Trump’s Twitter Account, A Religious Liberty Tweet We Can Appreciate: Good News Friday today on WallBuilders Live!  Tune in now to hear about some of the good things that have been happening in our country recently. In this episode, we discuss things such as the tweet from Trump’s twitter that shocked us, how a Subway lawsuit backfires, and how a mayor has an incredible idea to help the homeless in his community. All this and more, right here on WallBuilders Live! 

Air Date: 10/06/2017

Guests: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

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Transcription note:  As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast.  However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Faith And The Culture

Rick:

You found your way to the intersection of faith and the culture, this is WallBuilders Live where we”€™re talking about today”€™s hottest topics on policy, faith, and the culture, all of it from a Biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective.

We’re here with David Barton, America’s premier historian and our founder here at WallBuilders. Also, Tim Barton, national speaker, pastor, 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 and the program right there at our website WallBuildersLive.com. It has a lot of archives, you can listen to programs from the last few weeks, you can see the list of all of our stations and lots of other great information there.

Then also WallBuilders.com, you can go to that website and get all of our other materials, lots of great information for you, your family, your church, and your community. So check it out a WallBuilders.com.

It’s Good News Friday, we love Good News Friday around here at WallBuilders, it”€™s the chance for David and Tim to take the stacks of good news that have been collected over the last few weeks and just rapid fire share with our audience. We”€™re giving you a chance to hear some good news, that you’re not hearing much on the major media. So, I enjoy Fridays. David, Tim, let’s dive into some good news. David, what’s up first?

How This Mayor Made A Huge Impact On The Homeless In His Community

David:

I’m going to go to Albuquerque, first. Interestingly enough, Albuquerque has had a little bit of a sea change in it. They have their first Republican mayor in 30 years. So, that has been a relatively blue state.

It has, for at least most of the congressmen, I think they have four congressional seats, three are Democrat one is Republican. Steve Pearce is Republican, great guy. Then I think the other three are Democrat, both of their senators are Democrat, I think their Governor Susana Martinez is Republican. So, it”€™s generally a blue state. Albuquerque is not a very conservative city.

This is somewhat of a liberal city and New Mexico and Republican mayor, Richard Berry was driving around the city, as he did he saw a panhandler on the side of the road and says, “€œWanted job. Anything helps.”€ He”€™s just holding the sign that said that.

Then that got him thinking. What he did was he instituted a program called, “€œThere’s a Better Way”€ program. What he did was he looked for panhandlers and hired them at nine bucks an hour. That’s above minimum wage, it”€™s a whole lot less than probably what you”€™d pay a city employee. But it gave them a day job, and they could pick up trash, they could work in beautifying the city with the flower stuff around, and the trees, and grooming, and the landscape, etc, all stuff they have to pay to get down in the city.

He was giving them $9 an hour, which is above minimum wage, and giving them a lunch. At the end of the shift, he found some nonprofits that would give them overnight shelters to whomever needed.

He’s done this now for a year, in that period of time they now have 932 jobs given out to panhandlers, they’ve cleared nearly 70,000 pounds of litter, and they’ve weeded 196 city blocks. Out of that more than 100 people now have permanent employment. They’ve been connected to jobs through what they did there.

I”€™d say that’s a good news story, the Biblical approach to how you handle welfare, etc. And there are people who are willing to work, just give them a shot. Sometimes it’s hard when you go to a place and you don’t get a paycheck except for a week.

The Bible actually talks about paying laborers at the end of the day. That”€™s because of poor folks and others that need money right then. You go to McDonald’s or something else and get a job, you may be two weeks before you get a check. But here it’s day labor so you get paid at the end of the day. I really like this approach and now he’s getting calls from red and blue cities all over the nation saying, “€œWe want to do this. Tell us how to do it.”€

Tim:

What a great way to help people. We’re not just saying, “€œWhat can government provide for them?”€ It”€™s saying, “€œIf you have some physical ability then let us help you earn what you need.”€  

It’s such a great balance between the left and the right argument of, “€œGovernment should provide,”€ “€œNo, they should do it.”€ This is government providing the opportunity for you to come and do something, really, it’s kind of this happy meet in the middle.

It”€™s definitely the Biblical perspective where like you’re mentioning, we’re encouraging this labor and also they’re being rewarded for it. And, with all the trash, their city’s got to look so much cleaner with all that trash picked up. This really is a good way to do it.

Rick:

The only thing that surprised me about this is that I can’t believe there weren’t protests from the weed picking lobby. Usually, there’s some government employee, like you said David, making a whole lot more money that’s doing these jobs and then they’re going to be upset because somebody else is doing it for a lesser amount. I’m surprised they didn’t do that, that speaks very well for Albuquerque.

David:

Yeah, it speaks well for Albuquerque, no question about it. Kudos to this mayor for having that mentality to think about what people can do for themselves and what government can help people do for themselves, rather than doing it for them. It’s great.

Rick:

I”€™m glad to hear other cities are already inquiring to find out more. It”€™s one of things I love about these ideas. Just like the founders talked about, you have these laboratories in the states. It”€™s kind of the same thing in cities, they do some of these great programs, and get good results, and boom, it spreads all over the country. Hopefully, we’ll see that with this one as well. We’ve to take a quick break, we’ll be right back with Tim Barton giving us some good news. Stay with us, you’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

American History

This is Tim Barton from WallBuilders with another moment from American history. Many today wrongly claim that our Founding Fathers were largely atheists, agnostics, and deist.

Certainly, some Founders were less religious than others, but even they were not irreligious. Consider Benjamin Franklin, definitely one of the least religious among them, yet, when the delegates at the Constitutional Convention hit an impasse in their deliberations it was Franklin who called them to prayer, invoking numerous scriptures to make his point.

As he reminded them, “€œGod governs in the affairs of men. If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured in the sacred writings that, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this.”€

So, even the least religious of America’s Founders urged public prayer in dependence on God. For more information about the faith of the Founding Fathers go to WallBuilders.com.

“€œIn God We Trust,”€ In Schools

Rick:

Welcome back WallBuilders Live, thanks for staying with us today on this Good News Friday! Tim Barton is next with some good news, Tim?

Tim:

Guys, this one is coming out of Arkansas, one of our friends who’s been to our Pro-Family Legislators conference for a couple of years is Jim Dotson. He is from, I guess, the Bentonville area of Arkansas.

One of the things that he did recently in Arkansas is he said, “€œIn our states, with as much as we battle in education with religious liberty, with all this kind of stuff, what we need to do is have our schools display our national motto, “€˜In God We Trust.”€™ And then student”€™s teachers would recognize it’s not wrong, it’s not illegal to mention the word ‘God’ in school. It’s part of our nation’s history, it’s part of our heritage, part of our national motto.”€

Which, the motto backing up to- Abraham Lincoln is the one that gets put on the coins, under Eisenhower is part of the currency. But you can even backup to the Star Spangled Banner when the fourth verse says, “€œAnd this be our motto, “€˜In God is our trust.'”€

This has been around a long time. What Arkansas did is they passed legislation that said, “€œEvery school is going to display, ‘In God we trust’ in their school building.” So, I don’t know how many thousands of schools are in Arkansas-

David:

I think it’s not only in every school building, I think it is in every classroom. I think each class has to have it.

Tim:

You’re right. So in this article it does say, “€œIt will be displayed in the classrooms of every Arkansas elementary and secondary school.”€ Every classroom, my goodness. That is a lot of, “€œIn God we trust,”€ going up in these schools.

Rick:

No doubt!

Rick:

It”€™s such a cool deal coming from Arkansas. And they’re not the only state that’s done this. I think there are 19 states who have done something to honor and to recognize, “€œIn God we trust.”€ But Arkansas is the only state that said, “€œWe’re going to put in every single classroom, in every school, in every ISD here in the state of Arkansas.”€ So major kudos to Jim Dotson up in Arkansas for the work they’re doing. Just incredible stuff.

Rick:

Another great one to export around the country, right? People listening, we have a lot of legislators listening, maybe they’ll jump on this and do it. But then citizens that are listening, you could actually get this going on in your community, or in your state, and of course, we have Jackie Sullivan on at least once a year to talk about, “€œIn God we trust,”€ in America.

They’re the ones that are getting it displayed at city councils, and county commissioner courts, and school board meeting rooms, I’m tongue-tied today guys, help me out. Anyway, In God We Trust is getting it into our government buildings and in our classrooms. Why is that important, why do we want people to see that our nation does depend on God, and why would we even want to push for this sort of thing?

Tim:

Obviously, Rick, as you’re asking us we know that that’s almost a rhetorical question, because we know the answer. Certainly, when there’s a God consciousness it changes the behavior, even in students.

One of the things the Founding Fathers were so clear on is in order for there to be morals there has to be a God-consciousness and God-awareness because it changes your activity and your behavior. It’s why in early America, if you were an atheist, they didn’t even want you to be able to give testimony in court. Because if you’re an atheist, if you don’t believe there is a God, then there’s nothing greater than you that you are accountable to. Therefore, if you want to lie there’s no reason you would feel that you couldn’t lie because there’s nobody that you have to be accountable to.

But if you believe there is God, if there’s a God consciousness then, “€œOne day I might have to answer to that God for my actions, for my behavior, for what I’ve done.”€ That God consciousness makes a major impact of morality.

As we’re talking about this, I can only imagine the ACLU is gearing up their lawsuit right now, the Freedom of Religion Foundation, or somebody is, because every time a police force, every time a city does something to say, “€œWe’re going to do In God We Trust,”€ there’s always some group that comes after them.

We’ve won every single one of these decisions in the sense of, whoever put this up has always been able to preserve it because it is a national motto. This is something that is not a blanket endorsement of religion.

But it does raise that God awareness and God consciousness. So, I’m sure there’s going to be a battle. Again, knowing Jim Dotson, and he’s going to be somebody that is going to embrace this fight and say, “€œHey, let’s do it. We’re not scared of this.”€ He’s friends with our buddies over at First Liberty in Dallas, Kelly Shackelford, and Hiram Sasser, and Mike Barry, and all those guys over there. He’s ready for this fight. But it’s so encouraging to see this going on and helping raise that God awareness, God consciousness in Arkansas.

Rick:

I like that, God consciousness. That’s a great phrase to use because there’s no question. When that permeates the culture you get a better result. People are safer, get less crime, less money being spent to put people in prison, all the positive things that happen as a result of having a God-conscious society.

Going to take another break, we’ll be right back, you’re listening to WallBuilders Live.  It’s Good News Friday. You can find out more about Good News Friday on our website at WallBuildersLive.com and even go back over the last few weeks and listen to some of the previous programs if you missed those. If you’d like more of these programs you can help us out, get on that website, make a donation, buy some of the material, whatever you’d like to do to help us. We want to spread the word about how to get more of this God-consciousness in our country. Stay with us, you’re listening to WallBuilderslive.

We Want To Hear Your Vet Story

Rick:

Hey, friends! If you have been listening to WallBuilders Live for very long at all, you know how much we respect our veterans and how appreciative we are of the sacrifice they make to make our freedoms possible. One of the ways that we love to honor those veterans is to tell their stories here on WallBuilders Live.  Once in awhile, we get an opportunity to interview veterans that have served on those front lines that have made incredible sacrifices have amazing stories that we want to share with the American people.

One of the very special things we get to do is interview World War II veterans. You’ve heard those interviews here on WallBuilders Live, from folks that were in the Band of Brothers, to folks like Edgar Harrell that survived the Indianapolis to so many other great stories you heard on WallBuilders Live.

You have friends and family that also served.  If you have World War II veterans in your family that you would like to have their story shared here on WallBuilders Live, please e-mail us at [email protected].  Give us a brief summary of the story and we’ll set up an interview. Thanks so much for sharing here on WallBuilders Live!

Court Reforms In Texas Spreading Across The Nation

Rick:

Welcome back to WallBuilders Live, thanks so much for staying with us on this Good News Friday. David Barton is next with some good news, David?

David:

We’re going right now to, I guess, a field of endeavor rather than a location. And by the way, Rick, when you were in the legislature isn”€™t that when we got all the court reform stuff done in Texas?

Rick:

Actually, it was the year after.

David:

Year after, ok. So, we got court reform done. It just absolutely revolutionized health care in Texas. We had gone from essentially the lower half of the state didn’t even have an OB/GYN and we had all these guys who wouldn’t come in to Texas because the trial lawyers were suing ever- Now, this is kind of bad I guess, but my orthopedic surgeon I have on speed dial on my phone because I actually end up having to use him that often. Either this year or last year I had my 14th cast, whatever it was.

Rick:

I guess because Tim is always beating up on you, or what?

Tim:

Some people are just more fragile than others.

Rick:

How many times have you been thrown from a horse? I remember a collarbone at one point.

David:

Several broken ones off horses, several off sports, basketball, one off of the tractor, and this year skiing.  I broke a leg.

Rick:

That”€™s right, I forgot about that.

David:

But my orthopedic guy is considered the best hand surgeon in all of North Texas. He has never had a malpractice suit even brought against him, even for fishing- when people are fishing for money you bring these kinds of malpractice suits. He’s never had one. He’s that good.

He told me that his malpractice insurance was a hundred and eighty thousand dollars a year and he’s never had a claim filed, ever.

Rick:

That’s not payouts? You’re saying just to pay for the insurance is $180,000 a year?

David:

To pay for the malpractice insurance. And guess who pays that? Oh, my office visit just went from 60 bucks to 97, or whatever it is. I’m the one who pays that and so is every other patient who goes in there. Here is the best guy, has no malpractice claims ever filed, and he’s paying $180,000.  Are you kidding?

That’s what trollers often do, they’re fishing for money, they had these contingency fees were they make 30-50 percent of whatever they claim for somebody else. They want people to get money because that’s where they get their money. So they bring lawsuits on everything.

So, when we got that court reform done in Texas we became the model for the nation. All of a sudden now Texas has the best ratio in the nation of patients to doctors. We have more medical personnel per person than any other state in the United States. We have low insurance rates on medical stuff.  Court reform has made our healthcare better, it has made our rates lower than they’ve been. It’s just good in so many ways.

I was remembering this because I think it was last year, one of the state legislators asked me to write some testimony on what court reform was done in Texas. So I went back through the stats and it’s just unbelievable what was done.

But, there’s a lot of states that have not done court reform and therefore, they’re still paying for it in a lot of ways. As I recall, when we did the stats back with court reform in Texas I think 85 percent of the cost of a stepladder went to trial lawyers.

In other words, you fell off a stepladder because you’re stupid but we’re going to sue the manufacturer of the stepladder. So they get busted for a big lawsuit and lo and behold the cost of the ladder goes through the roof.

I think ninety-five percent of the cost of a football helmet went to trial lawyers. It was unbelievable how much more things cost because you don’t have court reform. As a result, you had court reform in a lot of places, but not everybody has it.

Subway Lawsuit Backfires

David:

Here is a class action suit that was brought up against a nationwide food group, Subway. Everybody knows Subway. If you were a trial lawyer, what conceivable class action lawsuit could you bring against Subway? Particularly, it has to do with their footlong subs.

Rick:

My suit would be not enough sauce.

David:

That doesn’t give a class action, it”€™s got to be for false advertising.

Rick:

That it is going to taste good, I don’t know.

David:

They measured a foot long sub-

Rick:

Wait a minute, don”€™t tell me. Are you kidding?  They sued because it wasn’t a foot long?

David:

It was only 11 and three-quarter inches long.

Rick:

Then stop going there! Don”€™t go eat there if you don’t like how long your sandwiches are.  Pick another place. That’s crazy.

David:

What they do at Subway is they take a certain amount of dough and they bake it and generally you get a foot long out of it. I guess some places altitude affects how much it expands or doesn’t expand or whatever.

Rick:

Or minimum wage employees just cut in the wrong place.

David:

Who knows what it is. So they bring a class action lawsuit against Subway because a customer purchased a 12-inch subway, or a foot long subway, that was less than 12 inches.

So, they go to court, and in court, the district judge gave them a settlement of five hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars for Subway for that particular person. And because the foot long wasn”€™t a foot long the judge gave them five hundred and twenty-five thousand bucks.

Rick:

Wait, David, this was a $5 sandwich? Right?

David:

So tell me what your damages are that lead you to five hundred twenty-five thousand?

Rick:

I’m thinking if it’s eleven point whatever inches instead of 12 my damages should be about 50-60. Five hundred thousand?

David:

You have to pay all your lawyers fees and you know that it took them 43,000 hours to figure out how to file this, but that’s the ridiculousness. And 43 hundred is exaggeration but that’s the way it goes. By the time you add in attorney’s fees and they add in everything it goes up here. So the district judge gave this thing.

But one member of the class action refused to approve the settlement and his name was Ted Frank. He directs the class action fairness project, the competitive enterprise institute, CEI, a fairly conservative group. He was a member of this class action lawsuit and when it got settled he refused to agree to it.

Because he refused to agree to it, it threw the case into the seventh federal circuit court where judge Dianna Sykes, ruling for the Circuit, overturned the lower court decision. I love it she said, “€œThis kind of litigation is a racket. The settlement was totally worthless to the consumers.”€ Each consumer would have gotten a nickel or a quarter, dime, or however many consumers were on the case. So, she threw it out.

The good news is that this racket of class action lawsuits by trial lawyers who get 30-50 percent of it, that’s all about them getting money not about what’s just and fair. But here’s the other good. Do you know who judge Dianna Sykes is?

Rick:

I don’t.

David:

She’s one of the ladies on Trump’s list of Supreme Court nominees. So, we’ve just gotten a real good indication of how she thinks about things, particularly in the area of business, competition, common sense, abuse and misuse of the law. That is a very conservative approach to this thing. It”€™s a very constitutional approach.

So, double good news. On the one hand, they didn’t win the stupid lawsuit against Subway and it”€™s because one guy, Ted Frank, being conservative, refused to agree to the settlement, he was part of the class action. Secondly, you get this great decision from a judge and she’s on the short list for Trump to put on the Supreme Court if another position opens.

Standing Up For The Little Guy

Rick:

That’s good news. Alright, before we go to break, I’ve got to do my lawyer side of me defense of lawyers. That didn’t even sound right. Whatever I’m trying to say is, there is a time when the little guy needs to be defended. No doubt about it, sometimes you”€™ve got to take on these big companies or sometimes you’ve got to do it with class actions.

But David, you’re exactly right. This has been so abused that it’s distorted the entire free market when 80-90 percent of a product becomes the cost of lawyers we’ve messed up the system. And lawyers themselves are the ones that should be standing up and saying that it’s wrong and that we need to change it. And there are a lot to do.

David:

And by the way Rick, to add to what you’re saying, Texas did the right thing with court reform is that we made sure you could still file these lawsuits, it”€™s just that you couldn’t make a killing on the lawyer side.

If there are legitimate grievances, legitimate harm, and legitimate costs that are there, yes absolutely.Thanks for making that point because I was making fun of trial lawyers and what they do. But you’re exactly right, there are cases that are right.

Rick:

My feelings were getting hurt, it”€™s the lawyer in me. I was running to my safe space and I thought instead I was going to respond to your micro-aggression.

David:

If you would stop being a lawyer and become an attorney, that’s a higher class. Get in a higher class, become an attorney and not a lawyer. You’d be a lot better off.

Rick:

All right let’s get back to some more good news. One more break. We’ll be right back, Tim Barton again with good news when we return. Stay with us, 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.

Trump’s Twitter Account

Rick:

We’re back on WallBuilders Live, thanks for staying with us on Good News Friday. We”€™ve got a little time for one more piece of good news. Tim Barton, what’s the winning good news for the day?

Tim:

Guys, this piece of winning good news comes from a very, very unlikely place. Any guesses?

David:

Democratic National Committee.

Tim:

No, hell is not quite frozen over. No, this is actually as equally bizarre. This is President Trump’s phone.

David:

As bizarre as good news from his Twitter account.

Tim:

Actually, this is where it’s coming from. So, it was from his phone, he typed on his Twitter account. But this is related to- back up to Hurricane Harvey that hit South Texas, the devastation that happened, and one of the cool things we saw from that was how many Christians from around the nation started giving support, same thing with Florida, and now we’ve seen Puerto Rico.

When there was a crisis and devastation so many people around the nation did so much to help. The federal government also has an agency that is designed to help in these situations, and it’s FEMA.

We’ve had personal experience over time where FEMA, although designed with a well-intentioned thought, has not been the best-operated machine from the government. Which many of their operations are not.

But, FEMA, when they were looking at Houston, Texas, there were several churches down there that were completely destroyed, devastated, had gone to through the same hurricane that everybody else went through. And FEMA said, “€œWe will help anybody but churches.”€ The churches said, “€œWait a second. We went through the same hurricane everybody else did.”€  

This is something where actually there’s a lawsuit that’s come out of this. But what is cool is President Trump came out and he actually tweeted support for these churches. He said, “€œChurches in Texas should be entitled to reimbursement from FEMA relief funds for helping victims of Hurricane Harvey.”€

Now, why is it”€™s cool is not just that he is saying that this should help churches but it’s just another situation where President Trump has done something to be on the side of Christians and Christianity.

Trump’s Twitter Is Shocking Us In A Great Way

Again, kind of this pro-religion aspect of him instead of what we’ve seen from a lot of different leaders and a lot of different areas of government where they’ve been very hesitant to say anything supportive of Christians, or Christianity, or the church. President Trump has come out very supportive in some of these scenarios.

So, it is good news that even in the midst of kind of the silly things that oftentimes he does tweet that this is an area where he has shown support for Christians, for Christianity, for the church. So, overall this is good news coming from an unlikely place, President Trump’s phone.

Rick:

Yeah, it’s another example. Of course, as always, I’ve lost count of how many times this year we’ve pinched ourselves so, “€œWait a minute, are we really saying this?”€ But it’s the exact opposite of what we thought a year and a half ago. And thankfully the Lord has surrounded him with some good people, he’s been influenced in a positive way, and like you said, Tim, he just continues to come out defending Christians and defending the churches. A lot of very positive things there where he has taken up a lot of our Good News Fridays over the last six-eight months.

But it’s a wonderful, thing to have. We’re out of time for today folks, there’s more good news on our website so visit WallBuildersLive.com. And you can listen to some of those other Good News Friday programs in the last few weeks. Thanks for listening to WallBuilders Live.