Michigan Strikes Down COVID Emergency Orders And Much More – Join us today for some amazing good news! The Supreme Court of Michigan strikes down Governor’s COVID emergency orders, a city in Texas becomes the 15th in the state to become a sanctuary for the unborn, and more!

Air Date: 10/16/2020

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:

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. This is WallBuilders Live, where we’re talking about today’s hottest topics on policy and faith, the culture, all of these things that affect your life, your family, your backyard, your church: these issues matter. And you may think you can ignore politics or government. But I promise you, politics and government are not going to ignore you and your family.

So we address all of these issues in order to know as citizens what we should do about them. How should we act? What should we do? Who should we vote for? Should we vote? How can we be engaged and be salt and light in our community? In order to do that, we look at everything from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. That’s the right way to see things, and we try to share it with as many people as we possibly can.

My name is Rick Green. I’m a former Texas legislator, and America’s Constitution coach. And I’m here with David Barton. He is America’s premier historian, our founder here at WallBuilders, and I think one of the most important voices in America, bringing that truth to our nation, about who we are as a nation, where we came from, looking at the good, the bad, and the ugly of everything that’s happened in our history, but focusing in on how best to move forward as a nation. Tim Barton is also with us. He’s a national speaker, and pastor and president of WallBuilders. He’s somebody, I encourage you to get to come speak to your group, telling you Tim has a gift for being able to bridge generations, be able to speak to people of all ages, and bring history to life, and speak that truth in a way that makes you want to do something about our country, do something to make us a nation that reflects that biblical, historical and constitutional perspective.

You can learn more about all three of us at wallbuilderslive.com. That’s our radio website, wallbuilderslive.com. That’s where you get archives of the program as well and that’s where you can make a contribution that helps us do this. It actually amplifies our voice, it amplifies these programs. We can reach more people with every dollar that you donate at wallbuilderslive.com today. So if you want to see truth prevail in America, this is one of the best investments that you can make. Wallbuilderslive.com, check it out today.

It’s Good News Friday, which means we are looking at good news out there. David and Tim have been collecting these stories and waiting until Friday to pile them on. I’m looking for some good news today. I’m excited about getting some good news. So David, where are we starting with our good news today?

David:

Recently, there is something going on in Michigan that’s worth mentioning. Now, way back at the end of February, as COVID started coming out, and we started having emergency orders in March and April, etc, governors often step out and say, hey, I’m going to have this emergency over and we’re shutting this down, or we’re doing this or we’re implementing this program.

And so back about the second of April, Governor Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan declared a state of emergency. Now, interestingly, the state law in Michigan says that after 28 days, the governor shall issue an executive order declaring the state of disaster terminated, or the governor will go to the legislature and request an extension for that state of emergency. So if this happened on the second of April, and you can go for 28 days, what does that put it? 30th of April, real easy.

Well, she’s had this thing going since the second of April, and the Supreme Court of Michigan stepped in and said no, 28 days is 28 days, your power ended on the 30th of April. And that’s really good news, because we’re now starting to see the courts take positions over the constitutionality of actions as opposed to just kind of upholding the actions in the state of emergency. Now, they’re really looking at the question of whether that should have happened in the first place.

And in this case, the Supreme Court of Michigan went back and said, now the law is really clear here. Now, this is what’s almost funny to me. Whitmer said in a statement that she vehemently disagrees with a deeply disappointing ruling and the court’s interpretation of the Michigan constitution. I don’t know how much interpretation you need when it says 28 days and you either end it or go back and get it. How can you…

Rick:

Is that new math, David, it’s the new math they’ve been teaching for a while.

David:

Well, that’s right, Common Core in Michigan, maybe that says, it’s like Common Core math that they got in Michigan. 28 means 28, how can you vehemently disagree? And then you can disagree with having your power taken away, but what the court’s interpretation, I mean, 28 days is 28 days. But the good news is that Michigan has now joined States like Pennsylvania and others, where we’re now starting to see these kinds of acts really struck down and we would have liked it they’d been struck down months ago because we thought the law is pretty clear back then. But again, they defer to the emergency status.

Tim:

And it will be interesting to see this unfold, because governor Whitmer has already come out and said that she’s not sure she’s going to stop or change, and so she’s vying for Moore’s. It will be interesting to see where you have this separation of powers and you have different jurisdictions, to see what happens and what unfolds with this in Michigan. Where dad, you mentioned, some courts are stepping up and some courts are ruling, wait a second, that’s not the way our state constitution works. But we have yet to see how some of these executives will respond in those situations, so that could also be very telling for the people of Michigan.

And Michigan is one of those states that It’s considered a battleground states for this next presidential election. And it could be that Governor Whitmer’s actions and behaviors in some what’s going on could be a very big factor in the direction Michigan leans in this upcoming election. So it will be one of those states worth watching. But at least from a good news perspective, it’s great news that you at least have Judges who can read and properly interprets what 28 days and their constitution means when it is apparently confusing for some other leaders.

Rick:

Yeah, and I agree with you all. I mean, David, you’re right, we all hoped it would happen sooner. We often criticize the courts here on this program because they’ve been outside of their box. But one of their proper functions is reviewing a law that’s been unjustly either been absolutely unconstitutional, or has been applied in a unjust way. And the courts just refuse to do that for the first few months out of fear, because nobody knew what was going to happen with COVID, and so most of the actions were injunction.

So it was a very quick kind of hearing without much of a trial or evidence or discovery. And so we’ve had to wait six or seven months to actually go through all of that, because the Judges refused to do injunctions. But now that they’re looking at everything, they’re saying, this is this is crazy. There’s no compelling interest here, let alone the blatant you know, 28 days just do basic math. And so you’re right. Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, I mean, it’s happening across the country, hopefully, it’s going to continue that way.

And I will say, Tim, in terms of responses from governors, now, Governor DeSantis, did not get slapped down by a court in Florida. But he has actually come out and said, we messed up. We went too far. We shouldn’t have closed the schools. We should have done the shutdowns. We should have done all those things. We did the best we could with the data that we had, but it was a mistake. I’m glad to see that kind of leadership. I hope more governors will step up and say, hey, we missed it, guys. We made a mistake. Let’s pivot, let’s get out of this, and start moving forward and as President Trump said, “living your life and not being controlled by this disease.” Quick right, guys, we got a lot more good news coming at you folks. Stay with us, you’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

BREAK

This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. Alexia de Tocqueville, a political official from France, traveled to the United States in 1831 and penned 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, “Upon 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’d 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 it produced that made America great.

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

Rick:

We’re back here on WallBuilders Live Thanks for staying with us. It’s Good News Friday, we got a lot of good news for you at our website, Wallbuilderslive.com. But right now, Tim Barton’s going to share some new good news with you.

Tim:

Alright, guys, this was coming out of the State of Texas, and it apparently is the 15th city in the state of Texas to become a sanctuary city for the unborn. It is “New Home”, which I didn’t know where “New Home” was, I had looked that up. I wasn’t even sure if I was reading the name of the city right. But it’s outside of Lubbock, Lubbock, unfortunately, there is a Planned Parenthood clinic moving into Lubbock, Texas, and with…

David:

I wonder why that would be. Oh, there’s University there, Texas Tech! That’s why they would move into a town like that.

Tim:

Well, yeah, I mean, strategically, right university town, whatever the case is, very unfortunate. As is the case in many situations that sometimes the bigger the town, the more liberal some of the policies are they embrace. And even in the great State of Texas is no exception for some of our big cities.

With that being said, the city of “New Home” right outside of Lubbock said, well, hey, if Planned Parenthood moving in, we want to make it very clear where we stand. So their city council came out and got together and they said, alright, we’re a sanctuary for the unborn, and that was an ordinance they put in place. So first of all, kudos to “New Home”.

But even in regard to that life issue. One of the things I also have an article on that I saw, just recently, the end of September, President Trump came out with an executive order related to protecting babies who survive abortion. And it’s interesting, part of the executive order says that every infant born alive, no matter the circumstances of his or her life, has the same dignity and the same rights as every other individual, is entitled to the same protection under federal law.

Now, it’s interesting about this Born-Alive Infants Protection Act because I kind of thought that was already around on some regard. Apparently, there have been over 80 attempts to bring up this legislation in the house, and Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats have refused all more than 80 times to bring up this legislative decision about whether or not we can protect these infants who were born alive during a botched abortion.

And again, just boggling that this is even a conversation that is being had, that there is a human being alive on the table and we’re discussing whether or not it’s acceptable and permissible to kill that human being, which would that being said, as a prolife person, I have the same feeling and sentiments with abortion in general, even before that child was born. But President Trump came out with an executive order where he is protecting the rights of these children who are born alive.

And guys, this is one of the things that as we’ve talked about so often with President Trump, where his policies have impressed us so much. And looking at this upcoming election, there’s so much emphasis put on personalities, put on things on a very superficial level. And strategically, if I was a Democrat operative, I would absolutely be doing the same thing. I would want to paint a picture of Look how bad Trump is. He’s a mean person. He’s a bad person. We don’t like him. Look at all these things he’s done that weren’t nice. You want to draw attention to certainly where he is the most vulnerable and where he is the most weak and he is very vulnerable and weak when it comes to issues of interaction, personality of some things and areas of communication.

With that being said, guys, for last almost four years, we have been doing Good News Friday, about the victories when it comes to policy positions from this President, where this President has been the most prolife, the most pro religious freedom, the most pro-Christian, pro-church, as far as rights are concerned, the most pro-Israel, the most limited government. We can go down the list of how much good news we have gotten from the policies of this President.

And this is just one more example of now lives that presumably in prayerfully will be saved because these, I don’t want to call an abortion doctor, really a medical professional or a doctor, although I guess, technically on some level they generally are, but these medical professionals will not be allowed to murder this innocent baby once it is born. Again, we would like to see it before it’s born, those laws be in place as well that abortion is illegal. You shouldn’t be able to kill this unborn child. But at least President Trump has come out with his executive order to protect these infants who are born alive in these botched abortions. And that’s really great news.

Rick:

Very, very good news, and I love getting continued good prolife news. I mean, we continue to win on this issue and move the right direction. Quick right guys, we’ll be back with more good news. Stay with us, folks, you’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

Live.

BREAK

Hi, this is David Barton. I want to let you know about a brand new book we have out called “This Precarious Moment: Six Urgent Steps that Will Save You, Your Family, and Our Country”. Jim Garlow and I have coauthored this book, and we take six issues that are hot in the culture right now, issues that we’re dealing with, issues such as immigration, and race relations and our relationship with Israel and the rising generation Millennials in the absence of the church and the culture wars, and where American heritage is, our godly heritage.

We look at all six of those issues right now that are under attack and we give you both biblical and historical perspective on those issues that provide solutions on what each of us can do right now to make a difference. These are all problems that are solvable if we’ll get involved. So you can grab the book, “This Precarious Moment” and find out what you can do to make a difference. “This Precarious Moment” is available at wallbuilders.com.

Rick:

We’re back here on WallBuilders Live Thanks for staying with us. Good News Friday today and David Barton’s got our next piece of good news.

David:

This also deals with President Trump and for me, it’s kind of more of almost a short quiz, and it deals with the reason behind this action. So here’s the action. The headline says “President Trump gets the third nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize”. Do you know what the other two were? And do you know why he got three nominations for the peace prize?

Tim:

Well, are you referring to he was nominated three times this year?

David:

Yeah. For what reasons and by whom?

Tim:

So primarily, it was because of his situation with the Middle East peace, with things he has done with Israel, with things he has done with other nations over in the Middle East. That was my understanding. I certainly read about all three of those when they came out, and I have not looked at it in several weeks. But that’s my recollection was what he was doing for peace in the Middle East.

David:

Well, here’s where it was interesting to me because he was nominated a member of the Norwegian parliament, a member of the Swedish parliament and a member and actually for Australian professors, so very different parts of the world globally, and each for a very different reason. In one case, he was nominated because of what he did with the Middle East, the UAE and Israel agreement, and then following after that, and it looks like there’s going to be seven or eight more nations that come on board with Israel. We’ve gone decades and those nations would not talk to Israel, and now we see the change that’s occurred.

But also, I was unaware that in the case, I think the Swedish lawmaker nominated Trump because of how that he healed tensions between Japan and North Korea. And Japan and North Korea really has kind of deescalated. There’s not been a clear resolution of that, but you no longer hear about the North Koreans. You no longer hear about the imminent nuclear war that may occur from North Korea, all that’s kind of gone away.

But the relations with Japan have now been healed in many ways, and so they look at Trump as a direct cause of that. And then the other one that they point to is what has happened with the Kosovo Serbia agreement. And I remember all sorts of civil wars in those two nations, but I didn’t know that there had been an agreement brokered by Trump where that he helped the two nations reach a peace accord, settle their boundary dispute, and as a result, they have now named a lake, it’s a light that spans the borders of both Kosovo and Serbia. They name it, Lake Trump after President Trump because of the peace things that he’s done there.

And I was completely unaware, thank you American media, of all the things that Trump has done across the world globally. And the Australian lawmakers pointed out that really, this is based on what they call the “Trump doctrine”. And the “Trump doctrine”, his thing is national interest. We want to do what’s best for America. And we want to stay out of wars, and we don’t want to get involved in everybody else’s wars. And we want to see America in a strong position. And because of that is why he’s done so many things with other nations to help achieve peace. And the Australian said, look, we’re part of that Western accord agreement. America is in the western accord. He’s doing what’s best for America, but that also influences us here in Australia as well.

So I’ve not heard the “Trump doctrine” really talked about or mentioned, but outside the United States, apparently, it’s a fairly well known thing. And it’s interesting that other nations across the world are looking at President Trump and praising him for his foreign policy exploits. And again, Tim, as you mentioned, with the race being what it is about, the only way you can whip Trump is you can’t whip them on policy issues, you just got to make him a bad person somehow. And so you attack his personality and you attack his tweets or you attack whatever.

But when you look at policy stuff, it’s really amazing to me how respected Trump is in so many other parts of the world that he actually gets three nominations so far from the Nobel Peace Prize, because he actually has done legitimate stuff and helping the world become a much more peaceful place. So that’s really good news and quite frankly, as involved as I am and as much as I try to keep up with a lot of stuff, this was really news to me on all the stuff that he’s accomplished internationally.

Rick:

No same here, virtually uncovered. I have heard one of the nominations and that’s it. I mean, they’re not about, the major media is not going to cover anything positive about this President, the “Trump derangement syndrome” doesn’t allow for basic journalism anymore. Alright guys, let’s take another break. We got our final segment of good news when we come back. Stay with us folks, you’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

BREAK

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Rick:

We’re back here on WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us, final segment of good news today. But when we run out of time today, there’s more at the website, wallbuilderslive.com Tim, take us home today, man. What’s our last piece of good news?

Tim:

Alright, guys. A couple things as we finished up this last segment, one of them was in Washington DC, the end of September, Franklin Graham was there with a big prayer March and prayer rally. And this was something that had tens of thousands of people. I never saw any good estimates for numbers that were there, it certainly did not get the media coverage that you would have expected for most marches in DC, but maybe because this was one that we are praying, and people were just seeking God, maybe that’s why I didn’t get the coverage that other rallies did.

What is so great about this, and for anybody that doesn’t know, Franklin Graham was the son of Billy Graham, certainly the famous evangelist who, one of the things we talked about many, many weeks ago, very cool, he will have a statue in the US Capitol building as one of the two individuals being honored from North Carolina; he being Billy Graham. Billy Graham is going to be honored in the Capitol building with a statue.

So very cool legacy of Billy Graham, Franklin is his son, helps run Samaritan’s Purse, but Franklin has become very engaged with the cultural and political battles of the nation. One of the things that is very common for people of his level of notoriety, especially in the Christian circles, is they tend to be very careful politically about where they go, because they don’t want to offend somebody, and they don’t want to drive people off. And Franklin has been very outspoken, and his connection and relationship with Donald Trump when…

And Franklin, by the way, one of the things that even he said it is rally is the only hope for our country as God, it’s not Republicans or Democrats. Our only hope is God. And if we as Christians don’t pray for God’s help, He may just let this country fail. Franklin is not taking a position that he’s supporting one candidate blindly. He recognizes that as Christians, ultimately we are turning to God, but he also recognizes that in these candidates, there’s one side of the aisle that is prolife, one side that is pro-marriage and pro-family, one side that is pro-Israel, one side that is pro religious freedom. And so he’s been very bold and strong.

This huge rally in DC, also, Mike Pence was one of the many people who was there and spoke. Mike Pence tweeted about, it was all over social media. But it was really a cool event as we see things gearing up for what in all practical appearances are going to be a very contentious election season as things draw near. But just knowing there are people saying we need to pray and do something and along the lines of people saying…

David:

And by the way, there were actually three Christian events that happened that day, all kind of in conjunction with each other and helping each other. And so Franklin Graham, there was also the return, Kevin Jessup and Jonathan Kohn, etc. And this stuff was simulcast. And the reports we have is that there were 4.8 million actual viewers of what went on. So in addition to the big crowd that was in DC, he had a big crowd across the nation, even across the world that was part of that day. So that was good as well.

Tim:

Well, in addition to those kind of things, there’s other people that said, we want to get involved and make a difference. We’ve talked about Sean Feucht before, he was a worship leader from California was part of the Bethel Church movement, and ran for Congress, he got defeated in the primary, but he wanted to do something this year to make a difference. So he started traveling all over the nation literally, and doing worship services and worship concerts. And he went up to Portland, Oregon, and places in Washington State. And wherever there was trouble, he wanted to go in and try to bring the presence of God there, try to bring Christians into that place to engage in the community, to encourage, to witness, etc. And he’s continued is on.

I have an article from where he was down in Florida, and there were people that were literally running to the altar to come get saved in the midst of what’s going on, and people who were described as pimps or prostitutes or drug dealers. And just, I mean, you’re talking about the people down and outs, the worst kind of people that in civilized culture, we would look at and say, oh, those people are really, really bad. But they were having these dramatic experiences coming and seeking after God finding Jesus.

And so Sean Feucht’s another guy that has found a way to engage in culture, that hasn’t sat by and said as Christians, we should just stay inside of our churches or pray and let’s not get political. He’s intentionally going to places where there have been riots or unrest, where there are problems, and he’s saying this is where Christians need to be the most involved. Wherever there’s the most problems, that’s where Christians need to be. And he’s taken the gift God’s given him, the ability to sing and to play instruments and to lead worship, and he’s going into the cities and just the testimonies coming out of everywhere this guy goes is really, really impressive. So in the midst of the contention we’re seeing in the culture around us, there are a lot of Christians engaging the process and a lot of really positive things happening.

Rick:

Well, guys, thanks for all the good news today. I couldn’t agree more. So many good things happening out there so many Christians that are engaging in the process and stepping up and letting their voice be heard and their values counted. And we certainly want to encourage you to do that, a couple weeks left before the election.

And I guess, the easiest way to say this is vote your values. You got to show up and vote. You got to let your voice be heard, values counted. But that means you got to know, what do you really believe? That’s why we talked about biblical, historical perspective here on WallBuilders Live so that we know what those positions should be. And we’re not going to go vote for some personality or a particular person. We’re going to vote for the policies and the principles that they represent.

Whether that’s President of the United States or it’s your local water district representative, all the way up and down that ballot, do the best you can with what you got, where you are, but make sure that your voices heard, make sure you’re taking a biblical perspective into that voting booth that you’re choosing able men such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, that you’re choosing people that are supporting biblical values, that are protecting life, that are protecting the concept of right and wrong, that aren’t buying into the moral relativism out there, that aren’t jumping on these Marxist secular bandwagons that are destroying our country, people that want to actually bring us together instead of tear us apart. There’s so many ways to divide us based on race and all of these other things. Do you wear a mask or not wear a mask? Vote for those people that are bringing us together as Americans and are saying, look, I’m here on principle; that are doing things like what President Trump’s doing with the 1776 Commission, saying let’s go back to studying history again, and knowing what the formula is that made America great in the first place so we can restore her. We need to think like that up and down the ballot.

So I just challenge you get out there and vote. Vote for those who are fighting for the right values. Don’t stay home there. There’s no perfect candidate if you’re staying home because you don’t like any of the candidates, or you’re choosing not to vote in a particular race, I challenge you do the best you can with what you got where you are. There are no perfect candidate and so vote for the best one and then work hard to have a better one next time.

A couple of weeks left, make sure you’re sharing this information with your friends and family, be a force multiplier. Get on Facebook and share a list of the people you’re voting for; a lot of people don’t have any idea, even who’s running for office. So when you do that, it helps to influence what’s happening out there.

Thanks so much for listening today. You’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live.