Democrats Pander To Atheists “€“ With Pastor Robert Jeffress: Does the Constitution guarantee freedom from religion or freedom of religion? Tune in as we discover the importance of knowing the truth on this matter, “tolerance,” and more!

Air Date: 11/26/19

Guest: Robert Jeffress

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, WallBuilders Live where we talk about today’s hottest topics on policy, faith, the culture always from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. My name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas Legislature and I am here with America’s premier historian, David Barton, he’s founder of WallBuilders. And Tim Barton is with us, he’s president of WallBuilders, Tim is a national speaker and pastor.

And the three of us love the opportunity to take the hot issues of the day and look at them from that biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. But we also love it when you take that conversation and share it with your friends and family, you help to spread this good news. It helps to equip and inspire people to be a part of the solution, to be good citizens, to be biblical citizens that are restoring America’s constitutional republic.

So thanks for being a part of that check things out at wallbuilderslive.com and get archives of the program from the last few months. Most importantly, at that website, you can make that one time or monthly donation, it makes it possible for us to do this. So we appreciate all of you out there that our listeners who support the program. Check it all out at wallbuilderslive.com.

Okay, guys later in the program, our good friend, pastor Robert Jeffress will be with us. I don’t know if you all saw the Democrat debate. I’m sure you all sit around anxiously watching every Democrat debate, right?

Tim:

No, no, I don”€™t”€¦

David:

Did you hear the sound of crickets on that, Rick?

Freedom From Religion Foundation”€™s Ad

Rick:

I did. I did. Well, apparently during the cricket chirping of the Democrat debate, there was some ad played by a Freedom From Religion Foundation and it had Ronald, not Ronald Reagan, let’s make sure we’re really clear on which Reagan, but had Ron Reagan on it. Did you guys see this?

Tim:

I did see several articles after the fact that we’re talking about this. Certainly, in the viral effect they came of Ronald Reagan and you know, I mean, you mentioned it, it was done by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, so you already know it’s going to be attacking religion and he comes out and really promotes atheism. And this is something that because, first of all, I thought it was a little ironic that they’re showing these Democrats, if you’re trying to sway somebody, the Republicans are the ones who love Ronald Reagan.

So if you’re trying to sway somebody, why don’t you show the Republicans, hey, here’s one of your favorite people’s sons talking about how dumb it is to be a Christian or whatever the case is, I’m pretty sure Democrats are already on your side on that one. Nonetheless, it was something that certainly caught the attention of a lot of people because one of the things that is often pointed to with Ronald Reagan like President Trump, he’s been someone that, Ronald Reagan was somebody that definitely promoted America and had several moments where he acknowledged God in some pretty significant ways in his speeches.

Anti-Religion, Anti-Christian

David:

Yeah, and the other thing, Tim, in addition to why would you choose Ronald Reagan at the democratic debate is why would you choose atheism? Because the Democrats literally have a Congressional atheist caucus. That is part of their official Democrat Party. So this is a party that is particularly appreciative of non-religion, anti-religion, anti-Christian as they made clear from their national proclamation recently that they’re thrilled that their new biggest religious constituency is the non-religious and atheist. It doesn’t make much of a marketing sense, but they got exactly what they wanted, that was a lot of viral noise often.

So it’s like articles that we read, people look and are saying, wow, Ron Reagan is an atheist! And that’s where a lot of this noise comes from, is from seeing that the after effect of debate, not actually that a lot of people did not see the debate, it”€™s not been highly viewed, it has not been something that’s competed with a lot of the other programs out there. So a lot of people would not have seen it, but they did see the viral effect of it after debate.

Rick:

Well, since we’re going to have a guest on to talk about or response to this and we’re going to discuss it to the rest of the day. Well, we”€™re going to play the clip; so, I want to set this up correctly and make sure we let everybody know we’re not promoting what Ron Jr. is saying in this ad. We just want you to be aware of what has been said nationally, what the effort is here, why we’re responding to it, and why the promotion of atheism over expression of faith is actually a dangerous thing for our country.

Here”€™s the Clip

So let’s play the clip, here’s Ron Reagan in a 30-second ad paid for and promoted by the Freedom From Religion Foundation played during the Democrat debate.

Ad Clip:

Hi, I’m Ron Reagan, an unabashed atheist and I’m alarmed by the intrusions of religion into our secular government. That’s why I’m asking you to support the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the nation’s largest and the most effective association of atheists and agnostics working to keep state and church separate just like our founding fathers intended. Please support the Freedom From Religion Foundation. Ron Reagan, lifelong atheist, not afraid of burning in hell.

Rick:

So that was Ron Reagan you were just listening to, that’s the son of President Ronald Reagan. He’s always been, you know, liberal and very outspoken against religion and definitely not like his father on those positions. But, you know, for the Democrats on the left and certain people like Freedom From Religion Foundation, they see that as a good tool because they’re, you know, thinking they can use the Ronald Reagan name to say atheism is a good thing.

David:

Yeah, they are but it’s not where the nation is. I saw some stats recently that over the last 30 or so years, atheism in America has only increased by 1%. But there are I would say, it’s not atheism is growing, it’s anti Christianity that’s really becoming strong. And so there’s a lot of people who are not necessarily atheist, but they’ve been taught that Christians are really, really bad. And so this is part of Freedom From Religion Foundation, this is part of their mantra and they can use this kind of a piece to appeal to those that are religion hostile.

The Nones

And that’s why the group largest growing religious group in the nation are those that are called the nuns, you know, “€˜Nones”€™, not the nuns, not Catholic nuns but the nuns who have no religious affiliation. And so they are actively courting that group and that’s why they would do this at the democratic debate because that’s where they think these people will be watching. So to this day the greatest indicator of whether someone will vote Democrat, a Republican in a presidential election is how often they attend church. The less often they attend church, the more likely they are to vote Democrat; the more often they attend church, the more likely they are to vote Republican. So it makes perfect sense for their demographics they would use an ad like this, but this still is not reflective of where America is overall. That’s not where the heart, soul, culture of America is, it’s a growing constituency but it’s still a very small constituency.

So I thought, you know, a good person to kind of address, this is a person who is very articulate on the other side and has now a lot of national following prestige and coverage and you see him on all sorts of national talk shows, is pastor Robert Jeffress from First Baptist in Dallas. He’s on the president Trump”€™s Religious Advisory Council, we were recently with him in Washington DC when he went to meet with President Trump. So he’s a great spokesmen, we’ll have a great perspective on what he do with the President’s son, Ron Reagan who comes out as an atheist and how this is being used nationally to kind of pander to that anti-Christian side of the nation.

Rick:

Stay with us, folks, pastor Robert Jeffress when we return.

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.

The Integration of Faith and Politics

Rick:

Welcome back, thanks for staying with us on WallBuilders Live! Pastor Robert Jeffress from First Baptist Dallas, back with us once again always good to have you pastor, appreciate your time.

Robert:

Oh, great to be with you.

Rick:

Well, we had article come up and David said, hey, let’s get Rob around for this, he’d be great at this. Looked like Ron Reagan, not President Ronald Reagan, but Ron Reagan had an atheist ad that went viral again and during the Democrat debate and seems to be wildly popular with the Democrats. We were wondering what you thought of that trend and you know, what folks should think about that going into the election?

Robert:

Well, of course, this ad Ron Reagan complains about, the integration of faith with politics and I mean, let’s just get to it, but seculars absolutely hate God, they hate the idea of God being mixed in with any sphere of life. And the fact is this is sponsored by the Freedom From Religion Foundation and everything you need to know about that organization is found right in the title. They go around suing municipalities and school districts for any integration of faith in a school life or in city life and they threatened them with a lawsuit and the spineless City Council’s or School Boards are woeful under the threat of those kind of lawsuits.

And the truth is there is no Freedom From Religion promise in the First Amendment. There is nothing in the First Amendment that guarantees that people won’t be offended by the free exercise of faith by others.

The First Amendment

But what the First Amendment does is that we’re so clearly is there is a free exercise of religion, not just on the one hour that you spend on Sunday mornings in church, but in every area of life. And that’s what’s at the heart of this argument. Do we believe in the free exercise of faith or not as our forefathers promised?

 

Rick:

In fact, I guess you could say, pastor, you could not have a freedom of religion if you had a freedom from religion. I mean, if you were going to say, we’re going to protect you from being exposed to anything you disagree with, then the government would have to intrude and prevent people from living out their faith. So you couldn’t have both freedom of and freedom from religion.

Robert:

No, that’s exactly right. And look, I see all kind of messages every day, but then thing be on billboards on the side of a city buses, atheist advertise all the time, God is dead, Christmas is a hoax. Look, I may be offended by that, but I’ll be the first one to advocate for the right to display those false beliefs. But what they won’t do at the left will not extend that same courtesy to me. You know they cry, you got tolerance, tolerance, tolerance, but when it comes to ideas with which the Left disagrees, they were the most intolerant people of all.

The Intent of the Framers

Rick:

It’s really interesting when you hear the way Ron Reagan says the things he says in Freedom From Religion, they make it sound like people of faith are forcing religion on people, that we’re pushing our beliefs on people and making them be a part of what we’re doing. We’re definitely not doing that and yet that’s exactly what they’re doing with the religion of atheism. They’re literally forcing it on the community.

Robert:

Well, that’s right. And that’s why I’m so grateful for WallBuilders and what you all are doing to educate people about what the intent of the framers of the Constitution really were. I mean, so many Americans, you know the percentage believe that the phrase, separation of church and State is found in the Constitution. It’s not found in the First Amendment. It’s not found in any amendment. But you listen to most people’s belief about the founding of our country, they believe that the foundational belief on which this country was founded was that there was a strict separation from faith from any other area of life and nothing could be further from the truth as you and David have so well shown and documented through the years.

 

Rick:

You know, I was curious about your thoughts I saw in this article that we were sharing. At the end, it mentioned Freedom From Religion going after, you know, not liking this judge in Dallas that gave the Bible to the gal that had been convicted there, that former police officer. And of course, that scene, you know, went viral. People were amazed at the compassion and forgiveness from the brother.

A Bad Intrusion of Faith”€¦or Not?

I mean, all the things that happened in that trial. And to me that was a great testament to what faith can do to restore. What did you think when that happened? Did you see that as some kind of, you know, bad intrusion of faith into the end of the court system or any of the things that they’re claiming?

Robert:

Well, I can reveal something now that I did reveal during that entire trial of this police officer who accidentally shot a man, but she got confused and thought she was entering her own apartment. This policewoman started attending our church after the shooting and she had been attending for almost a year here. So we”€™ve been praying for her, I pray with her the day before the trial began and I’m telling you, she was so encouraged by what that judge did.

And to make it clear, the verdict had already been pronounced, the sentence had been pronounced and this Christian judge gotten down, stood down from her bench and is one human being to another. She gave her a Bible and opened it to John 3:16 and read it and said, this is where life begins. What a great testimony of faith that was.

Rick:

It’s so powerful in such an important part of, even the faith message. I mean from what I saw in you because you would know much more, actually knowing this lady, it’s a horrible, horrible situation. But the idea of restoration and I think even some of the language in the conversation was can God still use me or something to that effect.

A Powerful Message

And that’s what struck me, is that’s what we’re supposed to be doing with our neighbors and our friends and our family and those in prison. I mean, we’re even called to go to them, so I thought it was a really powerful message.

Robert:

Well, it was. And of course, the thing to let will always say, well, what about if the judge had handed her a Koran, she was Muslim and handed her a Koran? I would celebrate her right to do that as well. But this judge fortunately was a Christian who wanted to share a Christian message of hope.

Rick:

Well, pastor, we certainly appreciate your commentary and just your message across the country every time I catch you on a news program or something. I’m so thankful for God giving you that that favor and that voice out there and bringing that biblical application to our culture. We need it desperately and you do a great job of it. So God bless you and God bless First Baptist Church in Dallas, you all keep up the great work.

Robert:

Well, thank you and thank you for what you and David are doing to help educate our people without our freedoms, especially our first freedom, the freedom of faith.

Rick:

We’ll have him back soon, I’m sure, that’s doctor Robert Jeffress. Stay with us, folks, we ride back, David and Tim Barton.

 

Share a veteran’s story

We Want To Hear Your Vet Story

Rick:

Hey friends! If you have been listening to WallBuilders Live for very long at all, you know how much we respect our veterans and how appreciative we are of the sacrifice they make to make our freedoms possible. One of the ways that we love to honor those veterans is to tell their stories here on WallBuilders Live.  Once in awhile, we get an opportunity to interview veterans that have served on those front lines that have made incredible sacrifices have amazing stories that we want to share with the American people.

One of the very special things we get to do is interview World War II veterans. You’ve heard those interviews here on WallBuilders Live, from folks that were in the Band of Brothers, to folks like Edgar Harrell that survived the Indianapolis to so many other great stories you heard on WallBuilders Live.

You have friends and family that also served.  If you have World War II veterans in your family that you would like to have their story shared here on WallBuilders Live, please e-mail us at [email protected].  Give us a brief summary of the story and we’ll set up an interview. Thanks so much for sharing here on WallBuilders Live!

 

Thanks to Pastor Robert Jeffress 

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live. Thanks are staying with us and especially thanks to pastor Robert Jeffress, it”€™s always a joy having him on the program. We’re back with David and Tim now. And it really is ironic, you know, they act like we’re trying to force them not to, you know, speak out or whatever when actually they’re the ones that are trying to prevent people of faith from speaking. That’s the difference on these two sides here.

David:

I appreciate pastor Jeffress in his position because he said outspoken, he’s uncompromising, he’s very strong in his faith, very strong apologist for God, for Jesus Christ, of the Bible and yet he said I’ll be the first to support the free speech of atheist to criticize religion. They just don’t want extend to me that right, but I’m going to support that right. And when he said that, I was reminded of, I believe it’s Ezra Stiles who was president of Yale back in the best 1798, he said, you know, this is the amazing thing about America. Here, America is as a Christian nation, but we’re not exclusively Christians, we don’t demand that you be Christians. And here’s the quote I want to read it because it sounds to me like what Robert Jeffress just said, what pastor Jeffress is talking about.

Ezra Stiles says, “€œReligious liberty is particularly friendly to fair and generous questioning. Here in America, deism will have his full chance nor need those opposed to biblical morality more to complain of than being overcome by any weapon but the gentle, the powerful ones of argument and truth. The Bible will be found to stand the test to the 10th out this examination.”€

Free Speech

He said all atheist and all the deist after worry about being overcome by, is truth, an argument because that’s the only way we’re going to overcome them. We’re going to fight them, we’re going to put them in jail, we’re not going to discriminate against them, but we’re going to use reason and truth.

And that’s where pastor Jeffress is. I don’t care if they have the right of free speech, I’ll support the right of free speech. We want to go after truth in America, we’re going to have both sides that sound off unless you’re on the other side. And then we don’t want the religious side sounding off, we don’t want both sides being heard, we don’t want a fair discussion, we don’t want to overcome someone by reason and principle.

But yet that’s where America is a Christian nation historically has been and that’s where pastor Jeffress is today. And I thought, you know, that’s a that’s a really good statement of what even some of the most dedicated, most zealous Christians believe is we believe firmly in our faith but we don’t believe that we cut off other people another discussion when they have a different viewpoint, we bring that in free market and let truth went out, let people make a choice.

Tim:

But dad, back to one of the things that you started off, kind of comment on this segment with Dr. Jeffress acknowledging the rights of other people to say things that we would disagree with. I think this is one of the things that is also a cultural challenge in our nation is and, Rick, I mean you made the point, right?

If There is No Religion, Then”€¦

If there is no religion, there can be no freedom of religion and the freedom from religion actually effectively removes all religion. The reason we enjoy some of the freedoms we have today is because of Christianity and yet in the culture where everybody is so triggered so quickly, we are so intolerant, we get so angry so fast, we’re in a place where freedom can’t thrive very well or very long.

And the founding fathers understood so well the reason America can be free is because of the moral foundation America has and the moral foundation was built the principles of Christianity. When you remove the principles of Christianity, you removing the moral foundation, freedom does not work anymore. Which is why one of the kind of ironies of Ronald Reagan coming out speaking against Christianity is that his father whether or not, right, we’re going to say that Ronald Reagan was this devoted Christian and I understand there’s all kinds of thoughts and conflicts, whatever.

The point was maybe even a little bit like Donald Trump, right, but Reagan did not have a lifelong record of supporting Christianity, of living godly. But when he was president, there’s no doubt very much like a Donald Trump today, we would argue that God is using Donald Trump. God use Ronald Reagan to help America go a different direction and even moments when Ronald Reagan reminded Americans of who God was, Donald Trump is on the same thing helping people remember who God is, remember religious freedom.

But Ronald Reagan had some pretty pointed things to say about God and Christianity, certainly different than the position his son is taken.

President Reagan Quotes

Rick:

Well, in fact, let’s share some of those famous quotes from President Reagan, a kind of a compilation of some things that he said throughout his presidency and we’re going to play that clip right now.

 

CLIP

Someone asked me whether I was aware of all the people out there who were praying for the president? And I had to say, yes, I am. I’ve felt it, I believe in intercessionary prayer. But I couldn’t help, but say to that questioner after it. But sometimes when he was praying, he got a busy signal, it was just me in there ahead of him. I think I understand how Abraham Lincoln felt when he said, I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.

Now I realize it’s fashionable in some circles to believe that no one in government should encourage others to read the Bible. That we’re told it will violate the constitutional separation of church and State established by the founding fathers in the First Amendment. The First Amendment was not written to protect people and their laws from religious values, it was written to protect those values from government tyranny.

I’ve said that we must be cautious in claiming God is on our side. I think the real question we must answer is are we on his side? No matter where we live, we have a promise that can make all the difference, a promise from Jesus to soothe our sorrows, heal our hearts and drive away our fears. He promised there will never be a dark night that does not end, our weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning.

God”€™s Love

He promised if our hearts are true, his love will be assured as sunlight. And by dying for us, Jesus showed how far our love should be ready to go all the way. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life”€¦

Americans yearn to explore life’s deepest truths and to say their entertainment or their idea of entertainment is sex and violence and crime, is an insult to their goodness and intelligence. We are people who believe love can triumph over hate, creativity over destruction and hope over despair and that’s why so many millions hunger for God’s good news. I’ve always believed that we were each of us put here for a reason, now there is a plan, somehow a divine plan for all of us. I know now that whatever days are left to me belong to him. I also believe this blessed land was set apart in a very special way.

Our forebears came not for gold, but mainly in search of God and the freedom to worship in their own way. We’ve been a free people living under the law with faith in our maker and in our future. I’ve said before that the most sublime picture in American history is of George Washington on his knees in the snow at Valley Forge. That image personifies a people who know that it’s not enough to depend on our own courage and goodness, we must also seek help from God, our Father and preservative.

More Famous Reagan Quotes

We never find every answer, solve every problem or heal every wound, but we can do a lot if we walk together down that one path that we know provides real hope. Morality and values such faith implies are deeply embedded in our national character. Our country embraces those principles by design and we abandon them at our peril.

My experience in this office I hold is only deepened to belief I’ve held for many years. Within the covers of that single book are all the answers to all the problems that face us today if we’d only read and believe. And without God, democracy will not and cannot have long endure. If we ever forget that we’re one nation under God, then we will be a nation going under.

 

Rick:

That was President Ronald Reagan, so much wit and wisdom, so many things that we learned from the 40th president and you know, it’s good to have a reminder of what he said was most important, especially at a time when the Freedom From Religion Foundation of the Democrats are enjoying using his son Ron Reagan as an atheist to try to tear down those institutions that Washington said were most important. He said religion and morality were indispensable supports of political prosperity. So if you’re going to live in freedom, if you’re going to have the blessings of liberty, you got to have religion and morality.

There Is No Liberty Apart From Morality

And as you just heard from the words of President Ronald Reagan, he agreed that that was vitally, vitally important for us to remember that and for us to do the things it takes to keep religion and morality in the culture so that we can have liberty. You cannot have liberty without morality and you can’t have morality without religion. So these are vitally, vitally important concepts.

Special thanks to pastor Robert Jeffress for joining us today, always enjoy having him on the program. We especially appreciate you listening to the program today, participating in the program. By sharing it with others, you can do that on Facebook and Twitter and all the social media apps out there. You can go right there to wallBuilderslive.com and grab today’s program and share it on your various tools. But what that does is it gets this inspiration and this knowledge into the hands of more Americans so that they can do their part as citizens to defend these principles.

You know it takes that education, I think most people, they’re not going to take action until they’ve been inspired and they’re not going to get inspired if they aren’t first to entertain. You got to capture their attention and I think we do a pretty good job of that here at WallBuilders Live. But they got to be entertained a little bit, but they got to be educated and they got to learn something they didn’t know and then they got to be equipped to know that they can take these things and make a difference in the culture. That will inspire them and they will take action and you can be a part of doing that by sharing this program with others, by contributing to the program.

Democrats Pander To Atheists “€“ With Pastor Robert Jeffress

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