Pro-Life Successes For This Year! Good News Friday today on WallBuilders Live!  In this episode, we discuss things such as huge U.N. Peacekeeping budget cuts, budget cuts for Planned Parenthood Sex-Ed funding, and so much good news for pro-life that you might as well call this episode, “Pro-Life News Friday.” Read and tune in now to learn more.

Air Date: 09/08/2017

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. Also, Tim Barton, national speaker, author, and president of WallBuilders. And my name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas state rep, 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 some good news you probably haven’t heard of from 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 Website 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 Web site and 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?

Sweet Cakes Bakery

David:

Ok, Rick, we’re going to Oregon. Actually, it is a pretty cool place to go, a lot of good stuff up there.

Rick:

Have you and Tim ever ridden horses up there?

David:

Good question.

Rick:

Seems like y’all have ridden everywhere.

David:

Yeah, we’ve ridden in so many states but I don’t think I’ve ever ridden a horse in Oregon. I’ll have to get up there.

Tim:

I think I”€™ve actually ridden a horse in Oregon. So, I don’t know if it’s competition, but this is one state I might win. The rest, don”€™t I know. But yeah, we”€™ve got to go to Oregon on a hiking trail. I mean, just beautiful.

If you like the outdoors Oregon is an amazing place to go. Beautiful trees, in Southern Oregon you have the big Sequoia Redwood. Just absolutely incredible. Anyway, so just thinking of the beauty is good news in Oregon.

David:

Well, it doesn’t have all the human beauties. It”€™s got great people up there but they”€™ve got some wacky ones. Do you remember Arin and Melissa Klein?

Rick:

Sweet Cakes Bakery.

David:

That’s right. They’re the ones, at that time, his name is Brad Avakian and he was commissioner of Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries.

Tim:

He’s the one that came after them.

David:

He went after them big time, completely shut their business down. They left their business, he fined them one hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars. They had to leave business-

Tim:

And he’s also the one that made it to where they couldn’t talk about their story on the news, made it illegal because he didn’t want it publicized, he didn”€™t want to make it a big deal because he would have been absolutely thrown under the bus on national news.

Actually, I don’t remember legally what happened, but they were not allowed to talk about the case or they could personally be sued, thrown in jail, and all kinds of nonsense. Which, if a state is suing you, you ought to be able to talk about your story.

David:

You bet.

Tim:

So really a lot of bad decisions from him.

Oregon Changes Their Tone

David:

Bad decisions from him. As a matter of fact, he had another one that didn’t make the news much, but he fined a bar $400,000 because the guy told a big group of crossdressers and transgender people to stay away. He wanted other people who were uncomfortable with that to become comfortable in his bar and so they fined him $400,000 for that. I mean, this guy was really a social activist crusader, a social justice warrior in a real sense.

Tim:

So let me ask this, I know in Texas there are some businesses that have a sign, “€œWe reserve the right to refuse business to anyone.”€ So is that something, I’m assuming now based on court decisions, that’s now illegal or is that something that is just certain states do?

David:

Depends on the state, depends on the courts. The decisions that were reached in Oregon would not have been reached in the Texas Supreme Court. They would not have fined Arin and Melissa Klein.

The stuff that just happened with Joe Kennedy where that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals says that he has no constitutional right to kneel and pray privately-

Tim:

At the end of the game on his own private time, it’s unreal.

David:

Yeah.

Rick:

And think about the free enterprise implications. I didn”€™t know about this case you were just talking about, the guy with the bar. Think about what that means. What if a gang starts hanging out at your restaurant all the time and people start saying, “€œI’m not eating there. It’s a dangerous place.”€ You don”€™t have the right to say, “€œI don’t want you guys here because you’re scaring off my customers?”€

David:

No, he can’t. He said that and it cost him $400,000 for saying that. As is common with this kind of stuff, the only thing left for Avakian to do is to run for higher office, and he did.

So he ran for higher office, he ran for the Oregon Secretary of State.

Rick:

Just make sure I understand, this is the guy that was the enforcement officer for the state on both these cases you’ve talked about?

David:

Yep, and others. So, he’s again, a social justice warrior. He runs for higher office, he’s a Democrat in a very, very Democratic state, that’s a very solid blue state. I don’t know when the last time was Republicans had a statewide office holder in Oregon.

He runs in the statewide position, bless his heart, he is running in a very liberal state and the guy who’s running against him is an outspoken social conservative. In Oregon, are you kidding?

Rick:

In a liberal state, I would think that race is already over.

David:

That race is over and Avakian lost in a landslide to a social conservative. It was the first Republican they have had in that position since 1985, let’s go back 32 years. And by the way, Avakian ran as a liberal.

Rick:

So he wasn’t hiding from his record?

David:

Oh no, he’s going to use his post to fight climate change, promote abortion rights, and investigate companies. He’s going to keep doing all the stuff that they do. And the voters said, “€œGoodbye. You’re out.”€ A landslide for the social conservative Republican over this guy who was the commissioner of Oregon Bureau of Labor industries, who’s been enforcing this stuff. He loses in a landslide in Oregon.

Rick:

That’s fantastic. I can’t believe Oregon- if you”€™d told me that whole story and it was Arkansas, or Texas, or even Kansas, but Oregon?

David:

By the way, he is still the commissioner of industry for the next two years. We’ll see if he has got a grudge to level against anybody in the next two years. But he did not win a statewide office.

Liberals In Oregon Are Coming To Their Senses

Tim:

I would even think the good news isn’t just that he did not win statewide office to have that higher position. But the fact that perhaps this is a level of awakening from liberals and Democrats in Oregon going, “€œOk, we have a Democrat that’s gone too far, a liberal that has gone too far. There’s a line.”€

I don’t know how they draw their lines, is it based on their feelings, I don’t know. But the fact that they’re saying, “€œOk, this guy is too much.”€ We’ve talked about it often off air and on air where it looks like the Democrats are going so far they’re finally going to get themselves so close to fire they’re going to get burned.

People are going to want to get away from how far they’re trying to take things. And this might be a prime example where Democrats and liberals are going, “€œYeah, you’re going too far. Let’s go back the other direction, we’re not going that direction.”€

David:

Even Jerry Brown, the governor of California has said that Democrats have gone too far and need to back up. He thinks what they’re doing now is crazy and they’re having this big debate.

A few pro-life Democrats have come out and said, “€œNo, we welcome pro-life Democrats in the party.”€ And the Democrats are saying, “€œNo, we don’t. Get the heck out of here.”€ Even Jerry Brown is saying, “€œHey, this is too far.”€ I mean for Jerry Brown of California to say that Democrats have gone too far, I think you’re exactly right Tim, they’re going to get their hand on the stove. They’ve been close to the stove, now they’re going to put it on the stove and wonder why they’re getting burned.

Rick:

When Moonbeam says we’ve gone too far, Governor Moonbeam. Any one? Bueller?

David:

I got that one. I’m not sure Tim got that.

Rick:

Do we have one of those buttons in the studio we can push where we hear the laughter and the audience applause? No? Nothing? Ok, we’re going to get a break then. Quick break, we’ll be right back with more good news, stay with us on WallBuilders Live.

Moment From American History

This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history.

The Reverend James Caldwell was a famous minister during the American War for Independence. His sermons taught liberty and God’s opposition to tyranny.

The British hated him and tried to kill him. So for his own protection, he would actually take loaded pistols with him into the pulpit and lay them beside his Bible as he preached. In the 1780 Battle of Springfield, the Americans ran out of wadding for their guns which was like having no ammunition.

Pastor Caldwell ran inside a nearby church and returned with an armload of Watt Hymnals, the pages of which would provide the much-needed wadding. He took this great Bible based hymnal, raised in the air, and shouted to the troops,”€Now put to watts into them, boys!”€  This pastor’s ingenuity saved the day for the Americans.

For more information or Pastor James Caldwell and other Colonial Patriots go to WallBuilders.com

How Governor Moonbeam Got His Nickname

Rick:

Welcome back, thanks for staying with us on WallBuilders Live here, it’s Good News Friday today. Let’s see, David, no, Tim is up.

David:

Wait, I am going to interrupt for a minute.

Tim:

No, it’s my turn.

David:

Governor Moonbeam, do you know the story of how he got the name?

Tim:

He jumped over the moon.

Rick:

He was Mr. Hip, right? I mean, he was supposed to be like super cool and young.

Tim:

What?

David:

He was governor-

Rick:

His own space program, right? California proposed some- I don’t know, that’s all I know.

David:

Well, he was governor of California from 1975 to 1983, ok? So he’s governor again, this is the second time around, 30-40 years later. Back when he ran in 75 through 83 a Chicago columnist said that he was attracting the moonbeam vote. Which meant young idealistic and nontraditional. So that’s where he became Governor Moonbeam, he was attracting that vote.

In the 70″€™s that was what they said for the nontraditional voters, the moonbeam vote. So that’s why he’s Governor Moonbeam.

Tim:

So what’s going to happen is in 30 years people are going to mention snowflakes and they are going to go, “€œWhat are snowflakes?”€ That was a Moonbeam back then, another label and I had no idea what that means, but ok.

David:

You’re turn, Tim.

Pro-Life News For Northern California

Tim:

Speaking of Moonbeamers in California, we can stay in California. This is a piece of good news from northern California. Northern California, not traditional California. California, you really could break it up in different segments. Southern California being by far liberal extreme, just kind of the wackos and weirdos that we often think of with leftist. Not that there are not some great people in Southern California but population generally centered around those positions.

Northern California however, is very different. In Northern California, you have a lot of hunters, a lot more conservative pockets, just a different look of California. In fact, they’re the ones that not long ago said, “€œHey, we need to make California two states so we can have our own state and you guys in southern California, you have your state. Y”€™all are weird. We want to be our own thing.”€

Well, Northern California has been moving in a different direction from southern California in many areas, one of them being the area of life. It was announced recently that a Northern California Planned Parenthood came out and announced that they’re actually closing three clinics in Northern California.

They said that really it’s because people are getting such good care from other places, etc, and they’re making all these reasons why. They said, “€œWe clearly we want to downsize so we can focus on some of the rural areas where there are not as many options. Because in the city people have lots of options and that’s why we’re not as needed.”€ They’re trying to find ways to say that essentially they’re not getting people to come in and get abortions and aren’t getting the money.

Actually, one of the interesting things is the individual, a spokesman for Planned Parenthood, said one of the problems is that they’re not getting repays from, they call it, “€œMedi-Cal program”€ which is I guess the California Medical Insurance Program.

But under Obamacare they had all these people sign up on Medi-Cal and they had all these people coming, well, they weren’t getting repaid from Medi-Cal, which I can’t imagine bankrupt California having a hard time paying their one payer insurance program. Nobody saw that not working, this one payer system. It seemed like everybody thought it was going to be perfect.

So, they’re struggling financially, their closing down three clinics, which of course is good news from a pro-life perspective when the number one abortion provider in America is closing down three of their abortion clinics.

What’s also interesting about it in this article is Planned Parenthood was among several groups that supported a recent state tax increase on tobacco. So there’s now a new sales tax on tobacco in California. And the reason Planned Parenthood supported that is because part of those tax dollars are being funneled to Planned Parenthood to reimburse them for some of the things they’re doing. Which I can’t imagine that smokers in California are thinking, “€œHey, the reason I’m paying more to smoke is so I can pay for abortions.”€ Nonetheless, that is what Planned Parenthood is doing.

But the good news in the midst of all of this is that there are clinics closing even in California. Which certainly is one of the more liberal places, even though Northern California is not as liberal. In California, three Planned Parenthood clinics are closing.

Any time a Planned Parenthood clinic closes that means less babies that are being murdered, unborn children will survive, will be born, will have the life hopefully that God intended, planned, and purposed for them and their family. Good news nonetheless that Planned Parenthood is losing three clinics in northern California.

Rick:

Again, I think I said this last time, Tim, when you had some closing Planned Parenthood news, I have lost count. We should actually chart this. We should have one of those meter update kind of deals where we say, “€œOk, now we’ve closed this many and we’ve got how many left to close before we can say they’re all done.”€ But it seems like every other week we’ve got another positive report like that. So keep the good news coming. Quick break, we’ll be right back, you’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

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Huge U.N. Peacekeeping Budget Cuts

Rick:

We’re back on WallBuilders Live, thanks for staying with us on this Good News Friday. David Barton is up with some good news, David?

David:

Let’s go to New York City, and we’ll go to the United Nations, and we’ll go to the U.N. ambassador from America, which is Governor Nikki Haley who tweets that we have cut over half a billion dollars from the U.N. Peacekeeping budget and we’re only getting started.

President Trump had said that the U.N. needs to have more of its other countries pay their fair share. So now we’ve already chopped it by half a billion dollars, five hundred million. Man, that didn’t get much coverage on the news, but that really is good news where we’re starting to pull some money out of the U.N. which is good stuff.

Tim:

Also, even since that tweet, there have been a lot more things that we’ve already done to limit the funding of the U.N. I think she tweeted that this summer and it was kind of a little bit of a firestorm in a very close circle.

The media wanted to slam her for doing it but they don’t want to make it a big story and announce to everybody what was going on and give Trump a victory. So they were kind of juxtapose this position of what do we do. But even since she tweeted that this summer we’ve already made progress further to limit the ability of the U.N. from American backing, and American funding, and what they can do in some of these sayings.

So, really, it’s great news that a president says, “€œLet”€™s drain the swamp. Let’s solve some of these problems.”€ We are already seeing that happen. So it is really good news and that tweet being an indicator from Nikki Haley.

Rick:

Not the kind of report we would have gotten from an ambassador to the U.N. appointed by the other candidate that was running for president last year. But, we’re not going to go there, we’re not going to worry about what could have been or would have been. We’re going to enjoy what actually is. So Tim, your next.

Save The Storks, Pro-Life Mobile Ultrasound Unit

Tim:

This is something that our friend Everett Piper, we’ve had him on many times. This is something from his university, Oklahoma Wesleyan University. It’s the first university to actually have done something very specific related to the medical arena.

Oklahoma Wesleyan is a growing campus, lots of impressive things happening, because of the stand they’re taking, a very Biblical, traditional, and conservative stance in a lot of issues.

One area that they stand very strong in is the life issue. They’re a very pro-life campus as we can imagine. We’ve had Everett Piper on, Dr. Piper, on so many times and every time you get a wealth of wisdom and insight.

Well, one of the things that is very clear from his perspective is that God is the author and the giver of life, that it originates with God. So in their nursing program, even in the midst of what they do with their applied bioethics, which I don’t know what you do in applied bioethics but it sounds very difficult. So I’m just going to assume that’s a very challenging course direction.

In Applied Bioethics one of the things they’ve done is they actually have a save the stork’s mobile ultrasound unit. It’s a big, essentially van kind of vehicle, but they’re able to go around into communities, and into neighborhoods, and projects, and in various places and offer an ultrasound to pregnant women who might not be able to get an ultrasound. So this is something they’re nursing program does from Oklahoma Wesleyan University. You talk about a hands on program where you’re able to go in.

David:

This is the only school that does that?

Tim:

The only school that has this ultrasound unit.

David:

Wow.

Tim:

There are pro-life groups that have these units, although they are fairly rare, because they are rather expensive. But there was a donor who gave this Oklahoma Wesleyan to make sure that they had the money to be able to have this unit, to fund the units for what they’re doing. But their nursing students are able to go into these places and offer these ultrasounds.

One of the cool stats from this Save The Storks is that four out of five women who board a Stork Bus choose life for their baby. So once they go in and see ultrasound they realize, “€œWow that’s a living thing, it’s a baby, that’s not a fetus, this is not tissue.”€ Again, this is a really cool thing where science and technology are able to help people see the pro-life perspective of the unborn child to know this is a baby.

Oklahoma Wesleyan is the only university that has one of these and they’re able now for their students to be able to participate in this which is just a really cool thing happening with Oklahoma Wesleyan University from our friend Dr. Everett Piper. Again, another really cool thing for the pro-life movement.

Rick:

Another quick break, we’ll be right back, you”€™re listening to Good News Friday here on 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, oftentimes 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.

Donald Trump Budget Cuts Planned Parenthood Sex-Ed Funding

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live, Good News Friday today. One more segment of good news. David Barton is next with some good news.

David:

We’re going back to Washington, D.C. It’s another cut in the budget from President Trump. This time he’s cut two hundred million dollars out of Planned Parenthood sex-ed programs.

They have notified 81 grant recipients that are Planned Parenthood sex-ed programs that they’re not funding that anymore. Looks like they’re setting up the stage to move over to abstinence funding sex education programs. And that’s a huge deal.

That’s another way that Planned Parenthood is not being funded. This doesn”€™t have to do with abortions, but we do know that their sex-ed programs help contribute to abortions because they don’t do abstinence only sex-ed, they do comprehensive sex-ed which encourage you to be sexually active. Then when birth control doesn’t work the way it was supposed to you can go see a Planned Parenthood clinic for an abortion.

Now 81 of the grant recipients that do this sex-ed, that Planned Parenthood sex-ed have been notified, “€œNot anymore.”€ That’s 200 million dollars cut from Planned Parenthood sex-ed programs by President Trump.

Rick:

Again, I feel like every time we give some of this good news from this administration we should make sure we contrast that with what life would be like had things gone the other way.

David:

It would be an increase of $800 billion in funding Planned Parenthood, it would be totally different.

Rick:

Yeah, different world. Alright Tim, do you have some more good news before we sign off today?

Arkansas Pro-Life Law Passed

Tim:

Yeah, this one is from Arkansas. It actually is, again, kind of the same vein. It seems like it’s turning into a bit of a pro-life Friday, which is totally ok because we can celebrate God’s creation and life.

This is something that in Arkansas if you remember several years ago when some of the videos on Planned Parenthood first started coming out and people started seeing what Planned Parenthood was really about, that it wasn’t about women’s health, it was about abortion. What they did with these babies, and how they treated the unborn child, and how they were murdered, then how they would handle the bodies, and what they would do, and so on.

When all these videos were coming out this, kind of exposé on Planned Parenthood, Arkansas was one of the states decided, “€œHey, let’s pass legislation to say we’re not going to fund an organization that does this kind of stuff.”€

Well, it was challenged in 2015. It was challenged actually by three patients of Planned Parenthood who said, “€œWait a second, you can’t stop state funding for me to go to this clinic to have my abortions and to do what I want to do in these clinics.”€

So a lower court judge actually blocked the state’s decision to say that the state was not going to fund any money going to Planned Parenthood. Well, when the lower judge said, “€œWait a second, you can’t block their money.”€

The state challenged that decision, which is also a victory, not just that you had state legislators trying to pass laws saying, “€œWe”€™re not going to fund it.”€ But when it was challenged they didn’t just take that challenge and let it lie, they said, “€œNo, we’re not going to proceed with this court judge says.”€

So they have this appeal, it goes to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, and the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted that block saying, “€œNo, the state has the right to, if they don’t want to fund Planned Parenthood, they have the right to say, “€˜We’re not going to fund Planned Parenthood.”€

So this is something that the state of Arkansas, which they have made so many incredible steps with pro-life legislation in Arkansas, now has this victory from a court with legislation they passed a couple of years ago saying, “€œWe’re not going to fund Planned Parenthood because of what they’ve done. The video exposé that came out, we’re not going to fund an organization that does that kind of stuff.”€ Now this eighth circuit court of appeals ruling will allow them to follow through with legislation they passed several years ago. So, good news and pro-life victory in Arkansas.

Pro-Life Friday, Lot”€™s Of Good News On Pro-Life

Rick:

You know, we talk about these withdrawing of funding for Planned Parenthood, some of our listeners may be wondering why that’s such a big deal, because this debate hasn’t been discussed as much as it was in years past, “€œOk, if abortion is allowed in our country, those of us that obviously believe strongly that that’s murder should not have to have our taxpayer dollars used for that abortion.”€

And that’s what has been happening with Planned Parenthood, is that government has been funding these abortions. So for years, we’ve been trying to get that funding taken away from Planned Parenthood. Now it’s just victory, after victory, after victory in states across the country and now even at the federal level decreasing the money that is flowing to this organization that takes more lives than any other abortion organization in the country.

Thanks for listening today folks. Lots of good news that we’ve shared with you. There’s more on our Web site so check it out there at WallBuildersLive.com. You’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live.