The Truth Will Win – on Good News Friday! Today is Good News Friday, which means we’ll be working through David and Tim’s stack of Good News Articles. The Dallas Mayor has switched to Republican, and he continues to bring the crime level down in the city. In Florida, Dr. John Littell who advocated for ivermectin as a treatment for COVID, has been reinstated. At Auburn University in Alabama, the football coach has been baptizing students who are coming to Christ. Likewise, in Snead State Community College in Alabama, the president of the college is praying with the students and sharing Bible verses. In New Mexico, after the governor attempted to ban guns, law enforcement refuses to enforce the governor’s order. All of this and more on Good News Friday!

Air Date: 9/29/2023

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

Transcription:

Rick Green: 0:12
This is the Intersection of Faith and the Culture. It’s WallB uilders, where we take on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. And we’re glad you’re here with us to do exactly that, because not only do we talk about those hot topics from that perspective, we encourage you to take action on those hot topics, but with that biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. My name is Rick Green. I’m a former Texas legislator and America’s Constitution Coach and I’m here with David Barton and Tim Barton. The Barton family has done so much for our country. I was just reading a couple of articles just talking about the difference in opinion on separation of church and state, even what’s being written in Supreme Court opinions now versus 30 years ago, and how much so much of that is because of David Barton writing originally the Myth of Separation of Church and State and then Original Intent and then all the things that WallBuilders has been doing over the years. So I just love these guys, love their entire family and so thankful for the Barton family and WallB uilders and what they’ve been doing. David Barton, of course, America’s premier historian and our founder at WallB uilders, Tim Barton, is a national speaker and pastor and president of WallB uilders, and you can book both of these guys by going to our website at WallBuilders. com . And we love coming out to your community and sharing and speaking at churches and conferences and things like that, to share the truths about where our country came from, what the principles are that make the country great and how to restore those things. And that’s essentially the goal of the program. The name Wall Builders actually comes from that scripture in Nehemiah that says arise and rebuild the walls that we may no longer be a reproach. And that’s what we’re doing. We’re rebuilding the foundations, the principles that make a nation great. And you get to be a part of that when you join us here on Wall Builders Live, whether it’s just listening to the program or even if you share the program with your friends and family, you’re sort of like a broadcaster. In a way, you’re a force multiplier, you’re helping us to expand the voice. And then when you donate to the program, same thing You’re helping us to add stations and reach more people. So if you want to do any of those things, go to WallBuildersLive. com. That’s WallBuildersLive. com , that’s our radio site and then WallBuilders. com is our main website. That’s where you can get a lot of the curriculums and other things that are available for you to be able to get educated, equipped, inspired to make a difference out there. And today, specifically, to get educated, equipped and inspired. Especially inspiration today, because it’s Good News Friday and we love getting the good news that has been out there. We just haven’t seen most of it from the major media, but I love Fridays and love talking about the good news that’s happening. Alright, guys, time to dive into that good news. David Barton’s got our first piece of good news. I love trying to guess. I’m going to guess. I’m guessing it’s a decision from the courts in the Midwest. I have no idea why I’m guessing this, folks and I may be way off. I’m looking at David’s face and it’s like you could not be further off. David, am I even close? Is it the courts?

David Barton: 3:01
I wish you had given me a chance to lay a wager on this, because I don’t bet, but I would have made money on this one man. If I could have talked you up to a high bet on this, I could have cleaned house, not even close.

Rick Green: 3:12
I think the only reason I said Midwest was I was thinking, okay, even if it’s not the courts, he couldn’t say I couldn’t have gone further in the country, away from where your good news was. I was like hedging my bet in the middle of the country. But okay, alright, where are we actually going?

David Barton: 3:26
I’m curious if I say the mayor of Dallas, I want to see how you turn that into a judge in the Midwest.

Rick Green: 3:32
Okay, we’re just kind of south of the Midwest, I don’t know a judge.

Tim Barton: 3:39
Well, it depends on how far west we’re talking, right? That could be the middle of the west, depending on how, you know.

Rick Green: 3:43
Hey! And it’s a judge. He said it’s a judge, so I was right about it being the courts in the Midwest of DFW.

David Barton: 3:50
No, no, it’s a mayor. I’m curious to see how you’re gonna turn a mayor into a judge mayor.

Rick Green: 3:56
Oh a mayor! Yeah, I’m…

Tim Barton: 3:57
Sorry, Rick, It didn’t do on this one.

Tim Barton: 4:00
The mayor made a judgment and therefore…

Rick Green:
Okay, good, there we go. Yeah, okay, this is, this I’m… You got me intrigued though, at this point, David, because it’s in Dallas and Dallas has been pretty bad for the last few years gone, really left. So what good news we got out of Dallas with the mayor there.

David Barton: 4:17
Well, the mayor in Dallas is Eric Johnson. He is a black Democrat. Used to be. He’s still black, but he’s no longer Democrat. He just became a Republic and he became a Republican, and he announced it in a Wall Street Journal op-ed and the headline is American cities need Republicans and I’m becoming one. So Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, he says I’m leaving the Democrat Party. And this is what he says, quote the future of America’s great urban centers, and Dallas, I think, is in the top 10 of all the big cities, and by the way, in the top 20, I think there’s only one Republican mayor in the top 20 and I think that’s Fort Worth is number 13. But he says the future of America’s great urban centers depends on the willingness of the nation’s mayors to champion law and order and practice fiscal conservatism. So law and order and a fiscal conservative, and that’s what America’s big cities need, and we on the outside certainly know that’s what New York City needs, that is what Washington DC needs, that’s what Portland needs, that’s what Seattle needs, that’s what Chicago needs, etc. And so here you have Eric Johnson who’s doing that. And it’s interesting, after he took office in 2019, crime went down in Dallas and he says he attributes that downturn of crime after he took office, to three things. He says number one, having a strong police chief. Number two, having a budget that reflects public safety being your city’s top priority. And number three, ensuring that there’s community buy-in for crime reduction. So if you recall, when Black Lives Matter came to town, it lasted for a little bit of one night and that was it. Once they started busting stuff up. It got cracked down, it got stopped and they didn’t try a second time in Dallas. So I think it’s really really good that you’re seeing a large city mayor who’s been a lifelong Democrat, particularly a black American, who’s saying this is not working. What’s going on in the cities is not working, high crime is not working and Democrats are not working because they’re, evidently, he thinks they’re doing this because he’s becoming a Republican, because he wants to be on the other side of what’s going in the city. So really good news.

Tim Barton: 6:28
Well, and I think it’s too. It’s so encouraging that he cited Democrat policies, right? And so often people get confused with the policies Driving the party and oftentimes people want to identify with Republican or Democrats and the reality is we hold more to Biblical, conservative, constitutional lines and that doesn’t always align with Republican leadership but it generally does not align almost never with Democrat leadership. But to be able to identify, it’s not, right, it’s not just a political party, it’s the policy. So, regardless of which party was promoting these policies, these policies don’t work. But he did identify these are Democrat policies, these are, right now, the policies that Democrats are promoting, and it doesn’t help cities, it doesn’t help people in those cities. And For someone to have the intellectual honesty to not just ride the political bandwagon and say that this is what my party believes, so this is what I’m gonna do. I think it’s so encouraging to see someone with the intellectual honesty to acknowledge the failure of Democrat policies, especially when they are a pretty noted Democrat leader. When you’re talking about the mayor of Dallas, that’s kind of a big deal, and for the mayor to identify the failure of Democrat policies right now In Dallas there are several Democrat leaders that serve in the state legislature, right? There are a lot of prominent Democrats from Dallas, and so when you have one of the most noted Democrat leaders from Dallas, the mayor of Dallas, making this acknowledgement, that is really encouraging to me.

Rick Green: 8:03
You know, and sometimes these things domino right. So if this guy switches, there’s gonna be other Democrats that are saying well, you know, we’ve been sick of these policies too. We’ve watched our cities fall apart because of these policies, and so it could turn into a great example. I don’t remember the last time we had a Republican mayor of Dallas. I remember Steve Bartlett. Decades ago he was also a congressman, was mayor of Dallas, like when I made the Ronald Reagan documentary. So we’re talking 1993, I don’t know, 1994, around that time. I don’t remember there being a Republican since then in Dallas. So, yeah, really, really good news, David, not from the Midwest and not from the courts, but good news. Okay, Tim, what you got, man? I’m not guessing, I’m done! I’m not guessing again.

Tim Barton: 8:48
Alright, well I am going to Florida. It seems like there’s a lot of good news things happening in Florida over the last couple years. Thank you, governor Ron DeSantis, for so much of that work and so many good leaders down in Florida. Now, with that being said, there is a doctor from Florida. His name is Dr John Littell. I’m not quite sure how to pronounce the last name. It’s L-I-T-T-E-L-L, so Littell, not really sure how he’d pronounce that, but he was a doctor that in the middle of the COVID pandemic crisis, he was one of the doctors that advocated for some alternatives like ivermectin, and made a case for some of what he thought could be very beneficial In the midst of all of the COVID nonsense the American Board of Family Medicine and this actually, in January of 2022. So at that point we knew several things about COVID. There was more information out there, but certainly it was very, very political. But he received a warning from them and ultimately they ended up pulling his license. So he lost his ability to practice medicine and he also taught at a school and he is pulled out of the hospital. He was escorted out of Sarasota Memorial Hospital after board meeting. He was talking to somebody and apparently he went behind the line he wasn’t supposed to cross to talk to one of the board members, and he gets escorted out and then he receives a letter telling them that he’s from this board, that he has lost his ability to practice medicine, and so his life is just kind of coming unraveled. But largely it’s because of the position he took in, arguably, of advocating for ivermectin. And of course, this is when the FDA came out with their famous social media posts where they said look, you’re not a horse, you’re not a cow. Seriously, y’all, stop it. We’re referring to stop using ivermectin, because there is an ivermectin that is used on animals, but there’s also an ivermectin that is used for humans, and the FDA pretended like there’s only one ivermectin. There’s not one for humans and one for animals, anyway. So it was kind of in the midst of that whole debacle. The good news at the end of the story is that he did receive a reinstatement of his license and there was a lot of money raised in his defense. There was a GiveSendGo campaign and it was to help offset his legal fees for trying to regain his license, among other things. There were 6,400 people that donated almost a quarter of a million dollars and there were about 1,900 more that had pledged to pray for him in the midst of this, and so now he has received every reinstatement. And of course, people might remember that the Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, also voiced support for Dr Littell, acknowledging, he said what they’re doing is being a bully. He said in an interview with a Floridian it’s not going to age well. I read the letter from the board and it’s dripping with political animosity. Then you had state reps and congressmen that began coming out in support and favor of him, and so ultimately they’ve changed their position. He’s reinstated and now he’s going to take that money and use that money to help students that are in medical school that are having to deal with some of these woke policies that are hindering some of their educational journey. So he’s going to use it for helping future doctors. And this article from the Epoch Times is like five or six pages long, so I’m just scrolling through trying to highlight a little bit of what’s here. Make sure I don’t miss anything. But the bottom line is it’s really good news that we are finally now coming to a place where we’re being a little more honest about what the science actually did and did not show. In fact, I’ve seen some studies that have come out that showed what the vaccine did for kids and specifically, when you look at younger people and by younger people, we’re talking about zero all the way up to like 16 or something. I’d have to go back and look at it specific study, but their estimates were that getting the jab would have saved zero to one of these kids but it caused, I want to say it was somewhere between 100,000 and 200,000 negative effects of like myocarditis in these kids they’ve seen so far and instead of initially being able to have honest conversations about some of the medicine, some of what was there, you saw a censorship campaign, a silencing campaign, a bullying campaign against a lot of the people speaking out against this, a lot of the doctors acknowledging that there might be some other valid options out there, like in ivermectin, like things we heard from Dr Robert Malone and many other doctors along the way. All that to say, some of the good news now is we are seeing a restoration of some of those licenses and some of the reputation of some of these people that were really targeted and penalized for speaking up, trying to help save lives. So in this case, really good news for Dr Littell.

Rick Green: 13:57
Yeah, Tim, you mentioned that Surgeon General from Florida. Man, what a rock star. That guy was so good throughout the whole craziness the last couple of years and stood with Ron DeSantis in a lot of those press conferences to take a lot of the heat and a lot of the craziness from the media saying you’re killing grandma and all that crazy stuff. So that’s another good news story there. Just his effectiveness as Surgeon General. Would be kind of nice to have him as a US Surgeon General maybe, or replace this Pope Fauci guy. Just a thought, just a thought. All right, David, let’s take a quick break. We’ll come back and get your next piece of good news. Stay with us folks, you’re listening to WallBuilders.

Tim Barton: 14:41
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, and I know often times for parents we’re trying to find good content for our kids to read. And if you remember, back to the Bible, to 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 want to let you know about some biographical sketches we have available on our website. One is called the 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, and there’s a second collection called Heroes of History. In this collection you’ll read about people like Benjamin Franklin or Christopher Columbus, Daniel Boone, George Washington, Harriet Tubman, friends 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 that’s www. WallBuilders. com .

Rick Green: 15:44
We’re here back on Wall Builders. Thanks for staying with us. Next piece of good news coming from David, not from the Midwest, not the courts, unless he dug through the stack to find one, just to make me be wrong again. Maybe? I don’t know. David, what do we got?

David Barton: 15:55
We’re going southeast this time. We’re going to Alabama. Now, last week on Good News Friday, talked about the fact that it is really refreshing to see places across the United States where that people are becoming Christians at a growing rate. We talked about the University of Texas A&M Corpus Christi, how students there have really got some great studies going I think 20 or 21 different study groups and people are being baptized every week, becoming Christians. And there’s a local pastor who’s opened his church up so kids can be baptized there and even talked about one chaplain in the military who baptized 150 guys just over the summer in the basic training that was there. Well, this is kind of like that. If you go to Auburn University in Alabama, there have been hundreds of kids there on campus who have become Christians. In baptizing those kids, one of the people who is baptizing is the head football coach, Hugh Freeze. Here he is. He’s a very visible face and name, known nationally, and he’s a Christian and these kids are coming to Christ and becoming Christians and he’s there baptizing them. And also in Alabama you have Snead State Community College. At Snead State Community College the president of the college is actually saying grace over the meals there in the cafeteria and he’s actually sharing guiding Bible verses for the students. And so here’s two universities in Alabama, two colleges in Alabama that are actually engaging and expressing their faith, like the first amendment says you can do. And, as you can imagine, there are people who don’t like that, not the least of which is the Freedom from Religion Foundation in Wisconsin. Now, it’s kind of crazy that Wisconsin’s going to get offended over something in Alabama, but they just look for ways to be offended. And the thing that sets them off and triggers them is when somebody expresses their faith publicly and they’re claiming this is unconstitutional. Well, first off, it is not. Even in the radical days of the court, when the court was judicially active and shutting down religious activities, the courts consistently held that look, when you’re in college, you’re an adult and you have the right of free speech and we’re not going to censor religion at college in that way. We do it in high schools, we’ll do it in junior highs and elementary and middle schools, but we’re not going to do it at colleges. Because you’re an adult, you’re over 18. Welcome to free speech. Now, I don’t know why being under 18 keeps you from having the guaranteed constitutional right of free speech, but those judicially active courts thought they did, so. First off, the whole basis of complaint and the claim that this is unconstitutional is nonsense. The courts have consistently held that, look, when you’re an adult, you’ve got the right of free speech and we’re not going to shut off religion just because you may not like it. But what I like even better than all of that was the governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey. She had a pretty clear statement to make. I love statement. She said I am proud to stand in support of religious liberty at Snead State Community College and Auburn University. As governor, I can assure you Alabama will never be intimidated by out of state interest groups dedicated to destroying our nation’s religious heritage. Good for her. Doubled down and said look, you guys don’t scare us and you’re not going to destroy our nation’s religious heritage. I’m going to stand and defend that. I love it, Alabama. Way to go. Way to go, Kay Ivey, and way to go both Auburn and Snead state community college and way to go football coach and president of the university there. Good job.

Rick Green: 19:21
I just don’t think I can celebrate anything in Alabama when it’s not, you know, Alabama winning football. I thought that was the only thing you ever got excited about in Alabama was football. So, but thank you, David, for, you know, giving us some other good news from Alabama. All right, Tim, where we going bro?

Tim Barton: 19:35
Alright well, this one’s New Mexico, and this is something that we followed very closely. We were curious what was going to happen. When the governor of New Mexico came out and said hey, for the safety of all of our citizens, we’re declaring an emergency and we are banning guns, it was something of that effect, right?

Rick Green: 19:54
Public health crisis! It’s a public health crisis, yeah.

Tim Barton: 19:56
Right, yeah, I mean, it’s so many silly things, right? There’s a lot of public health crises and certainly when you look at some of the major cities where they ban guns, yes, there’s a lot of gun violence. Where you have banned guns, then only outlaws have guns, yes, but nonetheless, not to digress. The headline of my article says defiant gun owners refuse to obey New Mexico law. Police will not enforce governor’s order. and the article highlights that this was earlier in September that hundreds of law-abiding gun owners gathered…

David Barton: 20:29
Yeah, let me interject there. Tim, did you just notice the headline? They refuse to enforce New Mexico law. She just made an announcement. We’re not going to do… that’s not a law. Look how even the paper has taken that thing and taken her decree on, we’re going to stop guns in Albuquerque and they’ve made it a… I just had to comment. That is so… I get ticked off at headline guys who try to inject feelings into things one way or the other. There’s no way that’s a law. She just made an absolute decree. It takes a legislature to pass a law. The legislature did not go with the governor on this. Sorry, back to your point.

Tim Barton: 21:03
Yeah, I mean, maybe in fairness, maybe some of the legislator would have gone with her. But to your main point, this was not a legislative act, so it’s not a law. So when people talk about that, judges have just come up with a new law or the president just did a new law. No, they can do.., Judges can do opinions and executives can do executive orders, but that only applies to the agencies under them, and we, the people, do not fall under the executive order in that extent. Nonetheless, Dad, to your point. Yeah, this is a, I won’t say what outlet now because I don’t want to throw one of our friends under the bus but yeah, this is a conservative outlet, this is a conservative writer who wrote this, and maybe… I mean we understand. Oftentimes, people write things for clicks and that’s what they do. Maybe that’s what this was. Nonetheless, the point of the article was that hundreds of law abiding gun owners, they gathered an old town, Albuquerque, to protest governor Grisham’s executive order that to temporarily suspended second amendment rights across the state. What’s great about this, though, is that there were a lot of law enforcement agencies across the state that pushed back against the governor, and on this list, this article identified several of them, the Albuquerque police chief, Harold Medina, said flat out that he won’t enforce it. The Bernalillo County District Attorney, Sam Bregman, who once served as a Democrat Party leader and was appointed by the governor, he joined the Albuquerque mayor, Tim Keller, and the police chief, Harold Medina, who all said they were not going to enforce the order. He clarified as an officer of the court, I cannot and will not enforce something that is clearly unconstitutional. Now this is super encouraging. My first thought is I wish they would study more of the Constitution and recognize more of what they’re doing is not constitutional either, but this is a great start. He continued that this office will continue to focus on criminals of any age that use guns in the commission of a crime, which again seems like that’s a great thing. Let’s stop criminals from being criminals. Then the county sheriff, John Allen, he also weighed in. He said I’m weary of placing my deputies in positions that could lead to civil liability conflicts, as well as the potential risks posed by prohibiting law-abiding citizens from their constitutional right to self-defense. Republican lawmakers in the state came out calling for the governor to be impeached. One of the legislators said I’m calling on counsel to begin the impeachment process against Governor Grisham. This is an abhorrent attempt at imposing a radical progressive agenda on an unwilling populace, rather than addressing crime at its core. Governor Grisham is restricting the rights of law-abiding gun owners. Even Grisham believes this emergency order won’t prohibit criminals from carrying or using weapons, a basic admission that this will only put New- Mexicans in danger, as they won’t be able to defend themselves from violent crime. Guys, one of the things that’s so encouraging to me is that even Democrats have come out and said yeah, this is nonsense, we’re not gonna do it. And there have been times that we have seen some of these gun laws come into effect where you would have a county sheriff, you would have somebody from the sheriff’s department who often, the sheriffs are in an elected position, and they recognize this is not what the people want and this is unconstitutional, right, That they’re not allowed to do this. But at times we would see police officers and police chiefs that were just gonna follow orders. They’re just gonna do what they’re told and unfortunately, a lot of times in some of these kinds of situations, what they’re being told is not in defense of the Constitution and it’s taking away people’s rights. I was recently talking to somebody and they pointed out that when you go back to some of the war crime trials at the end of World War II and so many of the German officers who were on the stand, who had gone through and done some evil things, some of the German soldiers who had done some evil things in murdering and it’s even some of the extermination camps, some of the death camps, one of their defenses was I was just following orders, I was just doing what they’re told, and they were still held liable because they recognized that the law was violating basic morality, basic decency. Well, in this case, in New Mexico, the executive order is violating the Constitution and so it’s so encouraging that you’re seeing district attorneys and mayors and police chiefs who many of these leaders, by their own admission, are open Democrats, but even they’re recognizing that this is clearly unconstitutional and it won’t solve the underlying issue. So this is really good news coming out of New Mexico, the response to the governor’s ridiculous claim to take away Second Amendment rights.

Rick Green: 25:40
Yeah, Tim, I’m with you, man, this is a big one on so many fronts. The public was smart enough to say, hey, in public emergency, you guys are gone too far with this stuff. And then to have these key players say no, what a really, really good sign for what could be situations like this to come, right? I mean, we’ve said they’re gonna try climate change as the next public health emergency. I mean who knows what it’s gonna be. But to know that we’ve got these law enforcement leaders that are willing to say no when it’s clearly unconstitutional, man, what a great piece of good news for us to end on today, guys, thank you so much for all the research and all the good news. My career as a betting, guessing whatever, predicting what the good news is gonna be, is over. I’m done. I was so far off this time I don’t think I’m gonna try again, but you guys had great news for us, today. Really, really appreciate it! All right, folks. There’s more on our website. Be sure to check it out there at WallBuilders. com and WallBuildersLive. com . You’ve been listening to Wall Builders.