Interviewing Dennis Prager on the Movie No Safe Space: Every year in Washington D.C many speakers, including President Trump, gather for the Values Voters Summit. We wanted to share with you some interviews we had at the summit. Today, we are interviewing Dennis Prager on the lack of freedom of speech on college campuses today.

Air Date: 10/23/2019

Guest: Dennis Prager

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, always doing that 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 and President of WallBuilders, and my name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas state legislator, national speaker, and author. We are all thrilled to have you with us here on WallBuilders Live. We encourage you to visit our website, WallBuildersLive.com, our radio site, where you can get archives the program from the last few weeks, and a lot of other great tools. There”€™s also WallBuilders.cpm, our main site. That’s where you can get all kinds of great tools for your family, such as constitution classes, history programs, and a lot of other great stuff. We appreciate checking out both those websites, and on one of them pausing over that donation button and making your one time or monthly donation. We”€™re a listener supported program, and therefore we greatly appreciate you out there, the listeners, that are supporting us to make it possible. God bless you. We really do appreciate it. Let’s jump into our topics for today.

We”€™re Heading to the Values Voter Summit

David, Tim, we are headed out to Values Voter Summit, a once a year gathering of activists and faith based folks that are involved in the culture in all kinds of areas. Every year in Washington D.C., a ton of speakers are going to be at this event, including President Trump. A lot of folks who we’ve had on the program before, and folks who we greatly respect, have come and spoken at are our legislators conference. So we thought we’d share some of those interviews. We had a chance to get there at the Summit with our listeners here on on WallBuilders Live. So we’re going to kind of really for the next two weeks be bringing to life a lot of what happened at the Values Voter Summit. First one today, Dennis Prager is going to be with us later in the program.

David:

And Dennis is—I hope—well known to most folks. If you don’t know about Dennis, you need to. He is one of the most articulate and one of the most thoughtful people on what we would call the Conservative Movement. I really don’t like using that term because it really doesn’t mean much as it is. It’s a construct that people put on us because of what we believe. But for someone who believes generally pro Constitution, and faith, pro family, and respect God’s Word in the Bible, that makes you a conservative. That’s what Dennis says. 

He’s a national talk show host. But he is so thoughtful, and is so good at reasoning through, that he’s really made a—I don’t know what you call it—cottage industry of short videos where he tackles what really oftentimes is a very complex issue, and he reduces it to a very simple presentation.

Denis Prager and PragerU

Tim:

And this is something that isn’t just him tackling the issues. He will get experts from all different areas, all different fields, some that are notable names, that are leaders in industries, and they talk about specific issues. So everything from climate change, to Israel, to the Second Amendment, to minimum wage, to the feminist movement—you can pretty much pick a topic. There are hundreds of videos that are out there, and they really are some of the most informative, powerful, encouraging, challenging videos to give you a perspective of what is actually true on some of the issues. 

Sometimes there are people arguing in a very false perspective on the issue because they don’t have all the information, but he shows in these videos, or the people he has doing these videos, expose some of the truth that is there. So Prager University is one of the great places to go. You can find it online, you could go to YouTube or Facebook, but they end up getting videos banned on YouTube and Facebook, not because there’s profanity, not because there’s nudity, not not for what you would think would be a logical reason, they get banned because they do too good, perhaps, at exposing some of the falsehoods of the left, and it offends people on the left, and therefore these videos get banned. Again, nothing inappropriate in the content. 

A Huge Impact

Rick:

You can go look at PragerU online, and see some great videos to learn from so many different ways that Dennis Prager has been a positive influence in the culture. They obviously reach billions and billions of views—literally, it’s not an exaggeration—it’s phenomenal how big of an impact they’re having. Also his books, his speaking engagement, his radio program, he’s come in and shared at our legislators conference, there’s a tremendous impact. 

So the chance to sit down and actually get to visit with him face to face at the Values Voter Summit among all of those activists and folks that want to make a difference, it”€™s really, really cool for us. We”€™re looking forward to sharing it with our listeners.

We’ll be with Dennis Prager when we come back from break. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

American History

This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment in American history. In 1963 the United States Supreme Court decided that voluntary Bible reading could no longer be part of the school day. 

Founding Father Benjamin Rush, known as the father of public schools under the Constitution, pointedly warned that the Bible should be read in schools in preference to all other books. 

He specifically warned that if America ever ceased promoting Biblical principles in schools then we would waste so much time and money and punishing crimes. It takes so little pains to prevent them. 

He was right, we now have seven million Americans in prison on probation or on parole. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Sadly, this was unnecessary, but is the result of no longer teaching the morals of the Bible in schools.

For more information about the Founding Fathers views on the positive impact of the Bible in schools go to WallBuilders.com.

The Dennis Prager

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live. We are at Values Voter Summit.

Activists from all over the nation are gathering, and they’re gonna get to hear from the Dennis Prager. You said that about David barton. But you’re Dennis Prager.

Dennis:

So there are two of us with the first name, “€œThe”€™. 

Rick:

So many things we can talk about. I want to talk about the movie, but I got to ask you when the next edition or the next book for the Rational Bible is coming out, because I loved Exodus. It was incredible.

Dennis:

Well, Genesis is out. 

Rick:

I didn’t know that! 

Dennis:

  1. So for that alone it was worth my coming. I want to tell you something. This is my life’s work, because I know biblical thought, teaching the Bible my whole life and the rational Bible is the culmination of it. Did you know that Costco sells it? 

Rick:

No.

Dennis:

So I thought that’s great. If Costco was selling a Bible Commentary, I really achieved something.

But here is my great test. When I come out—I’m doing the first five books of the Bible, the Torah—and when I do Leviticus, will Costco sell that? I have to say, if I get Leviticus into Costco, God will truly shake my hand at the pearly gates.

Rick:

I had no idea. I know this isn’t our topic for today, but I had no idea until the intro to the Exodus book that you were such a Hebrew scholar. 

Dennis:

There would be no way you would know.

Rational Bible

Rick:

Yeah. I was blown away, and I’m telling you, I loved it. I learned so much, I shared so much with my kids, so I’m excited that you’re doing that the whole thing. It really encourage people to get it. It’s absolutely a great book, Rational Bible by Dennis Praeger. 

OK, let’s talk about the movie. 

Dennis:

Let me just say at the outset: I take zero credit for it. I know I’m the quote unquote “€œstar”€ along with Adam Carolla. It’s an honor, but it’s not great because I”€™m in it. I’m in a great movie, but it may not be but it’s not great because I”€™m init. I’m not Mr. Humble, I’m Mr. Real. This is a great movie, I didn’t even expect it to be a great movie, I expected it to be a good movie.

Rick:

You get Jon Sullivan, Mark Johnson, you got a great team doing it.

Dennis:

Yeah! Yes, exactly correct. I’m telling you, people who see it will be awakened to the crisis of free speech in America, and every liberals as well as conservatives, because there are liberals in this like like Alan Dershowitz, whose a Hillary Clinton supporter, a lifelong liberal Democrat, in his apartment looks at me and says, “€œDennis. As an American, as a liberal, as a Democrat, as a Jew, I far more fear the left than the right.”€

Rick:

Wow.

Dennis:

Last Dershowitz says that in the movie to me in his apartment.

Rick:

So even some of the left is waking up about now— 

Dennis:

No. None of the left. The liberals are waking up.

A Distinction Between the Left and Liberals

This is a distinction I make. A lot of conservatives are not happy with the distinction because the Liberals vote left, and that’s true, liberals are fools for voting left, but not all liberals are left. But not all liberals are left. 

As you will see, a lot of liberals are disturbed at what’s happening on campuses.

David:

The traditional liberals used to at least be honest and open minded.

Dennis:

Yes! Exactly! That’s not our enemy, our enemy is the left. The enemy of liberalism is leftism, not conservatism. We conservatives are preserving liberalism. That’s the irony!

Rick:

We’ve had it on our program, where we”€™ve talked about some of the cases where the ACLU of all people have been teaming up with ADF or other conservative legal organizations defending classical liberalism.

David:

Yeah, but the ACLU is more left than liberal. They have become more left. 

Dennis:

Sure. They absolutely have. They’re not fighting on the free speech issues on campuses, and they were founded as a free speech organization. 

No safe spaces will change people’s lives. 

And most people will see it a second time because they’re going to bring a friend. I’m telling you, it’s really a great achievement. You will get chills at the end, and people will be awakened. There is a story of this professor, a truly liberal lifelong liberal professor of biology at Evergreen College in Washington state. One day they announced that all whites should leave campus for a day.

This guy, a lifelong liberal Democrat says, “€œWait a minute, that’s crazy I’m not going to leave the campus.”€Â 

The Movie No Safe Spaces

To make a long story short he was screamed at, cursed at, and so threatened he had to leave the college. He is no longer there. His story, with his wife, is worth the price of the movie alone.

Rick:

No Safe Spaces. Tell us about distribution.

Dennis:

It’ll be open in theaters all around the country. But it’s starting in Phoenix, so your listeners in Phoenix, you can get tickets October 24th, 25th, 26th. I will be in Phoenix for on the 25th.

Rick:

All right. And I’m assuming once it does it’s theater run, there”€™ll be a good DVD release. These guys, the team that did this, Sullivan had done Expelled, did the Obama, 2016. What do you think, outcome wise, the campuses have been the place that has been taking our tax dollars, and our family dollars when we send our kids to these schools just cause we like the football team, and using that to undermine everything that America is about. Do you think this will help with that? Cause people to not trust the university campus.

Dennis:

I mean yes. Independent of the film, I have a motto, “€œSending your child to college is playing Russian roulette with their values.”€Â 

If you’re prepared to play Russian roulette with your values, and I’m not saying this sarcastically, if you believe that your kids values are so intact, strong, and rational, then I think you can go to college. But not a lot of people who believe in what I call the American Trinity—In God We Trust, E Pluribus Unum, and Liberty, it’s on every coin. I didn’t make this up.

Rick:

I play that PragerU, by the way, at every Patriots Academy. 

The American Trinity

Dennis:

You do? 

Rick:

Yeah. Your face, your voice, all that good stuff. We open with that. 

Dennis:

Thank you. That means a lot to me. It’s good stuff. 

The left loathes all three elements of the American Trinity. They don’t want from many, one. They want from many, many. When I grew up in this country, it was a melting pot. You say melting pot today, you’re called a racist or a white supremacist, but that’s absurd because the melting pot means that the whites are in the pot too. It’s an absurdity. 

Then In God We Trust, the contempt of the left for God based values or beliefs is—of our four hundred videos, anything that differs with the left is mocked and attacked, but you know what they attack the most? Any video we do that argues for God or the Ten Commandments. 

David:

Oh yeah, the Ten Commandments. I want to shift just a little bit, because Glenn Beck and I were talking about you yesterday, and talking about the battle you’re in with High Tech, and where High Tech has gone now and censoring free speech, because they are in some ways private business, so we say art that’s not government, but in some ways they’re governmental, they get all the incentives from the government as well. You’re in two lawsuits right now just over free speech on the ability to have videos that mentioned God and the Ten Commandments. So where does that go? Where do you see us heading? 

The Lawsuits

Dennis:

Well, with High Tech, if we lose it’ll probably go to the Supreme Court. Our case against Google, which owns YouTube, if we lose then they will have been given the national imprimatur to censor everything that isn’t on the left. 

And you’ll say, “€œWell, people say—“€

And the naivety of this drives me crazy. 

I get letters from well-meaning conservatives saying, “€œWe should  just start our own Google.”€Â 

But then you can’t reach anybody who isn’t conservative, right? That’s my intention. I know that I can change the Liberal”€™s minds, I can’t change a leftist minds, but I can change the Liberals”€™ minds, and I need the conduit to get there. 

I always say—well, people say correctly, or understandably, I should say— “€œWell, it’s a private company. They could censor speech.”€Â 

So I would just ask people, “€œWhat if Delta United and American said, “€˜If you come off on the plane with the Wall Street Journal, we will not give you a seat.”€”€™Â 

It can do that because it”€™s a private company, but then how do you fly? 

David:

They are a public service provider many ways—

Dennis:

Not many ways. They are, period. They”€™re a conduit of information on planet Earth. 

David:

So where do you see the losses going, and why in two courts? Why state and federal?

Dishonest Google

Dennis:

Well because that is a California issue. California has laws that protect us—PragerU—but us who are using the providers, and there is a federal issue. So that’s why. We”€™re in both courts, and we’ll see what happens. Butas I said, I think it’ll end up in the Supreme Court. What they need to do is say, “€œOK, listen to Google, you can be a private company and censor and not censor.”€
We’re not suing the New York Times for not publishing our videos. They can do what they want but they’re liable to be brought to court if they libel anyone. Google wants it both ways.

“€œWe can’t be sued for any of the information, and to be an open forum at the same time.”€ They want the laws of a publisher, but they want the rights of a public forum. If you say, “€œListen, we’re a left wing organization.”€Â 

That ends the lawsuit. They’re dishonest!

Rick:

Yeah. Let’s talk about why you guys were the right ones to sue, and why they shut you down. It’s the wild success of PraegerU. How many billions of viewers now? Two or three billion?

Dennis:

That’s right. It’s a billion a year. 

David:

It’s not just people watching. Like you said, you”€™re changing minds, you’re ability to change someone”€™s mind from one position to another phenomenal.

Dennis:

Just to give an example, we don’t advocate Republican or Democrat as such. We advocate values, not not politics, but just as one example, the head of the College Democrats at one of the most prestigious schools in the country watched our videos, and he became a Republican. 

Rick & David:

Wow. 

Careful About the Facts

Dennis:

It just makes sense. We were so careful about the facts. We so don’t scream. BuzzFeed did a huge piece on us, Mother Jones did a huge piece on us, and it is astonishing.

They could say nothing that impugned our reputation. Now, I was waiting for it—by the way, to their credit as well—but it I was expecting a hatchet job. 

The most irresponsible reporting on me has been in the New York Times. They actually made up a quote that I never said. 

David:

Oh wow. 

Dennis:

Yes. The New York Times, in other words, is less reliable in my experience than BuzzFeed or Mother Jones.

David:

Yeah, well what we have seen, particularly with young people, is the reason they’re left is that they haven’t heard any information on the other side. 

Dennis:

That’s the whole point. 

David:

And what you, with those videos, have done is give that information that is neither right nor left right. When you get information right, they make the right decision.

Dennis:

Yes. A lot of our videos have nothing to do with left or right, like our video on Churchill, or Lincoln, where they’re just teaching. We have one on reconstruction. There was nobody on the left who could take issue with it. We show what a failure reconstruction was, we have we have four Pulitzer Prize Winners, we have three prime ministers who give videos! 

Rick:

Wow. Love it. I genuinely—I’m not saying this because you’re here. At Patriots Academy, I tell them when they’re leaving Patriots Academy, I say, “€œIf you will watch one Prager you a day for the next year, you will learn far more, and get more truth, and be better prepared for life than any college entry.”€

PragerU is Educating People

Dennis:

And if they also follow the readings that we suggest, it’s true. That’s what we’re doing, and that’s why they want us to fail. 

David:

Yeah. I like what you do and taken on so many issues, but giving really—and I’m saying worldview, and everybody’s got a worldview—but yours is true worldview. Yours is based on truth, on what is actually works and what doesn’t through history. It’s a truth worldview, and it is so good that on every single conceivable topic that’s out there.

Dennis:

I”€™m happy to hear that.

Rick:

And you mentioned the Ten Commandments. I used your Ten Commandments videos at our family breakfast. They’re just really good. In five minutes you understand them.

Dennis:

People don’t—even religious people, for example, they don’t know that it”€™s, “€œDo not murder,”€ not, “€œDo not kill.”€Â 

It”€™s an important distinction. They don’t know that it doesn’t say, “€œDo not take God’s name in vain.”€Â 

It’s, “€œDo not carry God’s name in vain.”€Â 

And I prove it from the Hebrew, and it’s a very big difference. God does not care—a lot of your listeners won’t believe this, but it’s OK. God is not forbidding in the Ten Commandments saying, “€œOh God, I had a tough day at the office.”€Â 

That is not taking God”€™s name in vain. 

Taking God’s name in vain is saying, “€œAllahu Akbar,”€ Allah is the greatest, and then slaughtering a human being by slitting their throat. 

That’s—and that’s why it’s the only one of the Ten Commandments God doesn’t forgive—then you do evil in God’s name, that, in the Ten Commandments, is the worst sin.

Marching Orders

Rick:

Alright. So, marching orders at home. Go watch PragerU on the Ten Commandments, and then get the Rational Bible, and see and see No Safe Spaces.

Dennis:

That’s right. That’s key. Bring your kids, and bring—there”€™s a bunch of liberals in the movie, so you’re liberal brother in law can go with you and enjoy the film.

You didn’t know genesis came out? That kills me. 

Rick:

When did it come out? 

Dennis:

Oh my God”€¦. There you go, “€œOh my God.”€ God does not care.

It came out six months ago six months ago.

Rick:

Six months ago?! How did I miss this? 

Dennis:

I don’t know, but there were punishments for people who miss it. 

Rick:

Tell me it”€™s on Audible.

Dennis:

Of course it”€™s on Audible. 

Rick:

Dennis Prager, our special guest, here at Values Voter Summit, Dennis, thank you so much. 

Dennis:

It’s been a joy, a real joy. Thank you. 

Rick:

Thank you brother. We’ll be right back with David and Tim Barton. You”€™re listening to WallBuilders Live.

America’s Hidden History

DAVID:

Hi, this is David Barton.

TIM:

And, this is Tim Barton, and we want to let you know about a series that’s happening right now on TBN on Thursday night. TBN is the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Every Thursday night, there’s a series that we’ve filmed called America’s Hidden History.

And, this season is called “€œAmerica’s Hidden Heroes.”€ The reason is, we highlight heroes from American history. For years we’ve been focusing on the forgotten history and heros of the nation.

And now, we have a TV show just highlighting some of those heroes.

DAVID:

These are inspiring stories about some of the greatest people maybe you’ve never heard about. We go on location to the sites and show you where the events happened. It’s the stories of folks like Bronco Charlie, Stagecoach Mary, Jedediah Smith, Robert Smalls, and so many inspiring folks.

TIM:

Now, this happens every Thursday night, and the time is gonna be different based on where you live. Either way, we think this is something that will so encourage and inspire you in learning some of these great stories from America’s Hidden History.

Rehashing All These Topics

Rick:

Welcome back toWallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us today. We were at Values Voter Summit in that previous segment with none other than Dennis Prager.

As we said in the interview, “€œThe Dennis Prager,”€ with, “€œThe David Barton,”€ and just plain old Rick Green. 

That was kind of fun. I liked that. Anyway, David, that was a really awesome interview and a great chance to visit with Dennis. We covered a lot of different topics there.

David:

We did cover a lot of topics, from the rational Bible, through the lawsuits he”€™s got going, through PragerU, through so many things. 

He really is just one of the great ammunition depots for for folks who believe constitutional and traditional value kind of stuff, and we really do encourage people to get on PragerU videos. Rick, you were talking about how you start every Patriots Academy with a PragerU video, and how you send the kids out of Patriots Academy saying, “€œWatch one of these every day. Take one for the next year, watch it every day.”€ And how that even you and your family went through the Ten Commandments videos, and that they are that good.

And so we really do encourage folks to get into the PragerU videos. 

Rick:

You definitely can’t use the excuse today that, “€œI didn’t have access to a good education.”€ All of that is at our fingertips. Anyone listening right now could get educated on all of these topics simply by spending a little bit of time every day going through these videos. 

Short Videos V.S. College Education

David:

Tim pointed out at the start, these videos are just a few minutes long. It’s not like you”€™ve got to commit yourself to an online college education for the next year, or that you’re going to be ten twelve hours a day in courses. 

So we’re talking short videos, they probably average around five minutes, and you take those, and as you said, you’ll get a college education in a year by watching one of these five minute videos every day. 

So Dennis has great resources, The Rational Bible, too, if you want to understand the Old Testament, Torah, the first five books, Dennis is a Hebrew scholar, and opens that up in a real way. It really helps Christians in their life.

Rick:

We have several links today at our website of WallBildersLive.com, one to those PragerU videos, one to the Rational Bible, and then of course this new movie coming out this weekend. Go see it. No Safe Spaces. You don’t want to miss it. 

As we mentioned earlier in the interview with Dennis Prager, the Rational Bible, I know I said it in the interview, but I absolutely loved Exodus and the explanations there. When you go back to the original, there were so many eye opening moments for me as I read through that, and I’m so excited that Genesis is out as well. I’m going to be diving into that one myself, strongly encourage you to check out both of those. 

And of course the PragerU videos so much value there, and just such wisdom there, and it’s quick. As David said, three, four, five minutes a day. Jump into one of those videos, the education you get will be phenomenal. 

Thank You for Coming Alongside Us!

We sure appreciate you as a listener for just taking the time to listen, but also for sharing the program. Part of how you can come alongside us and be a part of the WallBuilders team in helping to restore America’s constitutional republic is by sharing the program. You can do that through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, whatever the social media tool is that you choose, at WallBuildersLive.com, just click on the program and share that with as many people as you can. You you become part of the team when you do that. 

Then you can also make a contribution. Your donations are a very important part of us being able to do this. 

Let’s be blunt, it takes dollars to do a radio program, it takes dollars to put out material, it takes dollars to do all the things that we’re doing, and so we appreciate all of you that are willing to make those tax deductible contributions to WallBuilders Live and allow us to to continue this wonderful work the Lord blessed us with, and the opportunity to be able to influence the culture in a positive way and be salt and light. You coming alongside us is what makes it possible. It’s you doing these things in your community that makes it the most difference. So we really do appreciate you being a part of this. God bless you. Have a great week. We’re gonna have a lot more interviews for you, a lot of great folks. We”€™ll have Caleb Dalton with us tomorrow from from the Alliance Defending Freedom.

No Safe Space Movie and More with WallBuilders Live

We’ve got Good News Friday program from our Values Voter Summit. Next week we’re going to have Gary Bauer, Tony Perkins, Dana Loesch, John Hostettler, Matt Staver, Eric Metaxas—it’s it’s a star studded couple of weeks here on WallBuilders Live, so don’t miss out. You’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live.