From The ProFamily Legislators Conference – The Real Pandemic Is Civic Ignorance: Today we bring you a special session from the ProFamily Legislators Conference, featuring our own Rick Green. There is no denying the seriousness of our situation as a nation Spiritually, Constitutionally, Economically, etc. Why have people so easily given up our precious rights? Tune in to hear why the real pandemic is civic ignorance.

Air Date: 01/05/2021

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. It’s WallBuilders Live, and we’re talking 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 legislator and America’s Constitution coach, normally here with David Barton, America’s premier historian and our founder at WallBuilders, and Tim Barton, national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders.

But today, we’re going to take you back out to the ProFamily Legislators Conference to share one of our presentations there, it just happens to be mine. Alright, so you got to listen to me more today. 

But anyway, it’s a one day program that we’re going to share with you. I gave a short talk with the legislators about basically what has happened over the last year, the constitutionality of quarantines and the unconstitutional actions of governors and how we need to respond as Americans and what we need to do to get our nation back on track and once again, become a republic and not these dictatorships that have taken place.

So we’re going to dive into that presentation here in just a second and then at the end of today’s program, just a quick update on some of the things that are still happening and an encouragement for what you can do, regardless of what happens at the Capitol tomorrow on January 6th at one o’clock when they open those ballots. So for now, let’s go to the ProFamily Legislators Conference for that presentation on “The Real Pandemic is Civic Ignorance”.

Rick Green at the ProFamily Legislators Conference

Good morning. This is going to be a little bit weird for me. Normally, those of you that know me, I’m one of these like, upbeat, optimistic, joyful, lots of joke speakers. These are not normal times, and besides, Tim Brooks took every Coronavirus joke ever told on the planet last night, so he didn’t leave me any. But I’m going to be maybe a little bit more realistic than normal.

On August 7th of this very bizarre year of 2020, my dad nearly died of COVID. You know, people were freaking out over President Trump’s oxygen level dropping down to 93, my dad was in the 70s, for weeks, 70s and 80s and battling back. He fought off this deadly disease. Thanks to Dr. Ivette Lozano right here in Dallas who got him on hydroxychloroquine and literally with my sister nursed him back to health. And I’m thankful to God that I can say that my dad says right now he feels better than he has in literally a decade. So I’m thankful for that.

Thank you. I start with that to say this. When the mask fanatics and the lockdown lords say to me, Rick, you’re not taking this virus seriously, I can say that I know firsthand how serious COVID is. I know that it’s deadly. But I’m also rational enough and I got just enough common sense, just barely enough, no extra, but just enough common sense to look at the data, to look at the facts, and see that it is only deadly serious for an extremely small percentage of our population.

And here’s the thing. We had all of that data, all of those facts, all of that science, that people like to say, therefore, all of the evidence, it was right in front of us all the way back to March. The Diamond Princess, the data coming out of other countries, all of it told us this thing is not even close to being on the level of a Spanish flu, or a smallpox. 

Spanish flu is 25 times more deadly than COVID. Smallpox is 300 times more deadly. And yet we have acted like Ebola has broken out across our country with a 50% kill ratio. This will go down in history as the worst public policy decisions ever.

We have thrown millions of people into poverty. We’ve given up our constitutional rights after our constitutional rights; we’ve seen them violated. We’ve dismantled our republican form of government and empower dictators and emperors in state after state all because there is a one 10th of 1% chance of dying. Now compare that to our ancestors. Compare that to the World War I generation. 

The Greatest Generation

They fought World War I at the exact same time they were dealing with Spanish Flu, 25 times more deadly, and polio, 1916 epidemic of polio in New York, and had vaccines for neither one, and they never once thought about giving up, never once thought about shutting everything down and killing the economy and causing so much damage. Think about that how much more deadly those viruses were.

Polio itself, I mean, you’re talking 2-5% death ratio and kids, 15-30% depending on where, with adults totally way far, far worse. And yet here we are for a virus that doesn’t kill kids, and has an overall point 1% case fatality rate, we’ve up ended our society because we’re living in fear. We’re doing the exact opposite of what we were told, right, not to have a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. What is a sound mind? It means being able to reason being, able to look at what’s happening and be solid in our thinking and actually use that common sense and that reasoning.

And we complain often, we conservatives, we complain about snowflakes and safe spaces on campuses. Friends, I’m afraid we become a nation of snowflakes. We’re begging government to make our lives a safe space. And there’s no such utopian. Doesn’t exist. And just as tough times reveal the character of an individual when you face those tough times, crisis reveals the character of a nation, and America’s character is being tested right before our eyes.

Unfortunately, I think we’re seeing the cracks in the foundation. I think we’re seeing clear evidence that a once incredibly strong foundation of constitutional and free market principles has clearly been eroded. We see it in the overreach of state and local officials.

We see it in the willingness of the people to give up those rights, literally begging government in many ways to take those rights, and then chastising you as a government leader if you’re not willing to jump on that bandwagon. Just because you’re willing to say, wait, wait, wait, wait, let’s pause for a moment, let’s actually look at the science and the data, and let’s look at the rights, and let’s look at the proper role of government, I bet you’ve taken all kinds of hateful phone calls, just because you want to think this thing through and actually defend the constitution and defend our rights.

The Real Pandemic

And like I said, I’m normally optimistic to a fault, I always see the glass half full, but I also believe you can’t treat the patient if you don’t assess the patient first, right? We’ve got to be honest about where we are. And there’s just no denying the seriousness of our situation economically, spiritually, politically, and kind of my passion constitutionally. I think instead of being the land of the free and home of the brave, we become the land of the easily imprisoned, home with a timid, and afraid.

How do we get to such a level of irrational, it’s irrational fear, completely out of proportion to the actual threat? You know, I was raised on and had a great mentor named Zig Ziglar. And Zig always said that fear is False Evidence Appearing Real, FEAR, False Evidence Appearing Real. I don’t think that’s ever fit more appropriately than right now what we’re facing, false evidence thrown at us every day and it appears real because we see it so often.

So I believe that the real pandemic, if we want to look at what’s really happening underneath here, the most dangerous threat to our health, our safety, our loved ones, it’s not the virus. The worst pandemic is not even the virus of petty tyrants, these drunk on power politicians across the nation. Now I hate to say it, patriots, but the unconstitutional COVID crackdowns and the violence and the riots in the streets, none of that would have happened if it weren’t for the real pandemic, the real problem that has been festering underneath the surface for decades.

You see, just as a virus needs a weakened immune system upon which to prey, in much the same way, bad government, petty tyrants, bad ideas, destructive movements, they need a weakened society upon which to prey, they need a society void of values, void of principles, void of truth, a society that no longer has that strong foundation where you have something solid to stand upon, that’s the petri dish, where bad government grows and bad ideas grow.

Ignorance of Our True DNA

That’s where they get an environment where they can use their false promises of making you safe, of literally saving everyone’s lives. You hear all these promises coming out of the mouths of a lot of these politicians now. They’re lies that you’re not capable of making those decisions and taking care of yourself. That’s how this tyranny has grown so fast in such a short period of time.

So I really think at the heart of this is our ignorance of our history, our ignorance of our Constitution, our ignorance of the biblical foundations upon which the nation was built. When you remove the Bible and you remove those ideas of I haven’t given you a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind, when you’re not teaching that in the culture anymore, it’s so easy for us to give into fear.

When there is no God, when there is nothing after death, then death is something that you’ll do anything to avoid, including giving up actually living. So at the heart of it, we’ve lost that, that foundation and we’ve lost a love of liberty, a faith in the free market itself and an individualism. That’s really the pandemic in America.

So now let me get to some good news. I hate this depressing stuff. Just as you can fight off and defeat a virus by having the right immune boosters and the right precautions, in the same way, civic ignorance, what got us into this mess, it can be cured with civic literacy. You know Tom Jipping from Heritage Foundation says ignorance is curable. I think he’s right. My wife keeps saying, well, then what’s your problem?

But ignorance is curable. I mean, we can get the truth out there, learning our history, learning our Constitution, learning our rights, learning why the Bible is the instruction manual for not only our personal life, but our culture and our government and our society as well. If we can get those things out there, not only can we get us out of this crisis, but also prevent it from happening again.

Alright, friends, got an interrupt for one of our breaks, you’re listening to the ProFamily Legislators Conference. I’m Rick Green, America’s Constitution coach. This was a presentation I gave there a few weeks ago to state legislators from across the country. We’re going to take a quick break, we’ll pick up where we left off when we come back on WallBuilders Live.

The American Story

Hey, guys, we want to let you know about a new resource we have at WallBuilders called The American Story. For so many years, people have asked us to do a history book to help tell more of the story that’s just not known or not told today. And we would say very providentially, in the midst of all of the new attacks coming out against America, whether it be from things like the 1619 project that say America is evil and everything in America was built off slavery, which is certainly not true or things like even the Black Lives Matter movement, the organization itself, not out of statement, Black Lives Matter, but the organization that says we’re against everything that America was built on, and this is part of the Marxist ideology. There’s so many things attacking America.

Well, is America worth defending? What is the true story of America? We actually have written and told that story. Starting with Christopher Columbus, going roughly through Abraham Lincoln, we tell the story of America, not as the story of a perfect nation or a perfect people, but the story of how God used these imperfect people and did great things through this nation. It’s a story you want to check out wallbuilder.com, The American Story.

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us today. We’ve been listening to a presentation that I gave at the ProFamily Legislators Conference just a few weeks ago. It’s a great opportunity for legislators to come together and really just have great fellowship to sharpen each other’s countenance, to share ideas, and to hear from a lot of great speakers. But sometimes they get mediocre speakers like myself. Alright, so they have great speakers like, I mean, they had Glenn Beck and Charlie Duke and David Barton and Tim Barton and all kinds of folks, and then I snuck in there and gave one. So we’re sharing it with you anyway, we’ll pick up where we left off before the break. This is the ProFamily Legislators Conference.

We Must Teach the Rising Generation to be Free

David, Tim, and I often quote John Jay, in saying that every member of the state ought to diligently read and study the Constitution, so that we’ll know our rights, we’ll perceive when they’ve been violated. Boy, did we miss that in 2020, right? Most of the American people didn’t even perceive that their rights were being violated.

And then he said, so that we can then defend and assert them. He also said that same quote, that we got to teach the rising generation to be free. I would suggest we got to teach not only the rising generation, but our generation, how to be free. How do you live in freedom? You don’t just get this by accident. It’s got to be taught. It’s got to be understood by each generations.

I think one of the most important things President Trump has done as President, and I know we still got a chance he’s not done as President, but we’ll see. But I think one of the most important things he’s done in the first four years, I’m still believing in prayer is when he was willing to say no to the Marxist race baiters, and stop this divisive destructive indoctrination of critical race theory throughout our federal agencies.

It went mostly unnoticed, but that is huge. He has been willing to take on a fight that, frankly, most even conservatives haven’t been willing to take on out of fear they would be called a racist, even as Chris Wallace literally did in the debate questioning why he would stop critical race theory from being taught. That was a massive, massively important move.

I’m actually hoping that in our state legislature, we’ll do the same thing and say to the universities and colleges in our states, you don’t get another penny if critical race theory is being used anywhere on this campus. We will no longer indoctrinate our children in America with this divisive destructive philosophy.

The other side of that coin is that he also did his 1776 Commission which is literally reinvigorating a patriotic education across our country. And in my prayer is if the election doesn’t turn, that he would still push that in the private sector and that we would all together accomplish the goals of what he set forth in that 1776 Commission.


The Most Important Thing

I think the most important thing we can do if we want to get people out of this fear mode is we’ve got to tell them who we really are as Americans. And Ronald Reagan said it this way, he said, “If we forget what we did, we won’t know who we are.” We don’t tell the courageous stories anymore. I mean, you’ve heard them here this week from David and Glenn and others, but we’ve got to teach our people who the American people truly are.

You see, if we know these amazing stories through our history, when we realize that’s who we are, then we’ll recognize, in the same way we’ll be kind of like Joshua was when God said, have not I commanded you be strong and have a good courage? Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord that God is with you whithersoever thou goest. We’ll realize that if we look at our history, if we can once again learn our history, but we’ve lost it, Huckabee says it’s like amnesia.

It’s like a person walking around who doesn’t know who they are. As a nation, we’re stumbling in the dark, not knowing who we are. But once we start telling those stories, once we remind the American people who they are, which is why it’s so important that new book by the Barton’s “The American Story” that right there begins to reinvigorate people to understand what our DNA is where we came from.

Americans are not snowflakes, we’re not cowardly wimps. Our DNA comes from the hardy, mighty men of courage that stood their ground at Lexington went outnumbered 11:1. Think about who the American people are. Our DNA comes from those young men. Some of them still boys that stormed the beaches at Normandy in Iwo Jima, for men and women who ran into burning buildings to save lives, that’s who we are at our core. And as patriots, we’ve got to shake this nation out of this paralysis. We’ve got to remind our people who we are.

And for you and your role, if you’re wondering whether you’re a patriot or politician, let me just give you a comparison. Politicians like Newsom and Cuomo and Abbott, they want to fear monger you into staying at home like a snowflake victim, waiting for them to save and protect you. But patriots, they want to embolden you, they want to inspire you to be courageous explorers, inventors, trailblazers, that live life, that enjoy the fight, and live free.

Safe or Free?

Politicians, they talk about safety. Patriots talk about liberty. Politicians see you as a helpless victim. Patriots see you as a champion, an overcomer.

That’s why that I believe that the Trump campaign this year just brought millions of people into the process and out of the woodwork across the country because he inspired the American people to once again want to be patriots and overcomers. Politicians, they’re literally making up the law on their own, like only dictators and emperors did in the past, but today it’s Republican and Democrat alike claiming to be just using the process.

They claim it’s all about guaranteeing your safety. As patriots, you know that our Constitution and our Declaration say nothing about guaranteeing your safety. But they say we’re all changing things about guaranteeing your freedom, guaranteeing your pursuit of happiness.

Ronald Reagan again, he said, maybe one of his best speeches, the one he gave on January 28th, 1986, the day the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded before our eyes, he said “The future doesn’t belong to the faint hearted, but to the brave.” In fact, let me just play it for you. I’m going to play a video.

He famously said, the future doesn’t belong to the faint hearted, it belongs to the brave. Now that quote is great, but when you put it in context, it’s even greater. This quote was the day that the Shuttle Challenger blew up with all of us watching it on television. In fact, I remember this moment, I was a freshman in high school, we were at school and everybody was watching the launch.

And when this happened, it shocked the nation, and in many ways it scared the nation it caused us to question should we be taking chances like this? So let me put Reagan’s quote in context. Here’s what he said in the middle of his speech as he was putting this moment answering to the American people, should we be doing this kind of thing? And he said this he said, “I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America, who are watching the live coverage of the Shuttles take off.” So Reagan was talking to me.

Ronald Reagan on Bravery

Reagan:

I know it’s hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this. It’s all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It’s all part of taking a chance and expanding man’s horizons. The future doesn’t belong to the faint hearted, belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling goes into the future and will continue to farm.

Rick:

Friends, that’s the kind of attitude we need in America. I believe there’s still pioneers in America that fearlessly pursue happiness like the Declaration says. Men like Elon Musk, who’s taking us back into space, but also people right here on Earth in the middle of the Chinese COVID crackdowns, there’s courageous business owners like that beautician in Dallas, Texas, Shelly Luthor, or the barber in Michigan, Karl Manke, the gym owners, Ian Smith, and Frank Trombetta in New Jersey.

They all refused the nanny state that was being forced upon us by politicians, those, all three of them and others they had been fined, arrested, taken to jail for simply opening their businesses, for simply believing in individuals to have the freedom and the good sense to make their own health decisions, rather than being controlled by the governors in their states that are acting like dictators.

Abbott in Texas, and Whitmer in Michigan and Murphy in New Jersey, famously, who said when he was asked how this squares with the Bill of Rights? He said, I wasn’t thinking of the Bill of Rights, that that was above his pay grade, when in fact the Bill of Rights should be on the mind of every elected official from water district up to President of the United States.

Alright, that’s you guys. I know you get that, I know you are the brave. You are not the faint hearted. You do pay attention to the Bill of Rights. And so I’m going to ask you to do this, start teaching other people the Bill of Rights. I think this is how we get out of this thing. We’ve got to start teaching the constitution more. We’ve got to start raising up that new generation. You’ve got to be a force multiplier, s true patriot of today.

Constitution Alive!

David and I recorded this Constitution class in Independence Hall and in the library there at WallBuilders. We’ve had 140,000 people go through this. Our goal is 3 million to go through it before the 2024 election. We have now 3,500 Constitution coaches teaching this all over the country. It’s happening all over the nation. In fact, some of you are doing it. The kings are doing it in their home. Representative Manzella from Montana had 60 people go through the class, and I want to just want to read this real quick what she said. A total of 60 people participated. We all feel empowered by what we learn.

Now there’s a group of patriots organized and attending county commissioner meetings, they’re going to local health board meetings. These citizens have become active and vocal about protecting their rights, and they go well armed with constitutional language. It is quite obvious they have been empowered. I’m no longer alone on the battlefield. It’s glorious. Thank you for sending that to me, representative.

Be encouraged. When you do these classes, people come together and they get hope because they know the nation can be restored. They get kind of a confirmation that yes, America is good, it’s not evil. It’s the greatest national force for good the world has ever known. They learned that they see that they’re not alone, and they just get fired up, and they have that fellowship that allows them to go back out and fight.

Rick:

Alright, friends, hope you enjoyed that presentation. I hope you’ll share it with your friends and family using your social media tools by going to wallbuilderslive.com and clicking on the link to today’s program. It’s just so important for us to recognize that the things we’re facing right now in our culture did not happen overnight. As I said in the presentation, this has been festering underneath for decades, and it’s civic ignorance, we just don’t know the truth.

We Must Know Truth

We don’t know the truth about where we came from as Americans. We don’t know the truth about what makes a good society. And that only happens when we move into civic literacy. When we actually know the truth, we know who we are, because we know what we’ve done as a nation. And most importantly, we know the Bible, we know what makes for a good society, for good neighborhoods, for good state, for good nation. You get that from the Bible, folks, all the right answers are there.

And so as we become good biblical citizens, we are able to influence our culture and be salt and light in a very positive way. I want to challenge you to do that in 2021. And whatever way God opens the door for you to do so, whether it be with your own family or be with your neighborhood, literally with folks right down the street or next door within your church, and maybe within your state, influencing your state legislature, sitting down with your state rep and state senator or Assemblyman, whatever they call them in your state by sitting down with them and talking about some of the important issues going into 2021, election integrity, every legislator in the country needs to tighten up the election laws.

The power of governors, whenever you have an emergency situation, every state in the country, he’s a tighten up those things and make sure that a governor can only act for a few days before they have to come to the legislature and get approval from the people’s representatives. There’s so many different issues that you can participate in. But it begins with learning the truth and that’s why you want to listen to WallBuilders Live every day of the week.

You can get any of our archives that you missed in previous programs right there at wallbuilderslive.com. That’s also the place you can make a donation. We greatly appreciate all of you across the country that come alongside us, that lock shields with us, your donations actually allow us to reach more people. Those donations make a huge difference.

We are a listener-supported program. So thank you for being one of those listeners that does support us financially. And if you can, do that throughout the year, become one of our monthly donors, it really helps us budget and know what we can do to expand and influence more of those issues across the country.

Become a Constitution Coach!

And the last thing I want to ask you to do is become one of our Constitution coaches, start hosting a class in your living room, at your church, wherever you can get people together, you can do it online if you like. And we’ve got thousands of coaches across the country now hosting these classes and we have multiple versions of the class, depending on where you want to host it.

We’ve got one that’s designed that just came out specifically for churches called Biblical Citizenship in Modern America. And that one has a lot of new folks, Kirk Cameron, and Congressman like Barry Loudermilk and Mat Staver and Rabbi Daniel Lapin, and just a ton of great information in this new constitution class we call Biblical Citizenship in Modern America.

From The ProFamily Legislators Conference – The Real Pandemic Is Civic Ignorance

You can also use our Constitution Alive course and was some of which is in the biblical citizenship course. But if you’ve been using Constitution Alive and you love it, well, keep spreading the good news and host more people into your home or wherever you’ve been hosting those classes. And then we even have a version that’s called Constitutional Defense of your Freedom and your Family.

That one is really good for hosting at your local gun club or gun range or are also in your home getting people to come together, but certainly those that are very Second Amendment oriented, that course is designed specifically for them. All of these options are available to you for free. It’s all available at constitutioncoach.com. Get signed up today, totally free. It’s your opportunity to be the catalyst for a restoration of biblical values and constitutional principles.

You can lead the charge right there in your community. Check it out today at constitutioncoach.com. Thanks so much for listening today. You’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live!