, they find it totally fine, with the other side, to force them to have those signs up.

It’s very much a double standard. But you’re right, Rick. It’s something that certainly has never been imposed on the other side. We’re not the ones that try to do that. We believe in the freedom of speech and the rights of conscience. We certainly also believe in the right to life.

So we’re very much against abortion, but it very much is different from the picture that oftentimes gets painted in the media.

Calvary Chapel

Rick:

One more segment of good news, David Barton gets the first shot at it.

David:

Tim, I got a church here that’s in the news, I think you may recognize it. Calvary Chapel in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii?

Tim:

Oh yeah I heard about those guys.

David:

Yeah you were speaking there not long ago.

Tim:

I was out there not too long ago.

David:

Well, they are in federal court and they just won their decision. And it goes kind of with what you were talking about in Baltimore. Hawaii passed a law that says everybody has to promote abortion, and if you’ve got any kind of a pro-life center or a help center for pregnant women, you have to promote abortion. And they will require an abortion be promoted inside the church.

Tim:

Yeah, I remember being there with them and talking about this. They’re one of only, I think, three pro-life centers on the islands that actually has a sonogram machine. There’s very limited resources for pro-life pregnancy centers. And you’re right, they will be required in their church facility, which is where they house and do a lot of this, to promote abortion which directly goes against the very thing they believe as Christians.

David:

But at least the other side is tolerant—no, wait a minute. We can’t say that.

Tim:

Yeah, no. I don’t think they were tolerant.

The Problem with a One Party State

David:

And see, the problem with Hawaii is that they don’t even have competition in their elections. As I recall, there’s not a single Republican in the Senate. Now I think there”€™s only three Republican representatives at all in the house. So it is a one party state, top to bottom, and they don’t mind coercing this pro abortion view.

But the good news is that federal court in Hawaii said, “€œNo, no, no, government. That law is wrong. It is bad.”€

They struck the law down, and so Calvary Chapel, Pearl Harbor, wins the case.

By the way, this is really now the trickle down effect of the Supreme Court decision that we had this year. The Knipfel decision, where the Supreme Court struck down another law that said you cannot force pro-life people and centers and organizations to promote abortion.

This has now had an effect on Baltimore. They pick up the attorneys fees, which were over one million, but here they get the freedom to not have to promote abortion inside their church. They weren’t going to anyway, they would have done civil disobedience on this. There’s no way they’re going to promote abortion, but nonetheless they win the case in federal court. That’s good news.

Good News, Help Keep it Coming!

Rick:

Well friends, there’s more good news at our website, WallBuildersLive.com, and you can help to literally bring about that good news by supporting us here at WallBuilders Live. It helps to create that good news because we train legislators, we train young people, and we train pastors.

Come to Washington D.C. for our pastors”€™ briefings. There’s all kinds of opportunities when you partner with WallBuilders and WallBuilders Live to actually spread this good news and equip people across the nation to restore our Constitutional Republic.

So I encourage you to go to WallBuilders.com today. Make a one time contribution, or become one of our monthly donors, and you will be helping to create more good news across the country and around the world. At the very least, you will help us spread that good news when it happens.

So be sure to visit WallBuilders.com for that today, and then also going to WallBuildersLive.com if you’d like to hear some more good news. Go back into those archives and see more of those Friday programs. Thanks so much for listening today. You’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live.