Justice Is Served To Olympic Winner After 110 Years And More – Jim Thorpe, a Native American Olympic winner in 1912, finally has justice served to him after 110 years. Court upholds that the Biden Administration can’t ignore Federal Law’s dealing with illegal immigrants and more!

Air Date: 07/29/2022

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. It’s WallBuilders Live. Thanks for joining us today. It’s Good News Friday. We’ve got a lot of good news coming your way.

My name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas legislator and America’s Constitution coach. And I’m thrilled to be with you today and thrilled to be here with David and Tim Barton. David’s America’s premier historian and our founder at WallBuilders, and Tim Barton’s a national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders. You can find out more about all three of us right there at wallbuilderslive.com. That’s our radio site. It’ll tell you a little bit about us as hosts. But most importantly, we’ll give you links to the previous programs from the last few weeks and months, give you a chance to catch up if you missed any of, for instance, Good News Friday like today, where we’re going to have all these stories that will encourage you because you’ll see that the system works if we work the system.

And then you know what to miss Thursday’s either, Thursday, that’s our Foundations of Freedom day. That’s a chance for you to ask questions. You can send those questions in by emailing [email protected], and we do as many of those as we can each Thursday. And then Monday through Wednesday, we have interviews with guests that are on the front lines, fighting for freedom all over the nation. And you can be a part of all of this by not only listening to the program but donating at wallbuilderslive.com and also sharing the program. That makes you a force multiplier and helps us reach even more people.

But I’m ready for some good news. I tell you, there’s good news. There’s good, the bad, the ugly. And sometimes our interviews sometimes are things we talk about; we have to cover the bad and ugly, of course. But on Friday’s, we love talking about the good news.

Alright, guys, let’s dive into that good news. First piece of good news, of course, David Barton. Where are we headed in the country now? Let me guess. I’m just going to wildly guess. I never even get to see your stats or what’s actually in them. I’m going to just guess this is going to be a local election in Vermont. I’m probably way off the other end of the country, it’s not an election. It’s a judicial decision or some fireman did something. It’s going to be like totally unrelated. But I had to try. I had to try it.

David:

You’re not even on the same planet, bro. You’re in the wrong century. You missed this one by long ways.

Tim:

Now, I just want to clarify. If we’re not on the same planet, this has to be Elon Musk doing something off planets. We’re now very limited to like maybe NASA’s, Elon Musk if it’s not on this planet. I just want to clarify.

Rick:

The satellites are finally all in orbit and I can finally get his internet satellite to put on the RV. That’s the good news. I don’t know. That’s somewhat off the planet. Okay. Anyway, David, do you got, man?

David:

Okay. I’ll retract it. It is on the same planet. It’s just you’re not on the right half of the planet. You’re on the wrong side of the world in this one. So I’ve got two question for you guys. Who is the greatest athlete in American history and what is the greatest Olympic scandal in world history?

Rick:

Greatest athlete in American history? Jesse Owens.

David:

He’s great, but he’s not voted the greatest.

Rick:

Bruce Jenner.

David:

No. You’re getting close to the right sport.

Rick:

Muhammad Ali.

David:

Now, Muhammad Ali was not it. You were close when you had Bruce Jenner. What’s the sport of Bruce Jenner?

Rick:

It’s Decathlon.

David:

Decathlete. Alright, that’s part of it. That’s half of the sport.

Rick:

I’m going for another guess.

David:

Voted the greatest athlete in the world from the American side?

Tim:

Well, guys, I was going to direction. I was thinking like the 1992 dream team. And maybe the biggest scandal go back to some of the Russian cheating Olympics, maybe with the hockey team or the basketball team. So clearly I’m going the wrong direction. But I feel like you’re hard pressed not to say someone like a Michael Jordan. Now, Jesse Owen’s really good thought and guess.

And so, dad, I know you’re going to have direction. And based on where I think you’re going, I have a pretty good guess, not to give it away for the audience, although that certainly was not initially where I was thinking.

Rick:

If you hadn’t said Olympic, I would have said Shoeless Joe Jackson and then the Chicago Black Sox, scandal of the World Series. But you said Olympic, so it’s definitely not that one.

David:

Yeah, that’s pretty big scandal, but you have to go back. Well, first, the greatest athlete voted in American history.

Rick:

Eric Liddell.

David:

It’s not Eric Liddell. No, it is Jim Thorpe. So Jim Thorpe competed in the Olympics 110 years ago. And 110 years, now Jim Thorpe is a Native American athlete, he is part of the fox, the Sack and the Pottawattamie tribe. So he’s an athlete and he competed in both the decathlon and in the pentathlon. So that’s 15 sports he competed in that Olympic and this was back in 1912. And by the way, that’s the same Olympic in which George Patton also competed. So Patton was in the 1912 Olympic…

Rick:

Wait! Wait! George Patton competed in the Olympics?

David:

He competed in the pentathlon in that same event with Jim Thorpe.

Rick:

I had no idea.

David:

And so he competed there. And actually, what Patton was really good with were swords. He was really good in the fencing and swords and he became the greatest swordsman in the US army, and he invented what’s called the Patton’s sword. Because back then in the Calvary you were still using swords, you didn’t have cars, you were still riding horses and swinging swords.

So Patton was in the Olympics. But Jim Thorpe won both the pentathlon and the decathlon. So it’s 15 sports, I think there were three overlap. So he’s in 12 sports. He is the best in all of them. He wins the gold medal in all of them and then they took the gold medal away from him in both of those sports. And they took it away because they said, oh, we see that you’ve played minor league baseball. Well, that makes you a professional and so you can’t be a professional and be in the Olympics. So they took the gold medals away from him.

And I think number two in the decathlon was an athlete from Sweden and number two in the pentathlon was an athlete from Norway. And interestingly, those athletes never considered themselves the winners, even though they got elevated. They said we got beat fair and square by Jim Thorpe, and it wasn’t even close. And so throughout their life and throughout their family’s life, they said, we didn’t win, he won.

Well, the Olympic Committee just went back and reverse their decision from 110 years ago and reinstated Jim Thorpe. He got the gold medals. Now he’s long dead. But he is now, again, the guy who won those Olympics.

So this is kind of a human interest story. It’s just kind of cool to see justice done in 110 years later. And the families of both of those athletes said, well, we always knew he was the winner. We’ve always considered that our family member came in second because that’s what he said. So it’s just really good to see them get something right 110 years later, especially in the Olympics area where they don’t like to make mistakes or admit mistakes. To see him go back and do this, it’s really a kind of wholesome, warm hearted story that I thought would be a good way to start the day.

Rick:

And you’re sure there’s not a second half of the story where Jim Thorpe came back four years later and claimed to be a woman and compete in the women’s decathlon and awarded like extra gold medals because it was special, that didn’t happen?

David:

I’m pretty sure that didn’t happen, although that would probably be well accepted by the Olympic Committee. So, you know, we’ll see, they’ve been a little on the woke side, but we’ll see.

Rick:

I shouldn’t have tainted our good news with even the thought of… So, Tim, what’s our next piece of good news, man?

Tim:

Yeah, well, add a little caveat. But, you know, back then they actually believed in this notion of the biology, science, gender, chromosome thought. And so, I mean, it’s so ridiculous where we’ve come to today.

Nonetheless, one of the good news is that we can point to this headline says “Ohio Supreme Court allows heartbeat law to take effect and save babies from abortion”. So that when Roe versus Wade was overturned, there were several places that they had laws in place. And after Governor Mike DeWine had issued an executive order directing the Ohio Department of Health to adopt emergency rules, implementing Ohio’s heartbeat laws, this was something they had on the books they were ready to go with.

And there was an abortion business who sought an injunction to try to stop the heartbeat law from taking effect. Well, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the heartbeat law could take effect and it effectively bans abortions as soon as an unborn child heartbeat can be detected. So we’ve talked about this abortion issue now going to states and it needs to be won and solved in states. And so potentially, there is a constitutional amendment. But up to now, we have to fight in states to try to preserve and protect unborn life. And Ohio has taken really good steps to say as soon as there is a heartbeat, that unborn child’s life is protected and their state Supreme Court upheld it.

We’ve talked about the fact we think there will be a lot of challenges to a lot of these states laws, whether it is abortion ban of six weeks or eight weeks or whether they identified as a heartbeat or however they identify whatever that might be, we know there will be challenges from some of the pro-abortion groups in those states. What is great in this situation, though, is you do have some of these states Supreme Court and in this case, the Ohio State Supreme Court, identifying that this law is something that will be upheld and unborn children’s lives will be saved in Ohio. So this is really good news.

Rick:

Excellent. Good stuff. Okay. We’re going back to the Olympics. I’m not even going to guess again. It’s not Vermont. It’s not a local election. It’s not a fireman. And it’s probably not the Olympics either. But David, what’s the next piece of good news?

David:

Next piece of good news comes from the federal courts, where the headline says “Biden administration cannot ignore federal law”. Now, that headline by itself is really a pretty remarkable headline. The fact that the court says, hey, it’s a federal law, you can’t just pick and choose which laws you want to ignore. And in this case, it deals with removing illegal alien criminals.

So, an illegal alien who has been convicted of a crime and is shown to be a criminal, the federal law says you’ve got to deport them. And the Biden administration says, well, not really. And here’s what the federal Judge pointed out that I thought was really good. The law says that the attorney general shall take into custody, shall, it’s not a will or can, the law says the attorney general shall take into custody, shall detain and shall remove illegal aliens convicted of certain crimes.

So the fact that the law actually says that and by the way, Homeland Security Chief Mayorkas, he’d sent out a memo, said, well, shall really doesn’t mean shall, you can ignore this if you want to. And so they’ve been ignoring it. And Texas filed the lawsuit because Texas has seen a substantial increase in illegal aliens that should have been deported, that committed crimes after they were left here.

And so it’s affecting Texas citizens. It’s affecting law breaking. It’s affecting the lives, safety, the property of Texans. And so Texas filed a lawsuit saying, hey, the law says shall, you have to do this. And once you find and convict a criminal alien, you’ve got to deport them. And Biden administration had been saying, well, no, we’re not going to do that, I don’t think they’ve ever found an illegal alien that they don’t like or someone who breaks the law that they can’t find a reason for doing something good for. And I say that facetiously, but there’s just so many stories that that’s probably a fairly accurate characterization going on now.

So nonetheless, the federal courts have said you have to enforce that law. Now, does that mean that Biden’s going to enforce it? I don’t know that that means that, it’s a good ruling. They have shown a proclivity not to enforce because who’s going to prosecute? Is it going to be the Justice Department? That’s who should normally do that. You think you get the Justice Department to actually go after the Biden administration on something like this? Don’t think so. So the good news is that you’re supposed to follow the federal law and the federal courts recognize that and told the Biden administration to do it. We’ll see if that’s going to be done. But nonetheless, it gives Texas at least some standing to be able to do it.

And we had a ruling earlier, several weeks back that that federal court said, look, the federal government’s not going to do it, states can do it. It is a federal law. Somebody has got to enforce it. You know, if the Biden administration is not going to do it, then maybe Texas can do it. So we’ll see what happens with this. But the fact that the federal courts are saying federal law has to be upheld and that if the federal administration refused to do that, then the states can do it. That may be really good news for solving a bunch of stuff that’s going on with illegal immigration that the administration has refused to deal with.

Rick:

Yeah. Very good. Very good. This is essentially headed that direction. We’ve been saying on the program for a long time. Article 1, Section 10, if the federal government are not going to repel an invasion, the states should be able to do these things and defend their borders. So lots of good news for us, folks. We’re going to take a quick break. We’ve got more good news for you in the second half of the program. Stay with us, you’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

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Rick:

Welcome to WallBuilders Live. It’s Good News Friday today. Let’s dive right back into that good news. Tim’s got the next piece of good news.

Tim:

Alright, guys, this one is from Mississippi and it deals with the Dobbs decision. The article headline says “Last abortion clinic in Mississippi shuts down after Trigger Law takes effect”. Hopefully, people are generally familiar with the Dobbs decision, what the Supreme Court decision that led to the overturning of Roe versus Wade. But the Dobbs decision in Mississippi was a ban on abortion after 15 weeks for practical purposes. And there is only one abortion clinic that was left in Mississippi, and they are shutting their doors. And actually, as of now as I’m reading this, they’ve already shut their door.

So Mississippi is now free of abortion clinics, which is incredible news. And this is where Dobbs was a health official for Mississippi, it was dealing with an abortion clinic from Mississippi. And the abortion clinic was Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization, which, interestingly, they have announced that they’re leaving, they’re going to New Mexico. And they said New Mexico is a very welcoming place.

So it really does indicate that this is becoming a significant issue in states, as we already identified, that different states will pass and enact laws as some states are going radically in favor of abortion. We’ve seen that with places like California, some of their suggestions. In fact, in California, where they’re suggesting that potentially there should be Planned Parenthoods inside of public high schools so that girls don’t even need to seek their parent’s permission, they can go to the Planned Parenthood clinic inside of the public high school and get an abortion right there, parents never have to know. I mean, just it’s crazy and evil, the things that they are promoting.

But you are seeing states go drastically in in two directions. I mean, you could argue there are some that are kind of staying a little bit more middle ground. But Mississippi is a place that the incredible news that they now are free of abortion clinics because of the decision that was one of the US Supreme Court, the Dobbs decision, and with the overturning Roe versus Wade, but specifically with their decision upholding the ban on abortion after 15 weeks, it closed down the last abortion facility in the state, which is now moved, relocated to New Mexico. But for Mississippi, this is incredible news that they are now free of abortion facilities.

Rick:

Guys, this is almost like a domino effect, right? I mean, isn’t that the effort now in so many states where we would be able to have the same good news in coming weeks about other states just like this, so a state that’s entirely void of abortion clinics. And I guess Mississippi is really the first one to do that, right?

David:

No. I’ve seen two others that have shut down all the clinics there. Yeah, one of the states only had one clinic left. You know, it’s kind of like a Wyoming state. It was a small state, small population. But I think other states have done that. But this is the growing trend, Rick. And, you know, with Mississippi, that’s not particularly a small state. And so shutting down all the clinics there, that’s a big deal. But they’re shutting down even a lot of the big states like Texas, even though they’ve been fighting here. As Tim pointed out, they’re fighting in a lot of states to keep really these Trigger Laws from going into effect. But they’re steadily losing those cases and those states are starting to lose their abortion clinics. So it is a good trend for sure.

Rick:

Good news. Alright, David. Well, where do you want to take us next for some good news?

David:

Going back to federal court again and Biden administration again, and this time it deals with COVID vaccinations. We have talked throughout the last year, year and a half about how the Biden administration is really literally persecuting people for their religious beliefs if they have religious beliefs that do not comport with what Biden wants the policy to be. And this deals particularly with the guys in the military. And we talked about the case with Navy SEALs, some of these guys, religious objections to that particular vaccine. It’s been that in all branch. It’s been that in the army. It’s been that in the Air Force. Been that in Marines.

All the branches have had individuals who have religious objections for several reasons. One is this is not a normal vaccination. It’s really messing with your body and change your body up. Two, it’s really untested, there’s so many side effects. And so there’s just a lot of reasons. And what has happened is the Air Force has been maybe the worst of all the branches in not granting religious exemptions.

There’s about 12,000 Air Force members that those Air Force members, service men and women, they sought a religious exemption and they had to get the approval of their chaplain to do so. So the chaplain actually verifies these guys aren’t just objecting to the vaccine, there are genuine religious objections to the vaccine. Now the courts have already given a conscience objection outside of religious conscience. That’s why you can be an objector to war, or conscientious objector. You don’t have to be religious. You can be an atheist conscientious objector and get protection, not be sent to war.

So there’s already protection out there for conscientious objector. And then when you come to religious conscientious objection, you really get more protection because the Constitution guarantees protection for your exercise of religion. You get to follow the dictates of conscience.

That’s something the Founding Fathers talked about as the basis of the First Amendment is you have to follow the dictates of your conscience. And so when your conscience is really clear, it’s between you and God, it’s clear, you’ve got to protect that. Well, the Air Force has said no. I think they’ve granted 14 exemptions out of 12,000, even though the 12,000 have chaplains that have signed off that these are genuine religious exemptions.

And so back in February, 18 Air Force members from various bases across the United States filed a federal lawsuit and it’s made it in the courts. And the courts have said, no, no, no, Biden administration, you cannot ignore religious objections. And actually, the documentation is very clear that the Biden administration has specifically said and it’s in the documentation in the court case, they’ve said, no, if you have a religious objection, then you’re out. You’re out of the Air Force.

And so a lot of these people have had their final dates given to them. I talked to a lady whose Air Force vet, was officer high up and she has lost all of her benefits because she refused to take the injection, the vaccination. She’s taken all sorts of other injections, but not this one and for religious reasons. And so she’s now out. She’s been retired out. And there’s so many folks in all the branches that have been thrown out over this vaccine thing. And now we’re seeing more evidence and I saw a report just yesterday medically that it appears the people who are getting the most COVID cases right now or those who were vaccinated, not the unvaccinated. And the unvaccinated have much higher resistance to COVID now and those that that have COVID, and they’ve got all sorts of other things that they’re finding that are all these unintended consequences.

So it’s looking like that even the medical side of this is rapidly falling apart. But nonetheless, talking to members of Congress, what do you do for people who have 17, 18, 19 years in the military, they’re vested at 20 years and they’re being thrown out and they lose all their benefits, they lose all their time, they lose all the services they’ve put in because they refuse to take a vaccination?

So there’s even talk in Congress, maybe we can come in with something that gives these guys back. Well, do you want to go back in the military after you’ve been out for two years? You know, maybe you go back in, but that’s a hard thing to go back in. So there’s just a lot of problems. But nonetheless, the good news is that the federal courts have stepped in and said, Biden, as much as you don’t like following the protection for religious conscience, you’ve got to do it. And so we’ll see where this goes. They’re going to have more hearings on this as it goes along.

But for the time being and the federal courts said, by the way, we’re going to make this a class action suit. We’re not doing it just for the 18 Air Force members who filed suit. We’re doing it for all 12,000 who are being terminated right now on religious objection. So they’ve made this a class action suit, which represented the whole class of those in the Air Force who don’t want to get the injection for religious reasons. And so that’s good news that we’re starting. This really as a religious freedom case as much as anything. Now, it’s also an overreach case with the federal government. It’s also a mandate. It’s also not following the science which they claim they love to do. I mean, there’s a lot of things here. But to see this upheld on religious conscientious objection is a really, really important thing.

Rick:

It’s a big one, David, because this purge of the military is bad for our national security, it’s bad for our readiness, all of those things. And to have that many of the Air Force that could potentially be just kicked out and hopefully this case will lead the way for the other branches as well. But especially at this point where the science is and we know about the vaccine, what we know about the virus and all of those things, it’s just crazy that the Biden administration is still pushing this on the military. So thankfully, you’ve got a lot of great attorneys out there that are fighting these cases for these members of the military. And we sure appreciate them standing up for the folks that are willing to stand up for us. Tim, have you got a quick one we can close out with today?

Tim:

I do. This one is actually coming from up in Michigan and dealing with a pretty significant individual coach, Jim Harbaugh from the Michigan Wolverines, he was the headliner of a pro-life fundraiser. The fundraiser raised $144,000 and took some headlines. A couple of noted things from the speech he gave. He said “To me, the right choice is to have the courage to let the unborn be born. I believe in having the courage to let unborn be born. I thought, you know, it’s interesting that you do have someone who already takes a lot of heat as a coach. You know, can he win the big one? There’s a lot of things surrounding him, some of the rivalries, whether it be with Ohio State, a lot of stuff. Because as all of us are kind of sports people, sports fans over the years, that’s decreased a little bit because of the wokeness in some of the sports.

It’s always refreshing when we see coaches that are outspoken about their faith, that are leaders, they’re students. And he was even asked, you know, what do you think about recruiting? Is this going to be a problem? And Mr. Harbaugh said, hey, we’re not worried about being canceled because we’re being pro-life. It is great to see people that are standing for the right values with courage, not afraid of being canceled, for doing the right thing. And as we mentioned, raising $144,000 for prolife charities and programs in Michigan is a really encouraging thing. So congratulations, good work to Coach Harbaugh for what he’s doing to help make a difference, standing up for values and then even identifying that people need to have the courage to let the unborn be born. It’s a great thought.

David:

And let me add to that, Tim and Rick, something else that I’ve been talking with legislators about. Like here in Texas, we expect to have 50,000 more births next year than we did this year because 50,000 abortions what we normally have in a year. And so as you bring 50,000 more young people into the world, these babies in the world, and a lot of them are unwanted by mothers and they want to get rid of them because they were willing to kill them, and so raising money for prolife causes now means, hey, you know what, we need to step up and help with adoption and help, there’s a lot of costs that go with that. There’s a lot of care needed for these. People need to say I’m willing to take a kid into my home and raise a kid. I want this life saved.

So we’ve been prolife. Now we need to step up on the other side and part of that’s going to involve giving money to prolife groups, but also to adoption groups and family groups and others, because there’s going to be a lot more need going forward as we save these lives.

Rick:

Alright, folks, we are out of time. That’s all the good news we’re going to get for this particular program, but there is more at our website right now at wallbuilderslive.com. So check that out today and then be sure and share the program with your friends and family as well. Make it possible for them to get some good news.

You know, we’re living at a time where frankly just seems like bad news all around us. It’s the economy. It’s the energy. People can’t even afford to fill up their truck or their car because gas is out of control. Thanks to the policies of this administration. Just all kinds of crazy things happening. And so there’s people in your life that they need some good news, they’re only hearing the bad. Well, you’ve been given the light of the world, man. Share some biblical worldview with them. Share some godly perspective with them. And share some good news of what’s actually happening right now on the ground all over the country. So all those good news stories that we share today, you’ve got friends and family that would love to hear those things.

So be sure to go to wallbuilderslive.com today, make a donation so we can reach more people through our stations and other things that we’re doing. But also just take links to the program and share it with your friends and family. Put it out there on your social media, it’ll give more people a chance to hear this good news, to be encouraged, and to help us save this constitutional republic. Thanks for listening to WallBuilders Live.