Rick Green
You found your way to the intersection of faith and culture. Thanks for joining us today on wall builders. It is a Friday, so we're hitting some good news. Today. David and Tim Barton have been piling up some great good news stories for you. We'll get to as many of those as we possibly can. I'm Rick Green here with David and Tim. Be sure to go to our website today wallbuilders.show for listening to some of the programs you might've missed, or just sharing the ones throughout the week. That's one of the ways you can be a force multiplier and help us reach more people. Share those programs and then at wallbuilders.com, you can make that monthly or one-time contribution. Thanks for coming alongside us. Fuel in the tank makes it possible for us to reach more people, and we appreciate you investing in freedom by investing in wallbuilders. Wallbuilders.com. All right, guys, let's jump into some good news. I'm looking forward to it. David, you're first up, man. What's the first piece of good news today?
David Barton
Well, this is June and June is notoriously pride month and we've seen in previous years a lot of stores get into pride month. They got them in real trouble Target is a great example of that and so this is Pride Month and there's various ways of virtue signaling and saying. We're part of that, and I just want to point to some professional teams. We're getting close to the start of football season. As summer starts, they start doing the early camps and they start getting all the rookies together and doing the rookie camps. So here's some of the NFL teams that have virtue signaled or gone further. And it's really pretty interesting, there's nine teams that did not do anything. We talked earlier about how the Texas Rangers. They won the World Series last year and they were the only pro baseball team not to do gay pride type stuff, and so it was just, you know, they held out and they did really well and they've got a great fan base. But just going to pro football teams, it's interesting that when you look at where these teams are, at the top of the list for going, the wrong way would be the Buffalo Bills. Buffalo Bills actually have National Gay Flag football teams, so they create National Gay Flag football teams as part of what they do, that's part of their community outreach. Other teams that head in that kind of direction you'd have to put the Carolina Panthers in there. They actually have. I don't know that I could watch this, but they actually have. For the third straight year they feature a man posing as a woman on the cheerleading squad. So they've got a trans man on the cheerleading squad for the Carolina Panthers. I just I don't know how I could watch that and not gag on that, but nonetheless. But then you have other teams like the Los Angeles Chargers, the Minnesota Vikings and Philadelphia Eagles. Now the Los Angeles Chargers and Minnesota Vikings actually changed their logo to make it a gay pride logo, reflecting the team with gay pride on it. And then you have teams like Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders. So those are the kind of the teams that went really whole hog out to show some kind of affinity toward Gay Pride stuff. The nine teams that did absolutely nothing on Gay Pride and good for them is Atlanta Falcons, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Denver Broncos, Dallas Cowboys, Kansas City Chiefs, new Orleans Saints, Pittsburgh Steelers and Tennessee Titans. So I can say kudos to those teams for standing up and hopefully people will reward them the same way they did with things, like you know, targeting on the wrong side in the stores, and with the right direction, they rewarded them. Hopefully you don't get the Bud Light treatment. So that's interesting.
But the other one I want to call in real quick on pro sports is after the NBA finals. NBA finals the Boston coach, now from a Texas standpoint. Our Texas team, Dallas Mavericks, were in the finals with the Baltimore Celtics, but the Baltimore Celtics coach I'm a real fan of him, Joe Mazzulla. So what they did for winning, he said we're not going to Disney, we're not taking the Disney trip. He said what we're doing is we're taking a trip to Jerusalem. The team's going to Jerusalem. We're going to walk from Jericho to Jerusalem. They're following that path, and so that's part of what he's doing there and I love what he does.
He does a prayer walk before every game around the arena. So the head coach does a prayer walk around the arena where they're playing. That's part of what he does. And after the game was over and he'd won the national championship he talked about we're going to Jerusalem. But his T-shirt said but first let me thank God. And so, even though this is what we're planning, to Jerusalem. But his t-shirt said but first let me thank God. And so, even though this is what we're planning to do, the first thing I want to do is thank God and I thought that is really good. That's a lot of courage. It's so easy to get criticized for stuff like that at his level, and to show that courage and to do the prayer walks he does, I think that's a real. I'm a fan. I'm not a Boston Celtics fan, but I'm a Coach Joe Mazzulla fan for what he did and for standing up with his courage versus faith.
Tim Barton
And I want to point out that that NFL number of nine teams that might have changed a little bit because it was 10 teams and then it was nine teams and it's nonetheless the fact that any teams are holding out now is kind of impressive given the pressure we've seen. Holding out now is kind of impressive given the pressure we've seen and maybe, as you kind of alluded to, some of them learned from the overboard wokeness we've seen the last couple years that maybe don't go that far and you won't be canceled, but the fact that some teams have just fully embraced it is. It's really a reflection of the wokeness of the culture, sometimes the wokeness of the leaders and the interns and the people running their social media, whatever else. But the fact there are some teams that are not celebrating the sexual revolution is really impressive. And, dad, you're right, the coach of the Boston Celtics is so impressive, right, as they're coming up to ask him about the game and the strategy and how does it feel winning.
And the youngest coach, and you're a black coach, and actually I mean it was so great right when someone asked him about being right, one of these unique scenarios where a black coach is going up against another black coach in the final and he said I wonder how many of them are Christians?
Right, I mean, it's so great that he highlights his faith, he puts God first and everything we've really seen to this point. So those are two really great things that there are teams that are holding out not embracing the sexual revolution, and then that you have such incredible leaders in professional sports. And also, if people paid attention to some of the Boston Celtics when they were doing their interviews, there were so many of the players that acknowledged God, that talked about God, and so you see, his example is really rubbed off on his team, which is exactly what you would hope. You would want more of those kinds of coaches influencing more of these incredible athletes changing their life, and as they have incredible platforms large, large platforms they're able to have a positive, pro-faith influence on those following them. So really great news. And even though we wouldn't generally cheer for the Boston Celtics, this is something that, even in the loss, this is sweet to see on the other side someone to be so clear in their faith.
Rick Green
Well, we will never cheer for the Boston Celtics, but we can cheer for the Boston Celtics coach and cheer for the actions that he's been taking. No offense to everybody in Boston, but you talk about a light and a dark world, guys. I mean I don't know if you guys have experienced this, but when I go to Massachusetts to speak, man, it's like it's just different, right. I mean, there's been so much bad there that even when I'm at a church or community or homeschool or whatever, you can just tell they're just like beat up, they're just like they're fighting it so hard. It's kind of like Delaware. I mean, it's just, it's tough.
And so for him to be a light like that in Boston and for it to have that kind of impact, wear that shirt. To say what he said, Tim. When he did that one, that was like a week before, I think, right before the finals, and you know he was really saying think about it, because he just said it and then he shut up. It was like he just said the line and he sat there in silence and made the reporters try to figure out what was he really saying. What was he saying? He was saying neither Jew nor Greek. He was saying how we're seen in God's eyes is what matters, not the color of our skin.
But he just made it so simple and then he just sat there and I watched that on social media over and over and over again. Everybody was sharing it. It was so good. So, yeah, and you guys know I'm not a basketball fan but I actually started paying attention because of this guy and just his faith. I did not know David, that he was doing the prayer walk and that they were going to go to Jerusalem. How cool is that? So that's a team trip? He's taking the team?
David Barton
He said that they took the team last year and they're going back this year, and last year they didn't walk from Jericho to Jerusalem, but this year they're going to walk the valley from Jericho to Jerusalem and, as I recall from being there, that's one of those places they call the valley of the shadow of death and Psalm 23, where it says Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. If you've never been to Israel, you kind of see that figuratively. Oh well, whenever you go through a tough time or when it's really dangerous, no, there is a literal Valley of the Shadow of Death. That's where all the robbers were and that's why the story of the Good Samaritan he was going to Jericho, was attacked on the road and the Good Samaritan came and helped him. So that literally is a place and that's where the coach is going to have them walk this year.
But the team's going back to Jerusalem for the second year, according to Coach Mazzulla, which I think is absolutely fabulous and great. And, man, that will do something for your faith to get over in Israel and walk places like that and see the stuff over there. It will do something to shape your faith. So what a great thing for the team, but what a great thing for the coach to want to do that for the team and for the team to
Rick Green
The valley of the shadow of death, where all the robbers were. So, in other words, the Boston Celtics are going to go walk through downtown New York.
Essentially is what you're saying. Okay, I don't know how Tim's going to do but I love Chicago.
Yeah, I don't know how Tim's going to. You're going to have to leave basketball and go to baseball to top this. It's just I don't know. I don't know, I have no idea what Tim has next, but what's up you got?
Tim Barton
Well, I was going to go, and not anywhere close to that direction. I was going to Louisiana, Mississippi, so I was going more hillbilly, more rednecks territory. But it's really interesting. There's an article that was from the Epoch Times. It says federal judge blocks rule requiring employers to accommodate employee abortions.
And one of the things that happened under the Biden administration's encouragement, the EEOC, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission they tried to implement a new rule saying that part of health care. But in the midst of it was the attorney generals from Louisiana, liz Murrell, and from Mississippi, Lynn Fitch, and there was others involved in this as well. There was a US Conference of Catholic Bishops and other groups and so they sued the EEOC over this, and so they sued the EEOC over this. And the good news is that a federal judge upheld in Louisiana upheld the position of the appeal. Or the plaint is that being pregnant is a medical condition and so health care is supposed to cover all medical conditions, including the quote unquote termination of a pregnancy. So the ability to murder an unborn child, they argued, is a medical condition, which is just outlandish to imagine that position. But again, the good news is a federal judge in Louisiana they blocked the enforcement of this from the EEOC.
And this is where it's really interesting and we had so many articles that highlight judges taking the correct position. And we have moved to the place where so many of the battles now between the states and the federal government, between some of these agencies against the states or the board of immigration issues. So much of it now is going to the courts. And it makes it all the more significant what happens in upcoming elections, because so often a president will be able to appoint hundreds of judges in various kind of federal and appellate level courts, judges in various kind of federal and appellate level courts, and so having the right kind of judges who understand and uphold, believe the constitution, uphold an original standpoint of the constitution not that it's some kind of modern evolutionary item of a document that changes based on the whim of who the individual is and what their motivation is. They try to find a way to legalize things instead of recognizing that words mean things and laws that are passed mean things and upholding what is actually constitutional and then, of course, recognizing inalienable rights, et cetera.
All that to say, really good news for Louisiana, Mississippi, that they had an injunction, had this enforcement blocked so that employers in those states are not going to be required by law to provide abortions as part of a healthcare program. Overall, good news and again stressing the importance of why it matters that we elect the right kind of judges, but then also that some states don't elect the judges that are appointed, but then we elect the right kind of people that appoint the right kind of judges, so we continue to get the right kind of decisions and not a decision that would violate some basic and inalienable rights and would force people to violate their religious conscience by funding and supporting abortion. So, again, good news coming out of Louisiana Mississippi, EEOC slowed down. The Biden administration slowed down on this because there was a federal judge who believed in what the Constitution actually says and the role of the various states and maybe even the definition of what proper health care is. So, overall, good news.
Rick Green
Good news out of the South. We've been given a lot of good news out of Louisiana lately Ten Commandments. Now this quick break. We'll be right back. More good news when we return. You're listening to The WallBuilders Show.
Break
Rick Green
Welcome back to The WallBuilders Show. It's Good News Friday. Let's jump right back in, David where are we headed next?
David Barton
Well, we're headed to Washington DC and this deals with a Biden administration official and this official is a Surgeon General. So Biden's Surgeon General is Vivek Murthy and he has come out with an announcement and this is what he says. He said it's time to require a Surgeon General's warning label on social media platforms stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents. He's proposing that you have a warning on social media the same way you have a warning on tobacco products and on alcoholic beverages and say this is not a healthy thing. And he points to the fact that there's all these studies now that say if you spend more than three hours a day on social media, you double the anxiety you suffer, you double depression, you get into the suicidal kind of stuff.
There's a lot of negatives that go with more than three hours a day of social media. You guys know how many hours a day average on social media a young person spends. Adolescent spends now?
Tim Barton
I would guess, around eight hours.
David Barton
Actually it's not that high, it's 4.8. So 4.8 hours is what the Surgeon General says.
Tim Barton
Well, do they include? And it might depend when we're saying social media apps, right, if we're not including YouTube, then I can definitely see that number being lower. And so maybe YouTube it's not really a social media app, it's a video platform. But if you include YouTube, I would be willing to bet a lot of money it's at least around the eight hour mark, given how much people's eyes are glued to their phones.
David Barton
Yeah, it's way too much. 4.8 or 8, anywhere over 3. And 3 is a problem, and actually there's a lot of other issues that go with it. And he pointed to some and he said, look, we need some legislative solutions here, other issues that go with it. And he pointed to some and he said, look, we need some legislative solutions here because a lot of the social media platforms do a lot of things to keep young people on there. They have autoplay, for example, they have infinite scroll push notifications, all these things that draw them in and keep them in once they get there. And so he's suggesting that we get some legislation to back that off where the social media companies can't do that with young people.
And I tell you, I'll throw it to you guys, but I like this, I like what's happening here, in the same way that, you know, I wish parents would do this, I wish this was a parent issue, but that's not where we are now and that's not what's happening with social media and with so much out there electronically, and so there is a huge number of spikes in suicides, depressions, anxieties, all the things that go there, and I think that this is a good idea, but I'll throw it to you guys. Is this a role for government? Is this something we should be looking at? Is this a good thing?
Tim Barton
Well, I'm always hesitant, and Rick, not to jump too far in front of you because I know that you will easily be able to get on the soapboxes as well. But I'm always hesitant when we see the federal government stepping in to do things that are encouraging the limitation of people's freedom to some extent, their freedom of choice of what they want to do and how they want to do it. But putting a warning label isn't quite restricting their freedom because it's still saying, hey, you could do it. But putting a warning label isn't quite restricting their freedom because it's still saying, hey, you could do it. We just want you to know some of the consequences we've discovered in some of the studies, and as much as we fund governmental studies and as much of the studies that there are that are so dumb, related, like the reproductive habits of snails I mean just dumb, dumb stuff that we're spending taxpayer dollars on. There are some studies that actually kind of make sense. What are some of the consequences, what are some of the impacts and effects? And so then, being able to reveal what they've discovered through some of these studies and showing there is a negative impact, I do support at least drawing attention to this because, as we look at the rising generation and we're able to identify that this is the generation that is self - I don't want to say identifying again, but kind of self-diagnosing now I'd be the better word they self-diagnose that they have these mental health issues.
Well, I could point out that for those of us that grew up playing outside and not playing inside on our phones, we didn't have the same kind of mental health issues. And I would be willing to bet people said and did a lot worse things to us, right, when we played outside with the other boys and the neighborhood boys and everything else, I mean we got picked on. But you kind of toughened up on some level, right, you joked back, and all of that to say is the side effects and consequences that have come from some of these social media platforms are really just smartphones in general, there are a lot of negatives, and so for the federal government to identify problems they found, I think I'm okay with it, but I'm always hesitant at this point. Anytime the government's doing something health related, I might just have some like COVID trauma scars of the federal government wanting to tell me what is and what isn't healthy and safe, but I do think it's probably a good thing that they're identifying for the public some of the negative consequences they've identified with these platforms.
David Barton
Yeah, and I'll echo Tim, I'm the same way. I don't want speech limited I'm not after violating the First Amendment but a warning notification and doing things that stop kind of almost suggestive or psychological playing with your mind by the autoplaying and keep pushing things at you. That kind of stuff I'm a little more agreeable to. But I'm with you. I don't want the Constitution violated, I don't want speech taken away, but I don't see that as this. I'm kind of where you are. I think that's a great explanation you had. Rick?
Rick Green
Yeah, I agree, guys, I think we have to step back and go. What are the public airways now? Because it's kind of become the phone, right. I mean, there's so much that gets to those kids so easily and none of us would have a problem, I wouldn't think, with obscenity laws that say you can't put nudity on a billboard right out on the highway where kids are going to see it. Or we should also want laws that say a drag queen can't run around half naked in the street shaking everything in front of kids like they're doing now.
So, yeah, we're just at a place where we've been so protective of we don't want to violate a constitutional right that we've confused a constitutional right with licentiousness. And, yeah, I think we have to be very careful and we have to think through it, and that's what a deliberative body's for, that's what legislative process is all about. It's why we so enjoy doing the legislative simulations, because we put people in those chairs and we make them think through this how far do you go? How do you enforce it? It's just like the stuff we got passed in Texas, where all the porn companies now they have to have the age verification and some of them said we're not even going to mess with it and they left the state. Well, that's great. They're not going to do business in Texas anymore. Same kind of thing. I mean. It's not that we're preventing a grown adult from you know, used to.
You had to what they call it the red light district. Right, you had those places where people would have to go. Well, now all of that stuff has been brought into our homes and onto our kids' phones. That is now the public square in many ways. So I don't know where the line exactly should be. I think we should absolutely debate it, discuss it, and I know what some of our listeners are going to call it and say or email it and say slippery slope. Slippery, of course, but it's always that way. Every law is a slippery slope. So let's not just decide we're not going to touch it at all, we're not going to do anything to try to protect children. Let's be wise about it and protect constitutional rights while not at the same time allowing for an evil type of licentiousness to be taken into our children's lives.
David Barton
Yeah, and, Rick, I want to pick up from something you said. You used the word licentious and I thought that's a good word and it reminded me of Washington's Farewell Address where he said the only way you're going to have political prosperity is promote religion and morality. And if the culture were promoting, if government were promoting, religion and morality, a lot of this would not be an issue. Anyway, a lot of this is an issue because we do promote licentiousness and we say that's protected by the First Amendment, which it is not. It has the barrier of that religion and morality around it, and that was the framework in which they defined what was right and wrong, and we kind of lost that too, which is why it tends to be and I'll be careful how I say this but it tends to be more libertarian. And you can't be a full libertarian with the Constitution, because you do have to have a religion and morality in order to interpret it correctly. That's what the founders said Our constitution is made only for religious and moral people. So, rick, I really like what you said. I agree with that totally, and it just kind of reminded me of going back to that grid that the founding fathers established, of interpret this through the lens of religion and morality, and that's a good way to do it.
Rick Green
Well, Tim, you get to close us out today. Man, what's our last piece of good news going to be? Well?
Tim Barton
This one is next one in my stack. It's from another judge. It says unlawful action. Bush appointed judge blocks Biden's rule expanding title nine protections. And this happened earlier this month in Texas.
A Texas federal judge blocked the Biden administration attempt to expand title nine protections to include gender identity. So the Biden administration's attempt to expand Title IX protections to include gender identity. So the Biden administration said look, guys that think they're girls or boys that want to play in girls' sports, that they should be allowed to do that under Title IX because Title IX it protects women's sports, which the lunacy of the left is just almost right, incomprehensible in some ways. But Judge Reed O'Connor, a Bush-appointed judge, ruled on this article says Tuesday, but it was earlier this month the Department of Education and their Title IX guidance fails congressional authority or usurps congressional authority and pursues an agenda that is not consistent with Title IX's intended purpose. Part of this quote he said rather than promote the equal opportunity, dignity and respect that Title IX demands for both biological sexes, the Department of Education's guidance documents do the opposite in an effort to advance an agenda wholly divorced from the text, structure and contemporary context of Title IX. Thus, to allow the Biden administration's unlawful action to stand would be to functionally rewrite Title IX in a way that shockingly transforms American education and usurps a major question from Congress, and this was from a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton just last year when the Biden administration came up with a change to Title IX. It's overall really really good news. That's certainly we do not expect the Biden administration will be done with this issue, but given also the fact that we are in an election season, election cycle, it's possible that their team and their leadership will not be around long enough to cause any major damage or take this very much further in a different direction. Before God willing, we can have some leaders who have a different worldview, a different perspective, who understand basic biology, that there are two genders, there is male and female, and Title IX was designed to protect the female athlete and obviously females in so many areas. So again, overall really good news dealing with the Title IX issue from this ruling in Texas that came out just a couple of weeks ago. So again, I'm sure the Biden administration is going to appeal this. This is probably not a done deal, but at least right now this is a really good start in the right direction.
Rick Green
All right, guys. Well, lots of good news for us today, Folks. There's more on our website. Check it out WallBuilders.show. Just scroll for those Friday programs. You'll get some good news there, and then, of course, enjoy those other programs throughout the week as well. You've been listening to The WallBuilders Show
