School Social Studies Standards – With Michele Bachmann: What are the public schools trying to indoctrinate our children with? Why are leaders trying to remove our history of the American Revolution, the Civil War, History of World War I & II, and even the Holocost?  Why does Minnesota’s governor want to teach Marxism through Critical Race Theory? Can the new educational standards be stopped and true history be restored? How can we push back against the lies? Tune in to hear the Dean of the School of Government at Regent University, Michele Bachmann!

Air Date: 04/28/2021

Guest: Michele Bachmann

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; we’re talking about today’s hottest topics on policy, faith, and the culture always from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective.

We’re here with David Barton. He’s America’s premier historian and our founder at WallBuilders, Tim Barton is with us, national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders, and my name is Rick Green, I’m a former Texas legislator and America’s Constitution coach. 

Check us out at wallbuilderslive.com, that’s also the place you can get archives the program over the last few weeks and months. And that is the place you can make that one-time or monthly contribution. We sure appreciate you coming alongside us and donating to the program.

As a listener-supported program, we need listeners out there that not only support us by sharing the program and praying for us, but also that financially invest in the program. That’s what makes it possible for us to reach so many people across the nation, training them, equipping them, inspiring them, giving them the tools they need to be the catalyst for a restoration of biblical values and constitutional principles right there in their communities. So we appreciate you considering coming alongside us at the website wallbuilderslive.com. with that one-time or monthly contribution.

Well, David and Tim, Michele Bachmann is going to be with us later in the program. She’s a former Congresswoman from Minnesota, a good friend of the program, worked with you guys over the years and now the Dean over at Regent University of the government program there. And you know, she’s from Minnesota, Minnesota has these social studies standards that that are just awful.

And David, you’ve been on committee after committee in state after state over the years working through. What should the standards be in social studies that kids learn from kindergarten through high school? So you’ve dealt with this for a long time, have you ever seen it get as bad as it is right now with what our public schools are starting to indoctrinate the kids with?

Revisionist History

David:

No, sir. No where close. And by the way, for those that don’t know, the proposal that came down in Minnesota from the educators to the legislature, they weren’t ratified. And this is a state level. This is not just a wacky school district somewhere. This is the entire state of Minnesota. They want to remove references and history about the American Revolution, history of the Civil War, history of World War I, history of World War II, and history of the Holocaust. T

hey want those items gone. What they want to keep as 1619 so that we can talk about how bad America is, and how it’s always been a racist nation, how it’s never been good from the beginning.

So that’s what they’re looking at as the official standards of Minnesota. And of course, this is her state. This is where she was Congresswoman. This is where she was a state legislator before that. When she ran for president United States, she was Minnesota resident. 

So she knows that state very well. She knows the politics very well. I’m really, really pleased that she’s ended up at Regent University, there at the School of Government. Regent University, like other universities had ups and downs about whether they’d been conservative or liberal or whatever.

And even though they started in a very conservative, very constitutional manner, they got off for a bit, but now they’ve come back. And so with Michele in there, there is no question that these guys are going to be foundationally strong. And I was talking to her as dean and she said like she’s even making sure that they have the right biblical worldview. And we’ve talked to George Barna how often it is that Christians have a very non-biblical worldview.

And Michele is dedicated to ensuring that all the staff and faculty there have a biblical worldview so they do not undermine the faith of the kids who come there. So she’s got a lot of stuff going on right now, but my goodness, being out of Minnesota at a time. 

And by the way, at the time, she was elected to the Congress, Minnesota. It was a fairly red state. It was a presidential red state. It was a Republican legislature and Republican governor, etc. And now it is a hardcore blue status, it has taken a real shift. But she’s going to have good perspective on it.

Rick:

Alright, Michele Bachmann, our special guest today, stay with us. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

Moment from AMERICAN HISTORY

This is David Barton with another moment from America’s history. Today there are numerous documented accounts of individual students being disciplined simply for bringing a Bible to school. Fisher Ames would have been appalled at this open hostility toward the Bible.

Fisher Ames was the Founding Father who authored the House of Representatives language for the First Amendment. In his day, he vehemently objected to any attempt to minimize the Bible of schools. 

In fact, he declared “Why should not the Bible regain the place it once held as a school book? Its morals are pure. Its examples captivating, and noble. The reverence for the sacred book that is thus early impressed last long; and probably, if not impressed in infancy never takes firm hold of the mind.”

Founding Father Fisher Ames, the man most responsible for the wording of the First Amendment believed that the most important school book was the Bible.

For more information on God’s hand in American history, contact WallBuilders at 1808REBUILD.

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us. Always good to have former Congresswoman, Michele Bachmann with us. Michele, great to have you, thank you for coming on.

Welcome Dean Michele Bachmann

Michele:

Thanks so much, Rick. It’s always fun to be with you.

Rick:

Well, I actually said that totally wrong. I should have said Dean Bachmann, now Dean of the government school at Regent University, so excited about your new role there as well. In fact, let’s talk about that before we even get into our topic of the day on the Minnesota social study.

So Regent has been literally training world changers for years. So to have a world changer like you there as the Dean of the government program, fantastic move on their part. How are you enjoying it?

Michele:

Well, I’m loving it, because Regent University is committed to a biblical worldview approach to all different academic disciplines. And none is more important than in the area of government. So I’m so grateful to be able to be here where I can support the mission of the university, which is a biblical worldview understanding of government. 

We’re a graduate school, so we have five different Master’s Degree programs. And I’m just thrilled. It’s been an honor to be here.

We just hosted a seven hour conference on election integrity. We went through this last election. We put evidence out of all of the voter irregularities that there were. So if any of your listeners want to see that, it’s free. And it’s at regent.edu/electionintegrity, regent.edu/electionintegrity. It is so good, people literally said they were stunned from watching it. So we’re trying to hit the ground running here.

Regent University

Rick:

Oh man, we definitely need to spread the word on that as well. You guys have been, and when I say you guys, I mean Regent in general, way ahead of the curve for years back when much of the church was receding and pulling away from government, Regent recognize wait a minute, that’s just part of our religion, that’s just part of our culture. Of course, the Bible still applies to that. So I think it’s been what, 30, almost 40 years now…

Michele:

Over 40 years, over 40 years they’ve stood strong. Yes. I’m grateful they have a biblical worldview law school. Actually, I was in the very first class of the law school for Regent…

Rick:

I didn’t know that. No kidding.

Michele:

Yes. So I’m an Alumni of the school and my husband went to the Master’s program in counseling, and then he got a PhD. But they have tremendous graduate programs here in various disciplines, but it’s all biblical worldview. And it’s unashamed, unequivocal teach from a biblical worldview perspective, so I’m really proud of it.

Rick:

Well, it really is turning out people going into essentially, if I can use this phrase, the “Ministry of Government”, because it is another area of our faith. And when I read the press release about you becoming the dean, it mentioned over 1,100 alumni in strategic positions and state legislatures, the White House, local, state government, I mean all departments at the state and federal level. I mean, we need more of that, we need more Christians going, yeah, international too.

Michele:

Oh, yeah, international. Yeah, we have our highest number of graduates this year, Rick. We have 80 that are going out. And so they’re going out into state and local government, taking positions like City Managers. The Bible says that we’re to pray for the welfare of our cities. And so they’re going out, they’re taught how to do that in our cities. 

And then we also have a program on campaigns and political leadership. We have one on international development, like think of Samaritan’s Purse or Operation Blessing to prepare people to go for humanitarian service. And so we have that. We have National Security Studies for people who want to get in cyber warfare and all sorts of things dealing with international relations. And then of course, we have American Government as well.

Minnesota’s Social Studies

Rick:

Wow! So much there. Okay, regent.edu is the website and I mean, you guys do a ton of online degrees, so you don’t have to move to Virginia?

Michele:

We do. Yeah, no, 100% of all of our courses are available online. And during COVID, we had a lot of people come here and sign up. It’s a very easy way for them to get their Master’s Degree. We have first class faculty, and our faculties are very personal. They’re very involved in our students. So we have a wonderful alumni because they see the value of what they get here.

Rick:

Awesome! Good stuff. Okay. Well, you know, I was wanting to talk to you about this whole Minnesota social study thing, we’re seeing this across the country. But of course your home state of Minnesota, it looks like the social studies standards, man, they are really going after this whole racial divide thing and getting this, even fifth graders and fourth graders are talking about that and really dividing our people, I think, instead of uniting us. What do you think about these new standards and can they be stopped?

Michele:

Well, Rick, this is terrible. And I’m so thankful that you brought it up. Our state is run, pretty much we’re a one party state, a Democrat state, and our governor said that he wants to advance critical race theory through our children’s social classes. He wanted to get rid of traditional social studies, and instead he wanted to replace it with critical race theory.

Well, I’m sure that you’ve well educated your audience on what that is. And actually, it’s teaching Marxism through race. Marx taught his idea of Marxism through the oppressed and oppressor, through economics and class warfare. It’s the same exact thing that Marx did, only now they just use the area of race, and that one people group are the oppressed, the other are the oppressor.

Minneapolis Burning

And so in Minnesota, of course, we had the George Floyd tragedy, that case is going on. As many of your listeners may know, we just had another death happen. And so literally, Minneapolis is burning again, five nights in a row. And all of this is being fomented by the critical race theory that’s being taught. 

And essentially, what it says is that whites, it divides the races. We shouldn’t be divided by the color of our skin. But it specifically seeks to divide us by the color of our skin, and then condemn anyone who’s not of the preferred color, which is white.

Now whites are considered the oppressors and the blacks are considered those who’ve been oppressed. And so it continually creates division, hatred, where none existed before, very little existed before. And now everyone is on edge. 

And the goal is to seek to keep all people divided and to keep us on edge is a recipe for disaster in Minnesota. And anywhere where critical race theory is being taught, it’s a recipe for disharmony and societal disintegration.

Rick:

It’s so important for our listeners to know this, because often it’s sold in our local communities as just racial sensitivity, cultural learning about other people that didn’t grow up like you, that sort of thing and always has the, even Biden tried to use that and even Chris Wallace, in the debates with Trump whenever Trump was saying, no, this is bad, this is evil..

Michele:

Rick, you’re right. And it’s a lie. It’s just the opposite. Because people think, oh, this will bring about healing, this will bring about reconciliation. We all know that there was slavery in America’s history. But no other nation did what America did: 600,000 people voluntarily gave their lives to extinguish slavery forever in the United States. No other nation did that. We extinguished it. And we went from there to continue to deal with that issue.

Critical Race Theory

So to be at this point in 2020 and act like the United States is still a plantation filled with slave masters is just a falsehood, and it’s creating a disharmony, especially in communities of color that are horrendous because it’s creating anger and resentment between peoples. And we are not going to move forward with critical race theory being taught to little children, who don’t have discernment to know that they’re being fed a pack of lies as opposed to the truth.

Rick:

What’s the best way to push back, especially not only for Minnesota, this is the state standards that will be adopted, but people that are listening all over the country is coming to their local schools, if it’s not already there? What’s the best way for an individual citizen to push back?

Michele:

Rick, like any other area of consumer consumption, we walk with our feet. And I’m very serious when I say this. I would urge all of your listeners, pull your children out of your local public school. “Easier for you to say”, you’re saying to me. It actually wasn’t. We homeschooled our children and we sent them to private Christian school. It was very hard. We had to make sacrifices, but we decided that our number one goal would be a Christian education for our children.

God was very faithful. We were in ministry, we had no money. But God was very faithful to us and he always made sure that we could make our tuition payments so that our kids could go to Christian school. 

I will tell you, our children are now 40 years of age. I wouldn’t have changed one thing about that decision. Our children are in a completely different place now because of that decision.

We are so grateful for God’s faithfulness. I would encourage people, trust God with your child’s education, whether it’s homeschool or Christian school, it is so worth it, because one day we’ll all have to answer to the Lord for how we reared our children. 

And I’m telling you, that is the greatest investment that you will make in the next generation and five generations down the road. Because Paul says to Timothy, faithfully transfer the gospel of truth. That the best way we can do it by ensuring that our children have an education that is based upon godly principles.

Take Them Out

Rick:

So powerful and the rewards are impossible to calculate, the extra time you get with your family and your kids, the places you can go whenever you have that flexibility, I mean, all of those things are such huge benefits. And I know some people are probably thinking: “Well, you know, I don’t know that they teach that kind of stuff at my school.”

 I mean, look, when you send your kids off for 8 hours, 10 hours a day, they actually get your kids more than you do, once you actually calculate the sleep time and everything else, and you don’t know what’s being taught.

That’s part of what the whole COVID thing revealed, is in a lot of these Zoom classes parents were finding out, wait a minute, what did that teacher just say, I heard that as I walked through the living room, and they’re realizing, wow, there was some real inculcation going on when it was supposed to just be arithmetic being taught. 

Invest In the Future

So I think a lot of people are waking up. I think homeschooling now, I forget the numbers on how much it increased as a result of COVID and people experiencing it, but it was a massive increase all across the country. That’s one of the silver linings out of this last year.

Michele:

It is. And that’s why we never curse the darkness. The Bible says, don’t light a candle, don’t curse the darkness. And the thing is, there are positive alternatives out there. The government doesn’t force us to send our children to government schools. 

Because what we’ve seen is that education has moved away from teaching, knowledge, facts, and information to now they’re teaching attitudes, values, and beliefs, and those attitudes, values and beliefs aren’t biblical attitudes and values and beliefs. They aren’t anymore.

Today, it’s what the state wants children to know. And it’s antithetical to what the parents want. This will change your life. It’ll change your child’s life. It’ll change your grandchildren and great grandchildren’s lives. 

Election Integrity

It is worth every bit of investment, whether it’s homeschool or Christian school, it’s worth everything that you have to put God to the test and trust him. Trust Him, He will provide.

Rick:

I love that message. Okay, before I let you go, I started to say Michele, Dean Bachmann, what was that…

Michele:

To you and me, it’s Michele and Rick.

Rick:

That’s still, I’m so excited about this. Alright, yeah, give you that website to get on the election study that you guys just did and released?

Michele:

Yes, I’ll be delighted too and everyone will… You need to rush and watch this thing. It’s so good. And then share it with everybody you have. It’s regent.edu/electionintegrity, regent.edu/electionintegrity. Or if you just go to the Regent University website, type in election integrity, and it’ll take you to that site. 

But I’m telling you, it is seven hours and it is spellbinding. I talked to a guy today who watched, I said I couldn’t leave my computer. I sat there and watched the entire seven hours. It’s divided up so that you can watch each hour separately. You don’t have to sit there for seven hours. But I would go from start to finish. It’s incredible this information….

Rick:

Oh my goodness. I’m just scrolling through here. You got Eric Metaxas, Mark Steyn, Ben Carson, John Fund, I mean, this is loaded. Oh, yeah. Okay, this is good.

Michele:

This is loaded. I mean, this is an all-star A-list class, and that’s what I wanted to… Let me say this, Rick. Harvard University normally does a review of the previous presidential cycle. I read an article that said they weren’t going to do it. And that’s because this election wasn’t about the candidates. 

The 2020 Elections

It was about voter fraud. And we were all told we were not allowed to question the election results, the issue of voter fraud. And so I thought if Harvard isn’t even going to touch this issue, it’s because they don’t want to touch the issue of voter fraud.

So I amassed an all-star A-list class of people, like you said, Ben Carson, Eric Metaxas, Mark Steyn, John Fund, I mean, we have the lawyer that’s read every state and federal case, every pleading, every affidavit that was filed in all the election cases. They do a full review of the different cases and the different states. 

This is so good. We have 1,700 articles that are condensed down to one hour on voter fraud. We have videotape. We have graphs, charts. It’s just absolutely excellent on this whole issue of what happened in this last election. 

Was it really stolen? Was it really voter fraud? We answer those questions. And it is fantastic TV. And it’s free.

So watch it but then forward it to everybody you know, so they watch this. People have got to get this information because we were all told to be quiet and don’t question the results. No. We need to talk about what happened, because America is all about rule by the consent of the governed.

 And I believe this last election stole rule by the consent of the governed and instead, Rick, I think what we saw was a coup. And it’s coup is a political term. And that means that it’s hostile, illegal takeover of a government. 

I believe that is what happened in the 2020 election. And can go to regent.edu/electionintegrity, and we present all sorts of information and you make up your own mind about what you think.

Rick:

Well, and the only way we stop it from happening again is getting our friends and neighbors informed so that we can prevent it and we can get some good legislation passed in the states as well. So one more time: regent.edu/electionintegrity. We’ll make it really easy today for you at wallbuilderslive.com. We’ll have a direct link over there. Dean Bachmann, God bless you. Thank you so much for your time, really do appreciate you coming on today.

AMERICAN STORY

Michele:

Thanks, Rick. Looking forward to working with you. Bye. Bye.

Rick:

Alright, stay with us, folks, we’ll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

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 the 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 of 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 wallbuilders.com, The American Story.

Rick:

We’re back here WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us. And special thanks to former Congresswoman Michele Bachmann for joining us today as well. Back with David and Tim. And guys, I get motivated every time I talk to her. She’s so energetic, and so optimistic. 

I love it. It’s just iron sharpening iron, so good to have her on the program. And even with this difficult subject where we’re losing the social study standards all over the country, you can tell that she’s still working hard to raise that rim it up, and now through this great program at Regent, so excited to have her on.

Marist Propaganda

Tim:

Yeah, it’s interesting that she is identifying some of the cultural problems in the nation, looking at the Critical Race Theory, or CRT as is also known, and how there’s just so much Marxist propaganda. And as you see this infiltrating the nation, we’ve talked so often on the program, and certainly affairs as well about the challenges we see in education in the nation. 

And certainly, we are grateful that there are more and more parents that are bringing their kids into homeschooling and into Christian Schools and getting them out of some of this bad ideology.

Now there’s been many times we’ve made a little bit of an apologetic for teachers who are teaching in the public school. And whether they feel God’s called them there or it’s just a good job for them, we recognize there are some really good people in the public school system. But we recognize the public school system, by and large, is a very broken system, that there might be a good school here or there. But by and large, the system itself is not very good.

And so even when you look at university, you can have a lot of really good-hearted kids who’ve been given bad information. And college is the place where some of those underlying notions should be challenged. And how do we know this is true and what it really is true and how do we pursue truth and how do we apply this? 

Universities

The government school now at Regent is something that as seldom as we are able to point to universities and say, we think this is a really good program, we really trust the people doing it, it was something that whenever Piper was at Oklahoma Wesleyan, and we would often say Oklahoma Wesleyan, we know that George Barna is at the University of Arizona and we know some of the leaders out of that university in Arizona, dad, it’s Arizona Christian University in Arizona, right?

David:

That’s right.

Tim:

And so there’s a few universities we can point to and go these people seem like they’re really going the right biblical direction. That’s certainly the scenario and understanding we would have looking at what Michele was doing up at Regent University, and helping just inform students to think strategically, to understand that. 

As she pointed out, the US is not still a proslavery anti-black nation, there might have been a period in history, and maybe different periods in history, but you can point to different moments and say, okay, at this moment, at this time, in this place, they were proslavery, they were anti-black, that’s just not where we are now.

And, and so having somebody who is now the leader of a whole school at a university that the government school there at Regent University that understands some of the cultural battle, it’s really encouraging knowing that they’re going to be able to produce students that have an understanding of what’s happening in the culture.

–That as we’ve said, for Christians for a long time, we need to get more involved in the arena of politics in government, and it’s actually we’ve helped some different universities with government schools and Christian universities trying to get government programs going and learning, how government operates and how they can get engaged and involved.

So by and large, it’s very encouraging knowing that Michele is there, and she’s working to make a difference in future generations of government leaders here in America there at Regent University.

School Social Studies Standards – With Michele Bachmann

David:

So not only are they working, trying to get students just even good content, I mean, what they just covered with all this election review, and what happened in that, and that is available. And so we’ll have a link today on the website where folks can go and see some of that amazing content with the folks who were there, great speakers. So there’s just really good stuff coming out of Regent, and we appreciate Michele and all she’s doing.

And you know, she’s always been a really, really strong leader in a lot of areas. Never short of very strong opinions and man, you heard it come through, our kids are worth more than the education system: you can’t afford to lose your kid in a bad education system. So you got to protect your kids, get them a solid education. 

And if that means getting out of public schools to do that, do it. If that means send them to Regent University for graduate school, then on for it. But you’ve got to get good content, and Michelle has always been part of having good content.

Rick:

Alright, we’ll have those links today at wallbuilderslive.com. And also, often were asked which schools do consider a good place to send your kid to? Obviously, with someone like Michele Bachmann at Regent University, we would say Regent University is a good place and you can do it online as well. 

So we’ll have all those links today at wallbuilderslive.com. Be sure and check out the website there and consider making that one-time or monthly contribution. We do appreciate you listening today. You’ve been listening to WallBuilders Live.