Standing in the Gap for Family Values – with Carroll Conley: The Christian Civic League in Maine is making a difference in the area of Life. In Maine a bill was introduced to legalize abortion without restriction. There was a big push back from pro life citizens. Carroll Conley’s organization, The Christian Civic League had a big part in standing up for life and making a difference in the state of Maine. This is just one example of a growing number of people throughout the nation recognizing what needs to be done and being willing to stand in the gap. Carroll tells us about his experience and what we can do to steer our nation in the right direction.

Air Date: 5/16/2023

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green and Tim Barton

Guest: Carroll Conley from The Christian Civic League

Transcript:

Rick Green
This is the intersection of faith and the culture. It’s WallBuilders, we’re taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective, but we don’t want to just take on the hot topics of the day from that perspective, we want you to take on those hot topics of the day from that perspective. That’s why we are equipping and inspiring you with this programming, everyday bringing you great interviews, bringing you great foundational truths, and often good news to share with you about how people have applied these principles and how they’re getting results. But we want to challenge you to do the same thing, whether you become a constitution coach, and host our biblical citizenship class at your church or in your home. Or you just start studying these materials yourself, teach them to your kids, teach them to your grandkids, finding ways to get active though, once you get that information is vitally, vitally important. By the way, I’m Rick Green here with David and Tim Barton. I’m a former Texas legislator and America’s constitution coach. And of course, Tim Barton is a national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders. And David Barton is America’s premier historian and our founder at WallBuilders. But we all three want you to start taking action, looking for ways to be involved. And we’re finding good news across the nation where people have done that, and one of the best ways that that happens is in the family policy councils across the country, these organizations that are, you know, will following legislation, they’re working with people and pastors and communities and legislators and really restoring biblical values, bringing back those truths to the community. And so wherever you are in America, you can get connected to one of those family policy councils or other groups out there. There’s a lot of groups now that are attempting to restore American values, attempting to restore these things. And it’s one reason I’m always encouraging you to be a constitution coach, because once you start hosting those classes, you’ll find those groups, they’ll come to you that want to be part of what you’re doing. And you’ll really become an important part of… a catalyst we like to say, of restoring biblical values and constitutional principles. All right, David, and Tim, a little later in the program, Carroll Conley is going to be joining us from Maine. And actually, Tim, you talked about this last Friday, on our good news Friday, and we all kind of joked about the fact that it was coming from Maine. And they had such a tremendous outpouring there at the Capitol. And so Carroll is gonna actually be with us to catch us up a little bit more on that talk about the legislation talk about what happened that day, and how their organization, the Christian Civic League of Maine, is standing in the gap for family values there in the state of Maine.

Tim Barton
Well, I’m so glad we’re able to get him on. It’s something that we talked about some good news Friday. I mean, really just so remarkable for people maybe that didn’t hear good news Friday, you can always go back and listen to it. But in Maine, there was a bill dealing with legalizing abortion, basically no condition. So all access all the way through pregnancy, no limitations on abortion. And right now, there are some limitations on abortion. So the bill was to remove all of those limitations on abortion. And Maine is not known as a conservative bastion. And yet I think it was more than 1900 individuals that showed up that went to the Capitol, there was more than 600 people that testified that the committee meeting went 20 hours long. And this is where we talked about sometimes we are in a situation that we might not win, but we still have to show up. And to me this is very much the epitome of the John Quincy Adams story we tell when he was against slavery and he fought against it for years and years and years and really didn’t see success. He never saw slavery entered in his lifetime. But he always held the right position. He said his life motto was duty as ours results are God’s. And for people showing up in a state where it’s not real likely you’re going to stop the liberal progressive movement in Maine, it didn’t mean it might happen. It’s not real likely. But for them to show up, for them to say this is the right thing to do. And I’m going to show up, even though I have to stay there all night long. I’m going to show up. This is so encouraging which is what we talked about on good news Friday. And what’s also encouraging is that as we’re seeing this in Maine, we are seeing people wake up like this all over the nation, which is so encouraging going forward. So I really am excited to hear from Carroll and get an eyewitness account of what happened. Obviously he was there. He testified I mentioned on good news Friday that he offered the last testimony and it was like at 6:42am The next morning, something like that. So he was there all night long through this entire committee, offers the last testimony on why they should not remove limitations on abortion. Just really good stuff. So Rick, I am excited to be able to hear from him and just kind of hear firsthand what it was like being there. And maybe is this may be a prediction for a shift coming in Maine.

David Barton
And Tim, you mentioned the 1900 that showed up at the Capitol. And if you’re from Texas or California, if you’re from North Carolina, Florida, yeah that’s okay. That’s not impressive. But remember, Maine is a state that is a lot like Hawaii, it’s only got two congressmen. It’s a lot like Montana only got two congressmen, you’ve got some states smaller, like Wyoming with one congressman. But this is one of the smallest states in the nation, population wise, and 1900 people showing up? And especially out of Maine, they have two congressional districts, and that one district is a fairly small district it’s down along the coast. And the second district is almost the entire state of Maine, which is massive forest and massive wild areas and wilderness areas, and to get 1900 people to show up. I mean, again, that’s like other states with small population. And that’s a really significant thing. And I’ve got to tell you, just since the start of the year, I don’t know what’s going on, but I love what I’m seeing. And like Tim, you mentioned, this is a blue state, and we’re not used to seeing this kind of action in blue states. But I’ve seen more and more blue states this year, do things that really surprised me. And it’s not that there aren’t conservative people there. It’s just that nothing really we’ve seen going on in those states. But even in Minnesota, they just passed a crazy, crazy law and got a call from pasture right away said, well, here’s what we’re doing. And we’re not going to put up with this law. And I mean, he’s he’s initiated something in the communities there. And it’s real pushback. And so there’s some genuine, I guess, surprise on my part, to see that there’s so many people in these blue states. And we know there’s good people there. We just haven’t heard from them in, you know, a few years. And we are seeing something really significant start to develop. So having Carroll to talk about this. And I was just with Carroll last week. And I mean, there’s just a real different attitude in Maine right now, even though the Christians are in definite minority and conservatives appear to be in a minority. But you know what conservatives may not be as big a minority as they thought they’d been once they’re starting to show up. And getting 1900 citizens show up to the Capitol, that’s enough to scare several guys in marginal districts that maybe thought they were safe and then see that many show in the area. So Carroll’s got a really good perspective on what went on. And he’s really doing a great job of leadership in Maine.

Rick Green
Carroll Conley our special guest. Stay with us folks, we’ll be right back on WallBuilders.

Tim Barton
This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. After the final victory at Yorktown the Continental Army awaited the outcome of peace negotiations with Great Britain. Pastor Israel Evans, a chaplain in the army, proposed to George Washington that they build a structure where church services can be held during the months of waiting. Washington approved the plan and urges officers to ensure that the soldiers attend that service. Pastor Evans further knew if we were to secure the liberties they had fought for, sound education would be crucial. He declared, “€œEvery parent and every friend to the freedom of his country ought to be attentive to the improvement of our youth and the principles of freedom and good government. And then the people will stand fast in their liberty for a long time.”€ Our schools today need to return to teaching the principles of freedom and good government in order for America to survive and prosper. For more information about Pastor Israel Evans and other colonial Patriots go to WallBuilders.com .

Rick Green
Welcome back to WallBuilders. Thanks for staying with us. Carroll Conley is with us all the way from the state of Maine. Carroll, thanks for your time today, man.

Carroll Conley
It’s great to be with you.

Rick Green
Well, first of all, before we even get into the bills that are going through and the incredible outpouring of support that you saw at the legislature, quick catch up just on Christian Civic League, what you guys are up to right now and just how important it is to have organizations that are, you know, informing and advocating for pro family positions.

Carroll Conley
Well, The Christian Civic League is the Family Policy Council for Maine. So like the other 40 organizations, you mentioned, around the country that we are, you know, advocating for life, for religious liberty, parental rights and so many other things, biblical, you known, standards that are being under assault, especially on the state level. We also do some federal, so. We’re the oldest of the kind, by the way Rick. We’re 1897 is when The Christian Civic League so…

Rick Green
Come on!

Carroll Conley
Yeah, I’ve been the executive director for 13 years, but…

Rick Green
Not since 1897. You haven’t been the executive director since 1897. Right?

Carroll Conley
No, not not that long.

Rick Green
No, I mean, that’s incredible that you guys have been around that long and when I, you know, when I talked to my friends like Nicole Theis over in Delaware that runs Family Policy Council they’re, you know, in your state… In states like yours, It’s very different than our buddy Jonathan Saenz here in Texas with Texas Values. I mean, we definitely have our battles here in Texas. It’s not as red as people think it is. But you guys… Y’all are constantly facing a majority that is not for Christian values. And so when you have an outpouring, like you had on this last Monday-Tuesday, this legislation that is not expected… you wouldn’t expect to do well in Maine, and you have an outpouring like you did, that’s got to be encouraging to you.

Carroll Conley
Very encouraging and not just to us, but you know, it’s interesting, even the staff thats there… with a lot of those guys are, you know, retired military and, you know, things like that, that are working in, you know, in Augusta. And you know, we started at noon time and didn’t, I think, though, I gave my testimony at 6:45 that next morning, and I was just actually talking to the sergeant of arms in the Senate this morning, and just said, you know, you guys did a fantastic job, but they were encouraged to see that not everybody in Maine has lost their minds, when you see the media, and you know, Maine has really liked the United States in a lot of ways. Our coastal and southern parts of our state are very affluent, very, very, very liberal. But then in the rural states, it’s very red. But we are in the minority. So to see, you know, around 2000 people show up and then so many of them stayed through the night to fight against this terrible bill, which would be abortion on demand, you know, at any time, for any reason, was hope, to the legislators to each other. Frankly, it was like a church service. I mean, there was a lot of him singing and praise and worship music and prayer meetings going on in the capitol in a way that I was talking to folks have been at it a long time and never seen anything like it.

Rick Green
Well, it was so good that it made it to the top of Tim Barton stack for our good news Friday program last week. And you know, we thought we would highlight for a whole program talk about it and, you know, you mentioned this almost like it was nothing but you you said, you know, started at noon, your testimony at six something AM that next morning. I mean, that’s a long hearing. I served in the legislature and I can remember going untli 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. I don’t remember ever going all night to six in the morning. But man, what an incredible outpouring. Tell us… Okay, so the legislation, and we’re seeing this, in you know, with obviously with Dobbs last summer, sending it back to the states on the abortion issue. So your pro abortion type states have been, you know, expanding, trying to expand abortion from where it was under Roe v. Wade, and then more pro life states have completely outlawed abortion. So for you in Maine, this is a real battle and this bill would have essentially allowed for abortion, and would, if they did pass it, abortion, essentially up to birth right? Is it that bad?

Carroll Conley
That is correct. The language basically removes the viability standard. And so right now, the status quo is that you cannot get an abortion in the third trimester, unless it’s the life and the health of the mother. And so they basically remove that, and then they’ve removed any criminal consequence, for someone that performs an abortion that is not a licensed abortion medical provider. So it’s just very egregious, and as you rightly point out, it’s reaction to the Dobbs case, as much as we celebrated the Dobbs case, and love to see what’s going on in places like Texas and other places where the states are standing up for life, we are in the long game here in Maine, because our culture is not a culture of life here in Maine. And we’ve got a lot of work to do to convince our legislators and our citizens that we benefit from standing up for life, from, you know, from conception all the way to natural birth. And in between, we’re dealing with legislation like this.

Rick Green
With an outpouring like you had, I mean, that many people coming to the Capitol in you know, I don’t mean this as an insult, a smaller state. That’s massive. I mean, if we had 2000 people show up at the Texas capitol, that would be huge. So for it to happen for you guys, did you feel like and are you hearing… I mean, did it get the attention of the legislators? And do you think the impact is going to be enough?

Carroll Conley
That’s hard to say. I mean, we are not being naive. And we told the folks, and by the way, I want to give credit to Representative Laurel Libby as well. And we’ve been partnering with her organization that started just basically, and primarily to defeat this bill called Speak up for Life. And Laurel is a wonderful Christian legislator that has done tremendous work. So I want to make sure I give her credit for this. It’s… we’ve been telling folks even when they showed up at night, we’re here to be advocates. And we’re here to, you know, be… you know, stand up for the truth that every human being has intrinsic value because the Creator has, you konw, given him his image. We are… Our battles in the house, in the house representatives. And right now, there are 150 seats, so they have to have 76 votes to put this to pass. And that’s where we are right now. They’re about teetering between 75 and 76. So they have a very thin margin, but I will also say that Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry has a tremendous amount of influence in a small state, like you said, that only has 1.3 million people. They spent a million dollars last fall in making sure that they had legislators there that are going to allow for legislation like this. So it remains to be seen. The Bangor Daily News Today, our largest newspaper, put a front page article with a picture of all seven Democrats that have yet to sign on to this bill. So you talked about intimidation.

Rick Green
So the media’s yeah, they’re right there with the pro aborts and trying to get it passed. I do have to ask you, for that kind of a turnout. What spurred that? Like, what was the formula for getting that many people… were the churches informed and got riled up enough to send people? Tell me what was your secret there?

Carroll Conley
The churches were very involved. And again, Speak up for Life, our partners, we had about six or seven starting in the last weekend of January, until about four weeks ago, where we train people all in different churches all over the state, where we’d have is maybe 60 or 70 show up, as many as 250-260 show up. And we prepared them for this day. We said, here’s what’s happening. And here’s why you need to come. Here’s how you give a testimony. Here’s who your representatives are. So it was very, very intense preparation and training, to be advocates and creating wonderful lines of communication through texting and emails. As those individuals. We had well over 1000 people attend those Speak up for Life events, and that that laid the groundwork for a historic turnout and a very effective turnout. And I will say, Rick, you and I’ve been around a while. Maybe in the old days, it was, if you had a bunch of pro lifers show up that our passion sometimes may have got the best of us and it was could be a little angry. This was a joyous turnout. We weren’t joyous about why we were there. But it was really a joyous positive turnout, you know, promoting the truth of life and the sanctity of life. And even folks that weren’t necessarily with us this, like I said, the staff said what a pleasure it was to have the halls of our capitol filled with pro lifers.

Rick Green
That’s a testimony in and of itself, Carroll, I mean, that’s, you know, literally being, you know, that’s sharing the gospel just in the way that people act. You know, I mean, I can remember, it’s probably been 10 years ago, we had a massive pro life battle here in Texas. And boy, the other side, it was… And it was so obvious which side was which. The other side literally was chanting hale Satan, they were throwing, you know, doing all kinds of crazy, crazy stuff. And our side was, was sometimes just silent. I mean, they put the red tape over the mouth with, you know, and wrote life on it, and just stood there in peace. And then, you know, sang worship songs outside. And you could tell the difference. And I think that’s important, I think, I think long term that advances truth and wins people over in the long run. And that’s really my last question for you is, or maybe even just a challenge to you. I, man, I could see the momentum from this, growing in Maine, for not only the life issue, but all the issues that you’re paying attention to and working on and trying to restore a culture that is biblical, and that is… that benefits, everybody. I mean, it’s… that’s a good thing about God’s principles, everybody benefits when they are infused in the culture. And so I pray for your brother, that there’s, not only this piece of legislation, but all of the other things that you’re working on, that the churches will see, wow, this is what we should have been doing all along. And hopefully, we’ll do more of it. And look forward to get you back and hearing some more positive reports in the future as well.

Carroll Conley
Well, from your lips to God’s ears, and we really anticipate that. We’ve got a bunch of folks that are already signing up to be run for legislation and school board and committee as a result as of this momentum. So and we’re looking forward to through to that.

Rick Green
Oh, I love hearing that man. I love hear that. That’s the long term vision too. And that’s, you know, the left did that forever, right? They would get little bitty victories or, or even if they didn’t get the victories, they were in the fight. And so it was incremental, and they stayed in the trenches, scratching and clawing. And we tend to just, you know, have a big rally or have something and then go home. I think we’re getting better at what you just said, which you know, and continuing in the fight and getting people to realize, hey, citizenship is something you’re going to do until you’re six feet under. I mean, being a good biblical citizen is not just one particular piece of legislation. So praise God that that’s happening there. Praying for Maine and looking forward to getting you back, Carroll. Thanks for all you do, brother.

Carroll Conley
All right. Thank you. God bless.

Rick Green
Stay with us, folks. We’ll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

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We’re back on WallBuilders. Thanks for staying with us. Thanks to Carroll Conley for the interview and for all that they’re doing up there in the state of Maine and not just a place for good seafood. Actually a lot of great patriots up there as well. And of course, our friend Ken Graves up there that pastor that we’ve had on the program many times from Calvary Chapel and who has the best voice for radio of anybody I know. I wish I had his voice. At any rate, good to hear good news from Maine. And I’m hoping guys, this is an inspiration to our family policy councils across the country and to folks that sometimes feel like they’re behind enemy lines and they’re outnumbered.

David Barton
Well, you know, just before the interview, we were just kind of speculating that probably a bunch of those legislators up there are in marginal districts. And then Carroll brought out the fact that the Bangor News, the newspaper up there came out and listed all of the legislators who haven’t decided, including seven Democrats who are on the fence with this thing. Well, seven Democrats on the fence, as Carroll pointed out, this is just a one vote margin is all they need. And so if you happen to be from Maine, let me encourage you, and if you weren’t part of the 1900 that showed up, man, start calling those seven legislators because having 1900 people show up at the Capitol. I don’t know Rick, even in Texas, how many times did you have 1900 people show up when you were in the legislature even in Texas with you know, 25 million?

Rick Green
Yeah, I don’t think ever while I was there on one issue, 1900 people. Years later on one of the life… big life fights that we had, it was you know 1000s of people there. But in fact, that’s the only time I’ve been there that I saw that many people.

David Barton
Yeah. So I mean, in Maine, if people will simply call the legislators, call their own legislator, call some of those that are on the fence. And you know, the Bangor News put out who’s on the fence and trying to push them into the pro abortion direction. How cool would it be to be able to preserve the prolife protections that are in law in Maine, and there haven’t been a whole lot of them. But how good it is not to be California on the East Coast is… go as far as California had it. That’s something citizens can make a difference with. So Carroll has really done a good job up there in helping organize people. And you know, already we know that folks are lining up to even run for office. While I was up there I met the guy that’s probably running for the second congressional district, really solid guy it appears in just the time we spent together. And so I’m really encouraged that people are starting to step up, and as we talked about in states where we haven’t seen a lot of action and getting good candidates as well. So hopefully there’s a good change in the wind. Hopefully it’s not limited… Actually, I know it’s not limited just to Maine, because I’ve seen a lot of blue states this year, do an activity I haven’t seen in most blue states in decades.

Tim Barton
Well, Dad, this is something too I think it was last year, we saw some of this in Colorado, with some of the school board races where you had some conservatives winning school board races. I think there’s some in Denver and maybe Colorado Springs, but we’re seeing in some of these major Democrat stronghold metropolitan areas. And it’s not just Colorado, it’s just I know we were encouraging some of the churches in those areas to get involved. But we are seeing in a lot of these major blue Democrat cities, people beginning to wake up and show up. And we are literally seeing changes in some of these things that were thought to be just kind of institutionally liberal and left and secular. But what we’re finding out is that when people are showing up, we are making a difference. And we’ve talked about this before I think it’s worth mentioning again, is just because we show up one time doesn’t mean we’re going to win this cultural war. If we look at the American Revolution, there were more than 250 battles during the American Revolution. And the Americans lost the majority of those battles. In fact, through the revolution, Washington… George Washington was only part of 17 battles, and he only won six of those. America didn’t win the revolution, because we want all the battles. We actually lost the majority the battles, but because we kept showing up, we won enough battles that we finally won the war. And I think this is important because we’re hearing in Maine people are showing up. This is great news. But just because people show up on time doesn’t mean we’re going to win the war, we have to keep showing up. And we might even lose some of these battles along the way. But if we keep showing up, we put ourselves in a place where we have a chance to win this cultural war. And we can turn things around. And now back to the point we are seeing some of these things already happen. We’re already seeing some of these victories, we’re already seeing things turned around. And guys we’ve talked about it before but this is why I think we are in the midst of a another awakening another great awakening because people are waking up in maybe unprecedented ways we’ve seen over the last many decades and for this many people be waking up and getting involved, God is doing something and that’s encouraging

Rick Green
Alright folks well good news. Good news out of Maine I know you know it’s always a little bit funny to people when we have a guest on or on good news Friday, we talk about stories out of California and Maine and Massachusetts and places like that. But there’s good stuff happening. There’s great Americans great Bible believing constitution loving Americans in all of these states, in even the bluest of blue areas. And sometimes you feel like you’re behind enemy lines, or that you’re all alone. A lot of times we feel like Elijah. I’m the only one left. He said 7000 have not bowed their knee to Baal. And I believe in America, there are millions and millions. I know from from going to the groups and talking to the groups recently in Otter Tail, Minnesota and Plymouth, Massachusetts and in all of these places, where there blue areas, but there are packed rooms full of patriots full of Bible believing, Constitution loving folks working to restore the country. Hope this has encouraged you today. Thanks so much for listening to WallBuilders.