Dismemberment Abortion Ban-New Study Shows What Unborn Babies Can Do In The Womb: Good News Friday today on WallBuilders Live!  In this episode, we discuss things such as, Texas bill banning dismemberment abortions, new study that proves life inside the womb, statistics on voters defending our historic statues, Starbucks, and so much more, right here on WallBuilders Live.

Air Date: 09/01/2017

Guests: 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.  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:

You found your way to the intersection of faith and the culture, this is WallBuilders Live! Thanks for joining us today, where we”€™re talking about today”€™s hottest topics on policy, faith, and the culture, all of it from a Biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective.

All three of those here with David Barton, America’s premier historian and Tim Barton, national speaker, pastor, and president of WallBuilders, and my name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas state representative, national speaker, and author.

Thank you for joining us on Friday. Why is Friday important? Because it’s Good News Friday. We love doing good news Fridays, it’s a chance for you to hear about some good news you probably haven’t heard from a major media outlets.

David and Tim Barton collect all these great stories of good news from across the country and around the world and share them with us every Friday. So if you want to go to our Web site today, WallBuilders.com  is our main Web site, you can get all kinds of great resources.  WallBuildersLive.com is the radio site, you can get archives of the program as well as much. As you’re going to enjoy today and all this good news you’re going to want even more, so go to the Website, you can check out some of those past Friday programs. David, Tim, I’m looking forward to some good news today. David, I think you’re up first.

Good News For Starbucks Drinkers

David:

I’m starting with something that’s probably good news for you. It’s not so much good news for me, I’m not old enough to drink coffee, yet. But for coffee drinkers like you, this is probably good.

Rick:

You mean coffee addicts like me?

David:

There you go, coffee addicts like you. If you ever need an intervention let me know, I can help you with that, I have people I can call. Now, I can drink hot chocolate long time, all day long, but now, I’m just not into coffee.

Starbucks was one that went on my list a couple of years back. If you remember the situation one of the guys who’s a friend was a stockholder with Starbucks and at the meeting, he stood up and asked the guy, “€œLook, why are you taking such an adamant position in favor of same sex marriage? Why don’t you just leave it neutral? For the company’s sake?”€ Their CEO, Howard Schultz said, “€œNo way. We’re going to take the profits we make and poor it back into overturning traditional marriage.”€

Rick:

In fact, didn”€™t he say something like,  “If you don’t like that, take your money and invest elsewhere.”?

David:

Yeah, he did.

Rick:

Something to that effect. I can”€™t remember exactly how he put it but he basically said to all of us that actually used to really enjoy drinking coffee at Starbucks, “€œGo take your money elsewhere.”€ Which a lot of us did.

David:

And we did. I did. I would go through the airports and often stop at Starbucks and get hot chocolate, but I didn’t anymore. Then our legislative conference was at a hotel that had Starbucks catering the hotel and we asked them, “€œHey, can you get somebody else?”€ And they went out and got an outside caterer, so we didn’t do anything with Starbucks. “€œYou’re not taking my money to overturn marriage is a man or woman. It’s just not the deal.”€

So they continue and Schultz does all this liberal left stuff and continues to move full throttle on the thing. Then December 2015 he said, “€œWe’re not putting Merry Christmas on our coffee cups.”€ At that point, Trump said, “€œWe”€™ll boycott them. I’ve got them in Trump Towers and we’re not going to be doing that anymore. If they won’t acknowledge Christmas we’re not going to have them.”€

So all this stuff has been going, and lo and behold, in the meantime, Starbucks has dropped 24% in value. So they have had quarter, after quarter, after quarter, of losses after having been the top of the mountain, the king of the mountain for so long. Five straight quarters of declining sales with Starbucks.

So they have now chased off their CEO, they have a new guy in, and guess what his message is? Conservatives come back. We’ve got a place for you here at Starbucks. Matter of fact, they’ve gone out and hired 10,000 veterans to come in. Which is a whole turn from where they had been.

So they want conservatives and they’re really catering to conservatives. Good for them. They can have my business again. If they’re not going to use it to push the left kind of stuff than that I’m happy to come back.

That’s good news because it says that there are still enough people in America that support traditional values, that are pro-military, that are pro, “€œMerry Christmas,”€ that are pro-traditional marriage, that if you’re going to go after those folks it’s going to hurt you if you do, and Starbucks just proved that.

Rick:

This is really good news for coffee drinkers like myself.

David:

You can go to Starbucks now.

Rick:

Yeah. I don’t have to look just look for caribou, or Pete’s Coffee, or all the others that are a lot harder to find because it seems like there’s a Starbucks on not just every corner but at least two out of the four corners of almost every street.

David:

And they were growing so rapidly. But I’ve noticed over the last year in going through airports that so many airports have Starbucks the lines were getting shorter and shorter at Starbucks. I thought, “€œWell, maybe just the time of the day.”€ I had no clue that they had been losing for five straight quarters, because that”€™s just not made the news. But now it’s made the news because they’ve got a new CEO.

Rick:

Tim, you want to get one in before the break or should we head to break?

Tim:

This might take a little longer than we have before we take a break so why don’t we take it and I’ll give it on the side of the break?

Rick:

Alright, we”€™ll be right back, folks. More good news here on WallBuilders Live, stay with us.

American History

This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. Many today wrongly claim that our Founding Fathers were largely atheists, agnostics, and deist.

Certainly, some Founders were less religious than others, but even they were not irreligious. Consider Benjamin Franklin, definitely one of the least religious among them, yet, when the delegates at the Constitutional Convention hit an impasse in their deliberations it was Franklin who called them to prayer, invoking numerous scriptures to make his point.

As he reminded them, “€œGod governs in the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured in the sacred writings that, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this.”€

So, even the least religious of America’s Founders urged public prayer in dependence on God. For more information about the faith of the Founding Fathers go to WallBuilders.com.

Texas Bill- Dismemberment Abortion Ban

Rick:

Thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Good Friday today. Tim Barton was just about to share us a little bit of good news when we had to take a break. Tim, you’re up.

Tim:

I have an article from- a piece of legislation that came through Texas, it’s SB8 but it happened a little earlier in the year and we didn”€™t have a chance to get to it. But it’s worth mentioning because this is a bill banning dismemberment abortions from any abortion clinic in Texas.

We”€™re, of course, trying to close down abortion clinics all over the U.S. and Texas. We have a lot of state elected officials that have taken a position, “€œLook, abortions, you are taking a life. The Founding Fathers, Declaration, the whole point of government is to protect those and inalienable rights. The first one is the right to life, the right to actually exist and be alive.”€

This is something even our lieutenant governor Dan Patrick, it’s been a priority for him. He’s talked about all year what we want to do to limit it to eliminate funding for abortion.

Well, this is something that the House and Senate really went back and forth trying to figure out what’s the best way, the strongest language, to protect these unborn children. Obviously, we didn’t get everything we wanted in the midst of this, but it’s still really good news that we’re at least going the right direction. It passed from the Senate 22 to nine, that’s after it already came out of the House with the amendments. Then Governor Abbott signs it into law.

It really dealt with two procedures, dismemberment and partial birth abortion. Part of these amendments they put in was to make sure it covered every possible aspect. So they couldn’t say, “€œWell, actually, we’re not really dismembering we’re using in a vacuum.”€ Or whatever the case is, they try to cover every detail.

What’s interesting, in the midst of this, one of the things written about this bill is it was to ensure the bodies of unborn babies, who are aborted, are treated with dignity after they’ve been murdered, treated with dignity, by requiring that they be cremated or buried.

So they’re again saying that you don’t want them taking and selling these parts for profit or whatever that situation might be. As I read this, I thought, “€œWait a second, saying that we’re going to treat their bodies with dignity after we’ve euthanized them, I’m not really sure that you can consider that treating them with dignity at that point.”€

To me, it was almost like a German saying, “€œHey, we’re going to treat the Jews with dignity after we kill them or burn them.”€ No, you’re not treating them with dignity when you do that. Nonetheless, they are making sure that there cannot be the dismemberment and the selling of those babies.

Really, overall, it’s good news because it”€™s a step in the right direction. So often we look for a total victory, “€œUntil we’ve ended abortion we’re not going to celebrate.”€ No, we’re going to celebrate that we’re taking a step in the right direction.

We are at a place in Texas where, “€œHey, we’re not going to do dismemberment and partial birth abortions anymore. We’re not going to allow human bodies, those unborn children that were aborted, if they’ve been taken out of mother’s womb, you cannot dismember them and sell those parts for profit.”€ So it is really good steps in the right direction done by Texas earlier this year. It”€™s one more piece of a positive thing for the pro-life movement coming here from Texas.

Legislators Want To Vote Pro-Life To Get Re-elected

Rick:

It seems like it’s changed so much from, if you are pro-life, you had all the consultants telling you not to talk about it and that sort of thing. Now, even like you’re talking about with this partial victory, we’d love to get rid of abortion completely, but any victory in the right direction.

It’s almost like legislators these days, and certain states like Texas, are falling all over themselves to be a part of something that can even be labeled pro-life. Which is a great indication of where the people are on this, even if the legislators haven’t gotten all the way there. At least they recognize, “€œHey, you better be pro-life if you want to get re-elected.”€

David:

We haven’t seen the numbers from this year, but we recall the last three years we’ve set records. The number of pro-life pieces of legislation that were passed each year, What was it? Like 85 or 69 or whatever it was, pieces of legislation. We talked about, that”€™s like almost 200 pieces of legislation that passed in the last three years or so. What else can you find to legislate about pro-life?

They keep doing it, they keep finding ways to whittle this down, death by a thousand cuts. That’s probably not the right metaphor to use with abortion, but at least they’re whittling away at this thing making it less likely and harder to occur which is really good.

Tim:

One of the things too, as we look at the positive momentum for the pro-life movement, we have this next generation coming up as the most pro-life generation ever. Science and technology has done so much for.

Actually, I have more good news after we have another break. But it’s one of those scientific advancements, technological advancements, that shows us something that unborn babies are capable of doing. As you start seeing the science, as we’re discovering more, and more, it’s really transforming the next generation to go, “€œWait a second, you can’t make a claim anymore that this is just tissue. This is not just a fetus. No, this is an actual person. It just hasn’t been born yet, but this is a living individual, human being.”€ So science and technology really helped take us to that place where it really is changing the narrative.

Rick, you’re right, these legislators are going, “€œWait, no, I support science and technology. I support these things.”€ And it really is cool to see that pendulum swung back in the direction of now we have more legislators that are pro-life advocates than those who are falling into this trap, “€œNo, it’s the woman’s body, it’s her choice if she wants to kill her baby or not.”€ They’re really not there anymore. So it is really good news to see the momentum going the other direction now.

Rick:

More good news for you when we come back. Stay with us, you’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

Constitution Alive

Have you ever wanted to learn more about the United States Constitution but just felt like, man, the classes are boring or it’s just that old language from 200 years ago or I don’t know where to start? People want to know. But it gets frustrating because you don’t know where to look for truth about the Constitution either.

Well, we’ve got a special program for you available now called Constitution Alive with David Barton and Rick Green. It’s actually a teaching done on the Constitution at Independence Hall in the very room where the Constitution was framed. We take you both to Philadelphia, the Cradle of Liberty and Independence Hall and to the WallBuilders”€™ library where David Barton brings the history to life to teach the original intent of our Founding Fathers.

We call it the QuickStart guide to the Constitution because in just a few hours through these videos you will learn the Citizen’s Guide to America’s Constitution.  You’ll learn what you need to do to help save our Constitutional Republic. It’s fun! It’s entertaining! And it’s going to inspire you to do your part to preserve freedom for future generations. It’s called Constitution Alive with David Barton and Rick Green. You can find out more information on our website now at WallBuilders.com.

A New Pro-Life Study

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live, Good News Friday today. By the way, if you’re enjoying these good news items, you can get more of that at our Website today at WallBuildersLive.com, just click on that archive section and go back to some of those previous Friday programs. Tim, I think you were going to go back to another life issue or are we going over to David, which one?

Tim:

I have a life issue ready so I can jump into this just because I’ve kind of set it up before the last break.

Rick:

Go for it.

Tim:

One of the things that is very interesting, there was a British study done in Lancaster University in England. USA Today actually reported on it, that’s how some light was shed on the subject, so to speak. It was about the capability of unborn babies.

If we just said, “€œWhat are the capabilities of unborn babies?”€ I”€™d have no idea what we’re talking about or where this is going. In fact, I would love to know if you guys can come up with anything, I couldn’t. So if someone said, “€œWe have a study on the capability of unborn babies, what do you think they’re talking about?”€

David:

I don’t think opera singer goes there, I haven’t heard much on that, I haven’t seen much of checker or chess playing.

Rick:

I have a new grandbaby, I’m the new granddad, I’ve got to jump in here. It’s the eye movement thing I bet. And when can they follow your voice or the little things that dance around above them in the in the baby bed. Is that maybe what we’re talking about, no?

Tim:

You’re absolutely going the right direction. This is this is before they’re born, so this is unborn babies.

Rick:

Oh, it”€™s unborn.

Tim:

But you’re actually going the right direction.

What Babies Can Do Still In The Womb, Unborn

They discovered that if they took some light, and they would shine it into the mom’s uterus, and what they discovered is that if they align the lights to look like a face wherever they moved the lights, the baby followed, and to make it look like the shape of a face.

When they then made the lights look like something else, the baby would not follow it. But they said it could distinguish from inside the womb the shape of a face. So their report is that babies actually- this in the third trimester, so these are babies definitely on their way. Not born but they’re getting close to being born.

They’re able to track the faces of individuals as opposed to just objects. But when they were presented with an object that looked like the shape of a face they would actually, their body, their face, would track the face that is outside the womb. Their body inside the womb would turn to face wherever that face was and those lights.

So the study goes on, there are lots of details, so they wanted to make sure the light was bright enough that they could distinguish that there was a light but not so bright that they harm the babies, you know. I mean, all of this stuff they go into in this study.

But it’s just fascinating that in the midst of this, they said that what it appears is that babies are able to distinguish a face as opposed to other objects and know that a face is something that they want to track and observe and see what’s going on. As opposed to other objects.

Which is just fascinating because we’re talking about an unborn child that can distinguish a face, the appearance of a face, the outline of a face, from other things which again, is just astounding as we’re talking about an unborn baby.

Rick:

Wasn”€™t there are a time in a lot of the pro-life, whether it’s life, debate where people would talk about, “€œWell, if it has brain waves.”€ Or, “€œIf it’s cognizant.”€ So that’s what this really answers, at least at that point in the in the gestation of the baby. The third trimester. I mean, no question, there’s brain activity there if they can tell that.

David:

That’s why this year they’re raising the standard again. Because if you look particularly out of the schools in New England they’re raising the standard to where you have to be self-conscious, you have to have a conscious awareness of yourself, and be able to take care of yourself.

So that’s why you’re having a number of voices in the New England area and academia there say, “€œListen, abortions post-birth, taking the life of a child up to nine to 12 months of age is fine because they still don”€™t have a real conscious awareness of themselves.  They can’t take care of themselves, so they’re really not babies.”€  They keep raising the bar and moving the standard to be able to keep doing abortions even later and later as part of the nonsense of it.

Tim:

Guys, one of the things that a psychologist from Lancaster University, Vincent Reed who was part of the study, he says, “€œWe’ve shown the fetus can distinguish between different shapes, preferring to track faces over non-face like shapes.”€

Now, he’s saying that once they’re born, we already know that when they’re born they tend to be more enthralled with the faces of people as opposed to non-face- well, not non-face, I don”€™t know anyone walking around without a face. I mean objects that are not face-shape.

Rick:

Some of those baby entertaining things in the crib, they are pretty spooky. They used to be the black and white clown look at things. I figured my kids in those days, 20 years ago, are probably going to be freaked out by these things. So, after they’re born we’ll let them have the non-famous people.

Rick:

So what he says in the midst of this is, “€œWe knew once they’re born the preference was that they are drawn to the face of individuals. It’s a face like object that they’re drawn to. Although this has been recognized in babies for many decades, until now, exploring fetal vision has not been attempted.

So, this is the first time we’ve ever thought, “€œHey, I wonder if they’re enthralled by a face like object inside the womb as opposed just once they’re born.”€ So it”€™s the first time it’s ever been attempted. He’s saying that we found evidence that says they are attracted to a face like object.

They want to track the face, so, again. Just really cool stuff seeing God’s design and development. Already an unborn baby inside the mother’s womb. So just a really cool piece of information here in this Good News Friday.

Rick:

Of course, that’s a visual thing we’ve known for years, how much auditorily they can pick up on music, and they recognize the voices of the parents and all of those different things. This just adds to that brain activity that we know is happening even inside the womb. Good stuff, quick break, we’ll be right back with more good news. Stay with us, you’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

Biographical Sketches

Hi, friends! This is Tim Barton of WallBuilders.This is a time when most Americans don’t know much about American history or even heroes of the faith. I know, often times as parents, we”€™re trying to find good content for our kids to read.

If you remember back in the Bible, the Book of Hebrews it has the Faith Hall of Fame, where they outlined the leaders of faith that had gone before them. Well, this is something that as Americans we really want to go back and outline some of these heroes not just of American history, but heroes of Christianity and our faith as well.

I wanted to let you know about some biographical sketches we have available on our website. One is called, “€œThe Courageous Leaders Collection“€ and this collection includes people like Abigail Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Francis Scott Key, George Washington Carver, Susanna Wesley, even the Wright brothers.

There’s a second collection called, “€œHeroes of History“€ in this collection you read about people like Benjamin Franklin, Christopher Columbus, Daniel Boone, George Washington, Harriet Tubman, the list goes on and on.

This is a great collection for your young person to have and read. And it’s a providential view of American and Christian history. This is available at WallBuilders.com.

What Percentage Of Americans Want To Take Down Historic Statues

Rick:

Thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live Good news Friday today. One more segment of Good News with this particular program. David, I think you’re up with some good news.

David:

We’re going to talk about taking down statues. That is certainly dominated the news lately. Now you’ve got universities even here in Texas- I used to think we had a little courage in Texas, apparently, The University of Texas doesn’t. They go out and take down their statues in the middle of the night so that nobody sees rather than just standing and saying what’s right and wrong, they kind of let the inmates run the asylum there, so to speak.

So with all the statues coming down, there’s now the push to get Washington and Jefferson off Mt. Rushmore and get the statues gone. The University of Virginia just had a vandalism of the statue of Jefferson there.

Tim:

Let me point out, when President Trump tweeted that, everybody thought, “€œOk, this is just one of his ridiculous tweets where he’s saying something that will never happen. He’s going to a place nobody’s ever going to go. Nobody thinks that.”€ And all of a sudden what should have been a ridiculous tweet is no longer ridiculous because people actually are going after Jefferson and Washington.

David:

They want their statues down. Again, Mt. Rushmore. So, national polling. What percent of Americans want the statues of Washington Jefferson taken out of public places and their statues taken down?

Tim:

I know the majority of Americans do not because they are so fed up with this nonsense. There certainly is a faction, I’m going to say it’s got to be, the people that want to see Washington and Jefferson remain, it’s got to be up to 70 or 80 percent, I would guess.

Rick:

I’d go with that too. At least in the 75 percent range.

David:

So 25-30 percent want it down?

Tim:

There’s probably some undecided. I’d say there’s probably 15 to 20 percent that are in favor of taking it down.

Rick:

And this is specific to those two guys?  That means more people would say, “€œYeah, I want to get rid of Confederate, whatever.”€

David:

No, this is the actual Founding Fathers. This is just Washington and Jefferson.

Rick:

I would hope that’s a low number.

Tim:

Let me ask this, are those two guys lumped together?

David:

Yup.

Tim:

Because Jefferson has been villainized so much longer. But Washington is not really that villainized, so I’m going to say probably if Washington’s included, that’s going to be a very low number.

David:

It”€™s 7 percent who want”€™s the statues down. How about the face off Mount Rushmore?

Tim:

That’s got to be low, to0.

David:

That”€™s 6 percent. How about taking down Confederate statues?

Tim:

That one I would think is a little higher, but still probably not real high, maybe 20-30 percent?

David:

It”€™s 19 percent.

Rick:

Media makes you think it’s half the country or three-fourths of the country.

David:

Yeah, the media makes you think it is. Young people, obviously, those that are millennial kind of folks, they’re going to be different on all of this. But in general, not millennials, the whole nation. What percent think that you should leave the past up, not take it down so that you can learn from the past, even the bad of the past?

Tim:

I”€™m going to think that’s higher than 70 percent, that’s a vast majority.

David:

It”€™s 90 percent. Ninety percent think you should leave those things up and that you learn from the past.

Rick:

Even more common sense than I thought.

David:

Exactly right. Now, where are young people in all this?

Tim:

That would not be scored as highly, I would think.

Rick:

Sitting in a classroom on a typical college campus in America, if that’s the ones we’re polling, maybe reverse the numbers. I mean, it might be that bad.

David:

Actually, 80 percent of young people support keeping Washington and Jefferson up, and Mount Rushmore up, and statues up.

Rick:

Really?

David:

Yep. There is not a single demographic group in America that think you should erase statues of the past if they’ve done something wrong.

Rick:

Except for CNN reporters. If we were polling specifically.

David:

That’s right. Or university presidents.

Rick:

That was really shocking though, it’s shocking. David.

David:

That is that is shocking. I mean, 90 percent, 93 percent, 94 percent, 80 percent for young people. That’s unbelievably good news. You watch the nonsense going on with the tearing down the statue and what the media focuses on and you would think we’re a highly polarized nation. Polling does not show we’re polarized just the media shows we’re polarized.  

Rick:

David, that’s good news for the Democrat Party. Because if we go the other way they have to get rid of all of their heroes, all their Democrat leaders are the ones that were the Jim Crow Laws, all of those things.

David:

Every statue that has been taken down so far has been of a leading Democrat. Every one of those Confederate statues was a Democrat leader. And I’ll guarantee you nine out of 10 Democrats don’t know they’re taking down Democrats statues.

Rick:

I never thought we’d say on Good News Friday, “€œGood News for Democrats.”€ It feels weird. I wonder if we should edit this, maybe we should cut off the end of this program. No, we’ll just end it right here. Thanks for listening folks, it’s been Good News today.  There’s a lot of good news on our Website right now WallBuildersLive.com. Click on those archives and you go back and listen to some of those archives of the past Friday programs. You’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live.