Renowned Yale Professor Leaves Darwinism: We call it, “Good News Friday” because it’s a chance for David and Tim to share some good news from across the nation and around the world. We don”€™t often hear good news from major media, however, here on WallBuilders Live, we love sharing news worthy of celebration! Tune in now to learn more!

Air Date: 10/11/2019

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. This is WallBuilders Live! Where we”€™re talking about today”€™s hottest topics on policy, faith, and the culture, always doing that from a Biblical, historical, and Constitutional perspective.

We’re here with David Barton, America’s premier historian and the founder of WallBuilders. Also, Tim Barton, national speaker and President of WallBuilders, and my name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas state legislator, national speaker, and author. 

You can find out more about us at WallBuildersLive.com. 

By the way, there’s an archive section there at WallBuildersLive.com where, if you want to listen to some of our previous Friday programs, you can get even more good news and also all of our interviews over the last few weeks. It’s all available right there at WallBuildersLive.com. 

One of the things at that website I would ask you to consider is that blue button at the top called contribute. Yes, that means you contribute to help WallBUilders Live, because your dollars contributed will expand and multiply the effect of this program. It will allow us to train, equip, and inspire more people across the nation to be good citizens, to take a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective into their communities, and to be the catalyst in their communities to restore America’s constitutional republic. It also helps us to train pastors, legislators, and young leaders out there, and it helps us to expand our Constitution classes and biblical citizenship classes in churches and communities all across the nation. 

You are a part of that when you make that contribution at warblers live action. We greatly appreciate you considering that. 

David, Tim, looking forward to this. Let’s hear some good news.

David has got the first piece. 

Good News from Tampa Florida

David:

We’re going to Florida, and in Florida we’re going to start with a law passed by the city—I don’t really think of it as law, but it is a municipal ordinance for the city of Tampa, and it deals with what’s called conversion therapy. 

Conversion therapy to explain it, that’s where the LGBTQ groups say, “€œOh, you’re trying to convert people away from being homosexual, or lesbian, or whatever.”€Â 

So we’ve already talked in previous programs of various times about how that, even among millennials, the attitude in favor of LGBTQ is really turning against them. They’re moving away from that because they see the hostility coming from these LGBTQ groups. 

So in this case these groups are saying, “€œHey, we don’t want any counselor to counsel anyone not to be homosexual, even if they don’t want to be.”€Â 

In other words if you’ve got a young person who says, “€œHey, I’ve got these attractions toward someone else, and I really don’t want that, I just don’t feel right about that, I don’t want to deal with that, help me. How do I get over this?”€

You can’t even go ask for help from a counselor who deals with this, and this is now a ban that exists in 18 states, and it exists in nearly 60 cities. 

In Tampa, they said, “€œNot only can you not do this, you definitely cannot do this with young people.”€Â 

So a federal judge threw that out said, “€œYou can’t create a ban on counseling, especially when it’s voluntary, and especially when someone wants counseling with an issue. You cannot keep Christian counselors or other counselors from counseling on a specific issue just because the LGBTQ community doesn’t like that.”€Â 

No More Discriminating Against Christians

So even though we covered this recently, this is a brand new ruling that came down from the court and it says, “€œTampa, you can’t do this. You can’t stop the biblical counseling or counseling from people who take a biblical position.”€Â 

So that’s a huge win. 

I’ve got another one that deals with the federal judge that also came down this week, and this one is really, really, really intriguing to me. It comes out of the University of Iowa, and it deals with how the University of Iowa tried to shut down Christian groups on campus. Now, this has been going on for a few years. 

They went in and said, “€œHey, you can’t have these Christian groups that require the leaders to be Christians.”€Â 

So they targeted these Christian groups, and they tried to shut them down. They lost in court. The court says, “€œNo, you’ve got to treat the Christian groups the same way you do the other groups, because you let the secular groups have secular leaders and have whatever requirements they want for their leaderships. You’re only telling the Christian groups they can’t have their requirements. So you’re discriminating purely against Christians.”€Â 

Well, they’ve been losing these lawsuits and now they did it again. They went after Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, they kicked them off campus, and they shut them down. 

They said, “€œYou require your leaders to be Christians, and you can’t do that.”€Â 

So they froze the bank account of the group, they shut down this website, they put out an advertiser that says the group was defunct for lack of student interest—which is certainly not what was going on—and they did all this crazy stuff. So the kids end up back in court. 

Putting Agenda Above the Law, and Failing

This time the federal judge not only ruled against the University of Iowa, It actually required the officials at the University of Iowa to pay the fines out of their own pockets. In other words, they can’t use the university’s dollars and can’t go to the state funds. They’ve got to personally pay for it. 

The judge said, “€œThis is personal hostility you’re displaying here, because you’ve been losing this case in court. We’ve told you to protect their free speech rights, protect their free exercise of religion rights, and you individually have an agenda and you’re going to pay out of your pocket.”€Â 

I thought when I heard this, “€œWow, is that really a good precedent, that they’ve gone after these individuals to make them pay individually?”€Â 

But then when you read the rest of it, and read how hostile they’ve been, and how the courts have made very clear what they should be doing, this really is a shot over the bough of liberal academics who have an agenda and don’t want to allow any kind of other voice on campus.

This is a huge, a really, really big decision coming out of the University of Iowa.

Rick:

Well, two great victories out of the courts to start our Good News Friday. We’re going to take a quick break when we come back. Stay with us, you”€™re listening to WallBuilders Live.

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 encourage and inspire you in learning some of these great stories for America’s Hidden History.

Thomas Roberts

Rick:

We’re back to WallBuilders Live! It’s Good News Friday today, and if you’ll like what you’re hearing today, there’s more of that good news on our website today at WallBuildersLive.com. Just go into the archives section there and you can catch the more that good news. We’ve got plenty of time for more good news today, and Tim Barton has some for us right now.

Tim:

I saw an article it came out very recently, and it dealt with a guy who was dying of cancer, who had been a longtime atheist and converted to Christianity, but as he was dying of lung cancer he was at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital, and while he was there he decided before he died he wanted to be baptized. 

He started requesting, “€œWhat can we do with the chaplain there”€Â 

And the chaplain was happy to baptize, and the problem was Thomas Roberts was wheelchair bound, and in the midst of this he also was dependent on oxygen tubes. So it was gonna be a big process trying to figure out how do we get this guy baptized, because he’s dependent on this oxygen and we can’t have it away from a very long. We can’t take it off him and walk him down to the pool and get him in. 

So what how do we navigate this? 

Baptism by Wheelchair

They got with this palliative care team and started working on what they could do that. The chaplain was Corey Agricola, and he went to the doctor and said, “€œOK Doc, you what do we have to do? How do we handle this? How long can he be off the oxygen?”€Â 

And as this is happening, Dr. Nichols, who is the one over Thomas Roberts, is explaining that it’s got to be quick. They’re trying to game plan. 

Now first of all, let me just point out: it’s really cool to me and encouraging that you have a doctor, the chaplain, this care team, that is working together to help this guy who is at the end of his life, and he knows he’s about to die, and he really wants to be baptized before he dies, and the hospital is working with him to help make this happen. Just very cool for them. Good job for them. 

Well, they find a way. They’re going to roll them down to the pool, because it has an assist chair to help get people in the water. 

So they get him in this chair, they take the oxygen out, they get him in, and the chaplain knew that he was going to have to move quickly, but he really wanted to read Romans 6, where Paul talks about baptism and what it represents, and so he read part of Romans 6, and as soon as he finished reading it they pulled the oxygen tubes out and he gets Thomas Roberts in the water. 

A Really Great Story

They do the baptism, he comes up, and Thomas was there with his wife, his son, his sisters, his nieces, nephews, a lot of the family was there cheering him on, and afterwards the sister said it was so encouraging to watch this happen because she thought he was a believer, but wasn’t really sure. 

But the fact he now got baptized, she said, “€œI’m convinced. I know where he’s going when because he’s a believer, and I have such peace.”€Â 

Well, after the baptism, he gets back in the room and only a couple of days later he ends up passing away. But it”€™s just so cool that the hospital was working with them, the chaplain was there, but a guy at the end of his life who said, “€œYou know, the one thing I haven’t done is I really want to do is get baptized.”€Â 

That was a very cool and encouraging story. And for any listeners, I don’t know what your doctrine is in your church on baptism, but I can tell you if you haven’t been baptized, you gotta go for it. It’s biblical. If you don’t know about it you can look it up. You can Google it, bible verses on baptism. This is the guy, with the very end of his life, had one request before he died, and the hospital granted the request, and it was to be baptized. Just a very cool story. 

Rick:

We”€™re taking a quick break. We’ll be back with more good news from around the nation, and sometimes around the world. 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, 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. 

David Gelernter Renounces Darwinism

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live! It”€™s Good News Friday today.

There”€™s more good news at our website, WallBuildersLive.com. Let’s dive into some more good news. David’s next. 

David:

I’m going to Yale University. Well, I’m not going there, the story comes from a professor at Yale University, David Gelernter. Now, I’ve been on TV with him. He’s a great guy. I’ve enjoyed being with him. He’s not what I would call a believer, but he’s a very serious, very open minded, truth seeking individual. 

So as an academic who, at Yale, his position has been pro Darwin. He’s been on the Darwinian side of everything, he’s not a creation guy, he’s not even an intelligent design guy. But he recently came out publicly and said he can’t be Darwinian anymore. 

He said, “€œImmense is so big, and tiny is so small, that neo Darwinian evolution is a dead loss. Trying to mutate your way from one hundred and fifty links of gibberish to a working usual protein, and you’re guaranteed to fail. Try it with 10 mutations, a thousand, a million! You fail. The odds bury you. It can’t be done.”€Â 

So he just talked about how that, out of pure science, he just can’t be Darwinian anymore because there’s just no way to get to where you can explain the origins of life through Darwin. 

He says, “€œI don’t subscribe to intelligent design, but Darwinism will not work.”€Â 

What’s interesting is that he went on to explain the dangers he’s facing because he said that. 

To come out like this he said the pro Darwinian academics said, “€œWe will destroy you if you challenge this theory.”€Â 

“€œDarwin is Wrong”€

This as his quote, “€œAs far as they’re concerned, you take your life in your hands to challenge it intellectually. They will destroy you if you challenge it. What I’ve seen in their behavior intellectually, and at colleges across the West, is nothing approaching free speech on this topic. It’s a bitter rejection, a bitter fundamental, angry, outraged, violent rejection which comes nowhere near scientific or intellectual discussion.”€Â 

So he knew what he was getting into, and he comes out and says, “€œI just can’t support anymore, the science is not there.”€Â 

And to the credit of his peers. I mean he is such a good professor, he has been there so long and just a great thinker. 

He said, “€œActually, the folks at Yale have really treated him very civilly since he’s come out in this position.”€Â 

But that is a big announcement for a professor of his stature at Yale, to come out and say, “€œDarwin is wrong.”€

Tim:

Well, I’m equally impressed that the professors treated him with respect, because oftentimes you hear about some institutions where somebody comes out against the status quo, and they are not well received. Props other professors who are treating his position respectfully, which, logically speaking, they should because his position is a very solid, and stable, and intellectually honest position. Very neat to see someone like him coming out and being intellectually honest about what’s there.

David:

The other story I’ve got deals with a professor again—we’re still in college stuff—out of California. Now, at the college there in California, the students themselves vote on faculty of the year award. It’s the students who choose the best profs, and twice he’s been chosen faculty of the year. He is the number one teacher on campus according to the kids. 

The Good Professor

He’s a sociology Prof, and what he does in his courses that’s really kind of different is he challenges the kids to defend their positions on topics like marriage, or gender, or sexual orientation, or whatever, whatever they believe he makes them defend it. You have to be able to defend what you believe. So he is into exposing them to all sides of an argument. Well, here come other professors, his colleagues, complain that he was, quote, “€œHarming students by exposing them to other views that, for example, as they said same sex attraction might actually stem from environmental factors rather than from a person’s biology.”€Â 

In other words, they say, “€œYou’re born that way, there’s nothing you can do about it.”€Â 

He said, “€œWell, what if there are other factors? What if it’s the way you were raised, or what you’re taught, or whatever?”€Â 

So they said presenting that possibility to kids harmed the kids. The college investigated him on three separate times, and each time found that he had not violated campus policy. But they still called him unprofessional, and they fired him for what they call, quote, “€œDangerous and immoral discussions.”€Â 

Now, imagine that. Just trying to present truth, just giving two sides, is dangerous and immoral.

Morality Without God?

Tim:

If you call it immoral, what is your standard of moral? That to me that’s a problem. If you’re saying, “€œWell, I disagree with you. That’s immoral for you to disagree with me.”€ How do we define morality? I think you’ve confused what morality is. But when there is no biblical position, and you don’t believe in God or believe in the Bible, and truth is relative, and everything is kind of a subjective perspective, how you arrive at these dumb conclusions? Nonetheless, to attack him for being immoral because he didn’t support their position, that’s pretty dumb.

David:

Kudos to him for trying to present truth in the aspect of seeing what the other side’s views are out there. 

Well, he takes the college to court, and the judge sides with him and says that he’s got to be reinstated. So that is a huge victory for a voice, and maybe he’s a lone voice on that campus, sure sounds like he must be lonely on that campus of the other profs come after him for presenting two sides of an argument.

But good news that you’ve got a Prof. willing to present two sides of an argument to kids. He’s now been reinstated and can be back in the classroom.

Rick:

Guys, we”€™ve got time for one more segment of good news, so a quick break here we’ll be right back. Stay with us, you’re listening to Good News Friday on WallBuilders Live.

Front Sight Handgun Training Course

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We’re going to have a great time out there, and if you’re a supporter of WallBuilders, we’re going to treat you. If you’re a donor of WallBuilders, you”€™ll be able to go to this Front Sight class for free. It normally cost a thousand dollars, go to FrontSight.com right now. You’ll see that it’s a thousand dollars to attend their two-day class. You are going to be able to go for free, if you’re a supporter of WallBuilders Live.

So, check out that information at RickGreen.com and join us. We are going once a month for the next three months. You can pick one of those classes. All of our previous classes have filled up. Make sure that you get online today and get signed up. Whether you’ve never shot before, or you’ve shot your whole life, you will enjoy this class. You”€™ll enjoy the fellowship. We’ll be training on the range during the day and studying the Constitution at night. What a great combination. Check it out today at RickGreen.com.

Anchorage Man Sues Women”€™s Shelter for Not Allowing Him Entry

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live! It”€™s the final segment of the day for some good news. We’re going to pack as much in as we can. Tim’s going to start us there, Tim?

Tim:

Alright guys, this one is coming out of Anchorage, Alaska. It is a case that Alliance Defending Freedom had, and this is something that I actually was tracking a little bit as it was unfolding. There was a women’s shelter up in Alaska, and they, over the course of one of their days, had a guy come and try to get in the shelter. 

He was drunk, and apparently he had been in some kind of, presumably, altercation. Something had happened and he had some injuries, and they said, “€œWe’re so sorry, you can’t stay here, but you look like you need some medical attention. Let us get you to the hospital.”€Â 

So they get a taxi. They pay for the taxi to get him to the hospital. He gets medical care at the hospital, but then after he’s gotten his medical attention he turns around and sues this women’s shelter for not allowing him to stay at the women’s shelter. Now, at the women’s shelter there—

David:

What kind of shelter did you say? 

Tim:

Oh, it’s a women’s shelter. 

David:

And he was a woman? 

Tim:

He’s a man. 

David:

Oh, he’s a man. 

Yay. Government.

Tim:

And at the women’s shelter there are, as the people running the shelter pointed out, women who have come through abuse, and who’ve come through sexual assaults. And in this shelter the women have showers, and they have beds, and so to allow a man to come into a place where the women are showering, and where they’re sleeping, and where they might be changing, that would be more damaging to these women than many other scenarios. 

So they said, “€œWe can’t do this.”€Â 

Well, the problem is that an Anchorage official—so here you go. Yay Government—an Anchorage official said, “€œWell, we’re pretty sure that violates the Equal Rights Commission. So you’re not giving equal rights to everybody because you discriminated against him because he’s a man. Even though you have a women’s shelter, you discriminated.”€Â 

So they took them to court. This Women’s Shelter, Downtown Hope Center is what it’s called, and they took them to court. Now, this is one of the things where we’re so grateful for our friends, and many of these religious liberty groups that are fighting to defend people’s freedoms, and their rights, and their liberties. Alliance Defending Freedom is one of the many good groups that are out there. So they stepped up—and in these situations, they defend these organizations for free. So if you’re an individual, if you’ve had something happen that’s crazy, we’d encourage you to contact one of these groups. If you were to contact, get in touch with us. We can help you contact some of these groups. 

Alliance Defending Freedom to the Rescue!

Alliance Defending Freedom represented them. And they went to the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, and the district court came back and said, “€œYeah, it’s not a violation of the Equal Rights Commission to tell a man he can’t stay in a women’s shelter.”€Â 

And this was part of the ruling which you’re going, “€œYeah, that should have been pretty much common sense from the very beginning.”€Â 

But that was, nonetheless, a piece of good news coming out of Alaska, that women are going to be protected.

David:

It’s amazing that we’re having to go to court to be able to say, “€œNo.”€Â 

We should be able to say no to things. And now you have to go to court to have a judge tell you that it’s OK to say no, we’re just a yes, yes, yes society on everything, this is pretty good because it’s reinstituting a line that needs to be there.

Tim:

Yeah. The idea that if you tell me I can’t do what I want to do, I’m going to sue you for that. Is that right? We’ve really misconstrued not only the function, but the obligation of private businesses and organizations to have to acquiesce to our whims and desires instead of just upholding their purpose, their vision, or their mission. 

Another piece of good news, real quick before we run out of time, is something that happened more than a month ago, but nonetheless is worth highlighting. Maybe two months ago now. 

Trump Proclaims Day of Prayer for 9/11 Victims 

On 9/11, President Trump was giving a speech, which probably everybody was familiar with at least the idea that he gave a speech, one of the cool things he did though was he proclaimed national days of prayer and remembrance to honor 9/11 victims. Certainly remembering the victims of 9/11 is something that has historically been done. It’s something that a lot of Americans have participated in, and a lot of us have prayed for individuals for the whole scenario, for the troops that have been involved since, the tragedy for the families that were affected by the tragedy, for the first responders. A lot of us have been engaged in prayer for them. 

But to have a president come out and, especially in the climate we live in today, say, “€œNope, we need to have a time of prayer to pray for these people who were affected by this tragedy.”€Â 

It’s one of the things that we talk about often. Certainly there are things President Trump does that we don’t always like and agree with, however I’m so grateful that we have a president who is courageous and bold enough to do things that maybe aren’t politically correct in this era. We reef confused political correctness in anything that is traditional, that is Christian, that is conservative, is politically incorrect. 

To have a president say, “€œNope, we need to pray for these families that have been affected.”€Â 

“€œRemember God and Pray for These Families”

That is good news, that we have a president reminding Americans that this is something we want to do, because for those of us that are old enough to remember when 9/11 happened that following Sunday, I don’t know that churches have ever been that full in the history of our nation as they were that couple of Sundays after this tragedy happened. People remembered God in that moment, and so to have a president, “€œHey, let’s make sure we continue to remember God and pray for these families.”€Â 

That’s just good news.

Rick:

Lots of good news today. We’re out of time. No more time for more good news stories on this particular broadcast, but at our website, WallBuildersLive.com, you go into the archives section you can listen to some previous Friday programs and get even more good news. Then of course there will be future Friday programs, so make sure you’re listening throughout the week with our great interviews of special guests, as well as our Foundations of Freedom Thursday programs, all of it available right now at WallBuildersLive.com. 

Renowned Yale Professor Leaves Darwinism and More Good News with WallBuilders Live

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We sure appreciate you listening today, and we hope you enjoyed all the good news that we shared with you today. We look forward to a great week of programs next week as well. God bless you. Thanks for listening to WallBuilders Live.