67 Year Old Man Funds Kids To Go To College And More On Good News Friday-Join us today to hear some good news! Iowa man saves $3 million to send 33 kids to college, battles won for unborn babies, John Krasinski shares good news from around the world, and more!

Air Date: 05/08/2020

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.

 

Rick:

You find your way to the intersection of faith and the culture. That intersection means that we’re applying our faith to the culture and we’re doing that with a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. Very simply means whatever the subject of the day is, whatever the hot topic of the day is, we’re taking on that issue, looking at what the Bible says about it what does the constitution say about it and what can we learn from history.

My name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas legislator and America’s Constitution coach, and I’m here with David Barton. He’s America’s premier historian and our founder here at WallBuilders, and also with Tim Barton, national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders. Now, if you’re not sure what WallBuilders means, it comes from a scripture in Nehemiah that says our rise and rebuild the walls that we may no longer be a reproach. What we’ve been doing here at WallBuilders for decades is working to rebuild the foundation of America, bring back those foundational principles that make a society free and prosperous, all the things that will make a culture thrive, those are the biblical principles that our founders put in place from the beginning. So, we’re restoring those, we’re making sure those constitutional principles are revived. We do that here on the radio program, having guests on the program and talking about whatever that hot topic is. and applying that perspective.

Our Good News Friday programs that we’re doing just like today is an opportunity to point out where things are being done right in the culture and celebrate those victories that are often overlooked. But we sure appreciate you being a part of this and joining us today. Be sure to visit our website today at wallbuilderslive.com, that’s a great place to make a contribution. There’s a button right there at the top right when you go to that homepage and it’s a way for you to come alongside us. We’re a listener supported program and those contributions are what make this program possible and that’s how we’re able to reach so many people across the country and around the world. It’s also what makes it possible for us to train young leaders in our leadership training program, to do our pastors briefings and our legislators’ trainings and all the different things that we do. Thank you so much for contributing to help make that possible.

Well, let’s dive into some of that good news. Guys, who’s going first?

David:

Rick, I’m going to take the first one. And it deals with really a transgender issue. And you guys may have seen, but in recent months over the last year or two, I’ve seen more and more medical studies coming out saying, look, prepubescent kids, kids that are preteen, for them to have transgender reassignment surgery, for them to have any kind of transgender hormone blocker, this is really bad medicine. What they’re pointing out is that for kids and we’re seeing kids start take hormone blockers as early as six and seven, eight years old. You know, how that kid can decide what gender he wants to be at that point in time, I mean that’s got to be, I would assume that’s an adult leaning home somewhere rather than the kid making a decision or that’s a kid making a decision and adult not being an adult to say, hey.

Tim:

Well, and a very uninformed decision, right? And this kid has no life experience, no understanding. And so right even if this kid of their own initiative says no, I think I want to be that and then certainly, probably in school culture, they’ve heard that’s an option. And so, the kid says, I want to do that. This is why you have parents. It’s why you have teachers, why you have leaders, because you go, kid, you have no idea what you’re talking about. You’re a child, you have no life experience, you don’t have the understanding. That’s why I’m here to help you. So, this certainly is a lack of parenting, a lack of leadership in this kid’s life.

David:

And so, you’re seeing these kids very young, I mean, again, almost at first grade, the second grade, we’ve seen some cases. And what they’re saying now is that these hormone blockers, they stop bone density development at that point. So, imagine being a 35-year-old and you have the bone density development of a 6-year-old or 7-year-old or whatever. I mean, just that’s medical malpractice, quite frankly, in my opinion, when you’re stopping the physical development of someone when they’re 6 or 7 years old simply on a whim that they have. Now, transgender activists on the other side are saying no, you’re discriminating against transgender, etc. no, this is just following the medicine, following the science.

And so, what has happened was back in 2016 and the Obama administration, their Department of Health and Human Services issued a mandate that if you are a medical professional, you cannot refuse to do sex assigned surgery on anybody, regardless of their age, whoever they are. If they come to you as a 6 year old and said, hey, I want to be a different gender, I want sex reassignment surgery, I want to physically be altered at 6 or 7 or 8 years, whatever it is or hormone blockers, if they come to you, you cannot tell them no.

And so, under that Obama administration rule, if you said no, you could lose your medical licensure medical position, you can be fired, whatever. So, there were consequences. Well, obviously, there’s a whole lot of doctors and you don’t need to be just a Christian doctor or biblical doctor to say this is bad. You know, you don’t just have to believe in traditional morality or traditional gender. You can say from a physiological standpoint, this is insane. This is wrong, I’m not going to do it.

And so, a case went to court and Texas in front of federal judge Reed O’Connor and Reed O’Connor was put on the court by press George W. Bush back in 2007. And he came down and said, no, you cannot have a ruling by the administration that says, regardless of what your conscience says you have to violate. So, he took a decision in favor of conscience protection. In this case, it happens to be in the issue of transgender stuff.

Now, we’ve got a case that’s already been argued to a Supreme Court this year, we’re waiting to see what the decision is going to be when it comes down and it deals with conscience and transgender type issues. But nonetheless, having this decision come down, this is a really good decision to come down just kind of bring some sanity back to stuff in the medical field as far as transgender hormone blockers, sex reassignment.

Tim:

And what court was this coming from?

David:

This is a Federal Court in North Texas district, Federal Judge Reed O’Connor.

Rick:

Alright fellas, quick break, we’ll be right back. Tim Barton has got some good news for us. Stay with us, folks, you’re listening to WallBuilders Live

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Hey, friends, it is not too late to join us for the crash course in history and government for all those folks that are schooling from home. Now, that could mean a lot of things. Schooling from home could mean that you’ve been homeschooling your kids from the beginning or it could mean you’ve been thrust into homeschooling as a result of the COVID crackdowns or it could mean you don’t even have kids at home, but you’re still schooling because we all are still learning every day, right? So really, this program is available for anyone and it’s not too late to join us. Even though we started on May 4, we’re doing every Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon throughout May and you can join at any time and when you join, you will be able to get the recordings of any of the afternoons that you missed. Remember, this is a live opportunity to learn about history and government to bring those things to life.

And we’re going to have special guests every afternoon, people that have been in our “Chasing American Legends” program; people, I mean, Dr. Alveda King, David Barton, Tim Barton, Brad Stein, all kinds of great folks are going to be joining us, you need to be there as well. Go to patriotacademy.com to sign up today, patriotacademy.com It’s not too late and you’ll get recordings of any live afternoons that you miss. Get the crash course in history and government at patriotacademy.com.

Rick:

We’re back on WallBuilders Live, we’re doing some good news today. So, check that out at wallbuilderslive.com if you want more good news. But for this Good News Friday in this segment, Tim, where are you taking us?

Tim:

Alright, guys, this one is coming out of, it looks like Iowa. And I remember seeing this story, it came out last year, so now we’re several months past this story. So cool. And it just kind of got buried in the sack of good news, which is quite common as we print off new articles of good news and the stack just piles up, so I’m glad I finally got to it. The titlist carpenter with no children sends 33 strangers to college after amassing 3 million in savings.

David:

I used to be a carpenter. I wish, I could say how to invest 3 million in savings, that would be, wow!

Tim:

Yeah, very impressive. So, this guy was a carpenter. I think, I saw in this article for 67 years, and he was never married, he never had any kids. And so, he was just saving money along the way as he went. Well, back in 2005 is when he died. But knowing his death was coming, he was trying to determine what am I going to do with this money? He was never able to go to college. He never was able to get the higher level of education he wanted, couldn’t afford and so he became a carpenter out of high school. And so, this young kid learns a trade, right, skilled position, works with his hands. And he decided that I want to do something with my money to help kids who are in a position like me, who didn’t have the money, didn’t have the support to be able to go to college, I want to help get them in college.

So, he went to an attorney to set up, essentially this kind of fund to scholarship kids and the attorney was interviewed and asked about this whole process. And the reason the story came out was because the funds finally dried up in 2019, but the attorney that set this up for him said I remember when he came in and said, hey, I want to set up a fund to help scholarship kids that want to go to college. And so, you know, teachers or doctors or therapists, he named several specific professions he wanted to help fund, that was kind of a caveat for part of the scholarship.

And the attorney said, okay, well, we definitely can help do that. How much money do you have you want to set up? And he said, oh, it’s just under $3 million. And the attorney said, I remember just being floored thinking, right, how does this guy have $3 million in savings? But he absolutely worked to set up this scholarship fund. He, in his life and guys, just process this, he had two pairs of jeans and he drove the same rusty Chevrolet truck for much of his life.

Now, certainly, someone working with their hands, you know, skilled, kind of a tradesman profession and doesn’t live really high in life. Okay, maybe we can think you live modest. But if you have 3 million in savings and you only own two pairs of jeans, that is crazy. So, he sets up this fund, wants to help get kids through college. And he ends up helping fund 33 students to be able to go to college, as teachers as therapists and as doctors.

And of these beneficiaries, one of the things he told them and this was kind of a caveat of receiving the scholarship is, once you have the scholarship to college, the idea is we want you to pay it forward. We want you to now help people in need when you have the opportunity. When you have money, when you can give back, we want you to give back. One of the people that he gave a scholarship to was Kira Conrad. Kira was the one of four kids, had older sisters. And Kira said, I knew with having all these older sisters and she was in a single parent home that there was no way my parents are going to be able to send me or my mom was going to be able to send me to college.

And so, she said when she got the information that she received an $80,000 scholarship, which was going to cover all of her tuition to be able to go and be a therapist, essentially getting a full ride, she said, you know, this was something I never imagined and the fact she got a scholarship from someone she had never met, because at this point, he’s already died, he’s already gone. But to get this scholarship, she goes to college. And the condition of getting the scholarship was again, the promise of paying forward and so now she’s looking for ways that she can give back.

But guys, this is really remarkable. Someone who is not a wealthy person, at least in the world’s eyes, he has two pair of jeans, but he saves like crazy. And in the midst of him saving like crazy, was then able to say, how can I give back to people and help people that will make a difference and then sending 33 kids through college. It’s one of those things, we don’t often hear these stories. But certainly, one of those people you would say this, right, this is kind of the American spirit, this is the American hero, this is the Christian spirit, we want to give and serve and do good for others and certainly, very cool that this guy is able to help send 33 people. The guy’s name was Dale Schroeder. So, Dale Schroeder, gone now, but certainly will be remembered and the 33 kids he sends to college.

Rick:

Well, stay with us, folks, we’re going to take a very quick break. We’ll be right back. We’re going to share some more good news with you when we return on WallBuilders Live.

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Hey friends, this Rick Green from WallBuilders Live and I have had so many requests about, what in the world could we be studying at home right now you know I got the kids at home, they’re normally in school? Or if you homeschool, you’re looking for additional material. One-Room Schoolhouse. It is a great new series WallBuilders is putting out where you literally get a tour of the WallBuilders library as Tim Barton and Jonathan Ritchie bring history to life. There’s a couple of resources on this.

You go to YouTube and search for WallBuilders and look for a One-Room Schoolhouse. You can go to our Facebook page and get it right there on Facebook as we do it live each Monday and sometimes additional days from there. And then you can also just go to wallbuilders.com, scroll down to the bottom and we’ll be posting the videos as they come out. This is such a great way to learn and a great way for you to share with others. Gather the family around, watch the One-Room Schoolhouse and learn some great history. It’ll be vitally important to restoring our nation and bringing back these principles that made America great in the first place. Check it out [email protected].

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us. It’s Good News Friday, we’re bringing out some good news you probably have not seen. In fact, most of the stories that David and Tim share I haven’t seen either, because they’re just not covered, but there’s a lot of good news out there. So, David, give us some more good news.

David:

Okay, guys, I’m going to read a quote to you here and actually, it’s a short paragraph. And so, the question becomes, who said this? So, I’ll just start off the quote, it’s sat on three or four sentences here. It says, “The campaign to destroy the traditional moral order has brought with it, immense suffering and misery. And yet the forces of secularism ignoring these tragic results press on with even greater militancy. By any honest assessment, the consequences of this moral upheaval have been grim. Along with the wreckage of the family, we’re seeing record levels of depression and mental illness, dispirited young people, soaring suicide rates, increasing numbers of angry and alienated young males and increase in senseless violence and deadly drug epidemic. This is not decay. This is organized destruction. Secularists and their allies have marshaled all the forces of mass communication, popular culture, the entertainment industry and academia in an unremitting assault on religion and traditional values. Among the militant secularists are so-called mini progressives. But where is the progress? We’re told that we’re living in a post Christian era, but what is replaced with a Judeo-Christian moral system? The fact is that no secular creed has emerged capable of performing the role of religion.”

So, you read that and go, okay, is it Tony Perkins Or Matt Staver? No. How about a pastor Robert Jeffress or pastor James Robinson? No. Maybe Ben Shapiro or Glenn Beck. No, How about the Attorney General of the United States? Whoa, Bar. The Attorney General said this to a group of law students.

Tim:

So, is William Bar?

David:

You’ve got Bar giving a bolder defense of Christianity than a whole lot of Christians, even preachers that I’ve heard. And he’s in a point whether he knows that if he does this, he is going to take a beating. I mean, they’re going to come after him. He has no place trying to inject religion in the public square. He represents all the people, he can’t be programmed. I mean, the courage it takes for the Attorney General of the United States to go on record at a university to a group of students where he’s speaking and you know, the fact is at the university, that makes it a big public meeting already and he says this kind of content. I mean, this makes me think even higher of bar and I’ve already liked him. Because I’ve seen him go to hearings in Congress and when Congress tries to get on top of him and intimidate him and make him feel bad about what he’s done, he just doesn’t back up. He got backbone like general Jerry Boykin or somebody like that, he just does not back down. And he just looks at him in grins and it’s like, you guys have lost your brains. I still know what I believe.

And so, it is really, really nice to have someone at that level, take a public apologetic defense of Christianity, of Christian morals, a biblical values of the destruction that secularism has brought and the fact that he names specifically the media and academia and so many things we talk about, I mean, this really is refreshing to hear this at the level of the Attorney General of the United States.

Rick:

Well, a lot of refreshing good news takes place right here on this radio program. So, stay with us, folks, we’ll be back with more good news. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

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The founding fathers of America made a habit of reading through the Bible once a year, there’s no better source of wisdom and it is applicable to every issue in our lives. What a great time for us as American citizens to take this time if you got extra time at home now, if you’re quarantined at home and you’re looking for something to do, what better thing could there be to do than to read through the Bible, maybe for the first time in your life.

I tried to make this a habit several years ago and I had a new tool to start doing that with and it was called the Founders’ Bible. It gave me a chance not only to read through the Bible once a year, but also to learn history while I was doing that. And what I love about the Founders’ Bible is that as I’m reading that scripture, then all of a sudden, there’ll be an article inserted right there by that scripture about what the Founding Fathers learned from that specific verse or chapter and how they applied it to launch our nation. It’s a really fun way to learn. It’s incredibly empowering and it has answers for today. The Bible is full of all the right answers for today, in fact, it’s the only source that has all the right answers. So, if you haven’t read through the founders Bible, I challenge you and encourage you, get a copy of the Founders’ Bible today. It’s available at wallbuilders.com and we even have a digital version, so you can do this on your phone or iPad or computer.

Check out the Founders’ Bible today, make it a part of your regular reading throughout the year, but right now is a great opportunity to read through the Founders’ Bible. Check it out today at wallbuilders.com.

Rick:

Welcome back. Thanks for staying with us on this Good News Friday here, WallBuilders Live, our final segment of good news for the day and Tim is going to take us home. What’s our last piece of good news, Tim?

Tim:

Alright, guys, there are several articles I’m going to try to squeeze into this last segment. First thing I want to point out is one of the fun things that I’ve been able to watch on social media over the last several weeks. We’ve been doing guys, I don’t know, Good News Friday for 12-15 years. Any idea how long we’ve been doing this, guys?

Rick:

We are at about 14 years, actually.

Tim:

14 years, okay. So, for 14 years, we’ve been dedicating a day to say we want to highlight some of the good news that’s going on, because culture doesn’t always focus on good news and we want to do encouraging things. We’re not the only ones that now are in a trend of doing this. One of the most beloved social media posts over the last many weeks, I guess, almost month to this point is from John Krasinski, who is doing a segment called ‘Some Good News’. He does it once a week, it’s usually about 15 or 20 minutes and the only thing he does is talk about some good news, things that you might not know. So, celebrates humanity and what people are doing to help others. And just it’s so cool, these videos every week get millions of views, people are loving the good news.

And it’s just so fun that as we’ve known for a lot of years, people are ready to be able to celebrate something, to be able to feel good about life in some areas, instead of just sharing the same old drugs and the problems and the issues, to celebrate good news. Really cool. So, this is something that if you’re interested, looking at some other areas to learn more about some good news, it’s not often that we would promote anybody from Hollywood and some of their social media videos, but it is genuinely a lot of fun stuff that John Krasinski does.

John Krasinski was from the Office, he’s been in all kinds of movies, 13 hours, a quiet place, very noted Hollywood actor, very successful career even to this point, probably a long time ahead of them, but it’s cool to see him doing something.

Another big name from Hollywood, this was an article that came out a couple weeks ago. It’s from Kanye West. He says…

Rick:

And by the way, Tim, I was just going to say thank you for telling me about some good news thing with Krasinski a couple weeks ago when he first started, because I love it. And I mean, the first one I watched, I teared up twice and the thing, it’s really good.

Tim:

So well and yeah, so Rick, to that point, right. I mean, obviously, both of us are gun toting, outdoor, tough country people. However, there was one or two videos that places in it, my eyes are wide and I’m going, oh my gosh, this is awesome. It’s so cool. It really is touching. It’s very encouraging. And so those videos are continuing to just crush it on social media doing very well.

Another, I guess, kind of icon and notable name beyond John Krasinski, Kanye West and I feel like, man, for the last month or two, we’ve talked about Kanye West almost every Good News Friday. And certainly, we don’t want to put people on pedestals where they shouldn’t be because we know all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but we celebrate how God uses people.

And Kanye West is becoming more outspoken about his testimony. He recently opened up in an interview, talked about faith and why it was really important to him, why it was important for Christians to speak out. He said, I am definitely born again and went into some details about what that means and about what church is like and about some of the Sunday services that he’s doing and what it looks like. It’s just so cool to see somebody that that has been in the wrong direction, doing the wrong thing for so long now, come back and, right, I mean, presumably, seemingly, everything we can tell, judging the fruit, just surrendering his life to God, wanting to be used by God, wanting to let other people know about God, the changes happen in his life. Really cool.

And the last thing as I’m trying to squeeze a whole bunch in, because we have a lot of stuff in the stack. This last part deals exclusively with abortion and Planned Parenthood. And I have a list of articles. We’ve talked about this in several programs before, but I have a whole bunch of new articles of states that have come out where governors have said that abortion is not essential business. So, Arkansas did that, wanting to protect babies, Louisiana came out and we talked about Louisiana before and then there was a challenge. Nonetheless, it’s upheld that abortion is nonessential.

I have another article that says Planned Parenthood, abortion businesses will close a dozen clinics. Some cities will now be abortion free, which is a really cool thought. And there are definitely some battles that Planned Parenthood has not been closed down because there are some places where governors have said that churches are not essential, elective surgeries are not essential, but abortion is essential.

So, you do see in some places and generally, these are much more liberal leaning States with liberal leaning governors who are saying no, we’re going to protect the abortion business. But one really cool piece of good news when it comes to protecting innocent life looking at Planned Parenthood being arguably the biggest abortion provider in America, possibly the world’s, because we want to protect life, we’re not fans of Planned Parenthood because we recognize how many lives are involved in ending.

So, this report says 5,633 clinics in 64 countries recently closed because of the pandemic. And of the 132 member associations, 23 reported reduced availability of abortions. So, beyond the 5,633 clinics in 64 countries and I didn’t even know that Planned Parenthood was in that many countries. I had no idea.

David:

Yeah, and the US has helped fund that in previous administrations by giving money to various organizations that promote abortion worldwide and Planned Parenthood is one of them.

Tim:

Well, so the good news is in 64 countries, 5,633 clinics have closed, which means that now some of these unborn children have a greater chance to make it to life which is really encouraging.

Rick:

You know, we talked so much about liberty, but what good is liberty if you don’t life, right? There’s why it’s life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and so important that we protect life. And so many good news stories that we’ve shared over the last few years as a result of the efforts of citizens to stand up for the unborn and stand up for that biblical, constitutional historical perspective that will produce a good society. Thank you out there that are listening. Thank you for being a part of that. Thanks for coming alongside us.

So many of you have been making contributions at the website wallbuilderslive.com. Those dollars directly affect the ability for us to reach more people and prepare and train and inspire them to get equipped and to get out there and do their part as citizens. So, thank you, thank you for doing that. If you’ve never done that before or it’s been a while, then please consider going to wallbuilderslive.com today and making that one-time or monthly contribution. It’s quick and easy and it goes a long way to help spreading the good news.

We really appreciate everybody out there that’s been listening to the program. We also want you to take other actions, which is to do things like train your fellow citizens. You know, if you’ve been through our Constitution classes, now is your opportunity to train other people. You get a free license at our website right now at constitutioncoach.com where you can actually get signed up to then share our Constitution class with others to coach them along. Anyone can do it. You just got to do the power play. You got to turn the power on and hit play. Anybody out there can do it. And we’ll train you on how to take those steps and teach people online. You don’t have to wait until things open up in your community and people are willing to come over and all that. You can do it online, we train you how to do Zoom. It’s really easy, but it makes a big, big difference and gets people involved. Check that out at constitutioncoach.com, make that contribution today at wallbuilderslive.com and we sure appreciate you listening to WallBuilders Live.