Reviving Patriotism through Faith and History

What fuels a World War II veteran’s willingness to serve again under President Trump? Discover the answer as we share firsthand experiences from the Republican convention, highlighting memorable speeches. Uncover the touching stories of Bronco Charlie, an 11-year-old Pony Express rider, and a World War II veteran who, at 101 years old, still embodies the spirit of service. This episode offers a unique perspective on the intertwining of faith, history, and politics, exploring their relevance in today's political climate.

Join us for an exploration of courage and restoration. Hear about the heartfelt speeches from the Republican National Convention, featuring Gold Star families and military veterans advocating for a stronger America. Listen to the compelling calls from our leaders Donald Trump Jr. and JD Vance for a return to foundational American principles. We also delve into the role of the church in upholding societal values and reflect on how recent events may inspire a stronger expression of faith among political leaders. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the deep connections between faith, history, and contemporary politics.

Transcript

Tim Barton

Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. My name is Tim Barton. I am joined by my father, David Barton. Normally Rick Green would be the one here making the introductions and the greetings, but he is in transit right now. Usually we are meeting sometime in the evening to record. Usually we are meeting sometime in the evening to record for the following day and he is on like a five, six hour flight somewhere. Dad, you are actually on the bus on the way back from the convention and this is Wednesday night. We're recording this and so normally, again, we would record ahead for the following day. And so this is our Foundations of Freedom Thursday. This is when we normally would be diving into listener questions and hopefully expanding more of people's understanding of the US Constitution.

But because this is convention week and there's a lot going on in America in politics, there's a lot of conversations we want to have and we really want to dive into some of what's happening in the political climate of the nation. Dad, as you've been at convention this week, you've been able to hear a lot of speeches. Of course, we have been watching many of them online, especially when we can, or whatever streaming platform we're using. We're watching them while we are traveling and yesterday, I guess last night at convention there were a lot of really good speeches. Of course, a lot of people heard JD Vance. For many people they had never heard him before and we can dive into probably some of that conversation.

But a lot of memorable moments. The World War II veteran who talked about being 17 when he went and the loss of life of his friends from World War II and how he would gladly sign up for round two if President Trump was going and calling him into action. So there's so many notable things. So, dad, from the outside, there's a lot of moments, speakers that stood out to me, but you were there. So what was it like inside the arena? What stood out to you? Were there certain speakers that seemed to resonate more with the audience than others, and just what was your overall impression from being there.

David Barton

Well, I think what was interesting to me was that in all the speakers tonight, with the exception of just one or two and there were probably 12 to 15 speakers, I would say, with the exception of one or two most of them would not be names that are known to people. They would not be individuals that you would say, oh, I've heard him before, and even that 98-year-old World War II veteran. So he's there on D-Day, he goes through World War II and he makes this comment that man, if Trump's going to be commander in chief again, I'll sign up, I'll reenlist, I'll go back to fight for America. And that's the kind of a comment that at the time it happened, I looked at Cheryl and she looked at me and said, hey, that's Bronco Charlie and that's probably. That's not a story we've covered much on the program. Why don't you just kind of hit that real quick? Tim, Just the hero of Bronco Charlie and what happened with him.

Tim Barton

Yeah, I mean Bronco Charlie is someone you certainly for listeners. You can look him online, but he has an autobiography and so he goes through his own story and there's been a lot of stories written about him. The big picture of Bronco Charlie's when he was 11 years old, his father volunteered.

David Barton

Tim, before you do that, what time era are we talking about? He's 11 years old, and what era of the United States, yeah.

Tim Barton

So his father volunteered him to ride for the Pony Express. So this is the era of the Pony Express, and the Pony Express only runs for about a year and a half, because you have then the expansion of the railroad, you have the expansion of the telegraph, but the Pony Express goes from St Joseph, Missouri, to California in approximately 10 days or less. That's more than 1,800 miles, which means they're averaging 180 miles a day that these riders have to make on horseback. There would be a multitude of riders, and so you ride maybe 10, 15, 20 miles on horseback to the next station, get another horse and go on. Well, this was known to be an incredibly difficult thing to do, and not just difficult because the nature of having to ride these horses as hard as you can for 10, 15, 20 miles, but also because there could be all kinds of weather issues. There could be natives and Indians you're having to deal with along the way, and there are many accounts of Point Express riders having to fight off natives. There could be outlaws, there could be bears or mountain lions. I mean, there could be a lot of factors in this. So this was not known as a really safe, cushy job. In fact it was just quite the opposite and so it brings in more significance when Bronco Charlie, when he was 11 years old, there was a horse that came running into town. Where they were, they were out kind of close to the California Nevada border and a horse came running into town with no rider in the saddle and it ran up to the local postmaster station. This exchange and the guy who's in charge of the mail in that specific post recognized there's a major problem because, according to the Pony Express, you had about two minutes to be able to swap over gear, get on a new horse. They gave the rider two minutes in case they need a bathroom break, if you need to get some food, but then you need to be on a horse riding hard again to the next route or to the next stop and they had no rider. And Bronco Charlie says when they saw this horse come running into town with no rider on it, he and his dad went down to the station where the horse had run and his dad was friends with the station master. Station master said I don't know what we're going to do. And Bronco Charlie said his dad looked down at him, he looked up at his dad and they just both knew. His dad picked him up, put him on this horse, smacked the horse in the rear, said ride, son. Well, this is part of the entry into Bronco Charlie becoming a noted individual.

He rides for the Pony Express for six months. That first day he rode 44 miles. The next day he came back from where he had stopped. That same route was 44 miles, but then the postmaster needed him to go even further because they needed to go to where there was finally somebody else who could take the route back the rest of the way. So he rode another 33 miles. 77 miles was his approximate route that he rode as an 11-year-old and news gets out of his 11-year-old having a 77-mile route.

Books are written about him. He becomes kind of noted, especially in the East. There's a lot of folklore about him. When Buffalo Bill starts his Wild West show he actually recruits Bronco Charlie. Bronco Charlie is one of the performers for Buffalo Bills Wild West and as the story unfolds it's quite remarkable.

When he was 44, there was a letter we actually have from him. It's the only letter known existence from Bronco Charlie and he was writing about part of his life testimony. There'd been a disease, maybe like a diphtheria, that had come through the area. He was married, had kids. Uh, his wife and kids got sick. His kids ended up dying of I think it was diphtheria is what they died of and it just really crushed him. He ends up, uh, turning to alcohol to try to drown out the pain. While he's navigating, trying to drown out the pain, he said one day he was going to the bar and he heard this band playing some music and the words just stuck in his head. So while he's in the bar drinking, these words are repeating over and over in his head. The next day he came back to the bar again and he heard the same band and they're playing these songs again and the songs are so catchy. He goes over to listen to what's going on and there's a man there who's talking and the man is naming all of the things that Bronco Charlie does, like all of his life behavior, choices, and this guy was saying how bad it was and evil it was. And Bronco Charlie got offended. This guy's calling me out. Well, it turns out this was the Salvation Army and it was a Salvation Army band that was playing. Over the course of this encounter, he ends up giving his life to Jesus and in this letter he actually writes about his conversion and how alive he came for Jesus. The cool part of the end of this letter it's four pages front and back and he has a little postscript at the very end, just a couple of sentences, and he talks about how God had helped he and his wife get pregnant again and God had restored their relationship. So really cool end of that story.

Well, when he's 67 years old, world War I breaks out and he goes and signs up for World War I and the recruitment officer says, sir, you're a little too old for this. But he found out that Canada would take people up the age of 44. So he goes up to Canada, he says he's 44. They accept him and surely, I mean, somebody would have known he's not 44, but maybe Canada just really needed people. So they accept him and so he gets actually deployed. He's over in the European front and he talked about how he would tell stories and the soldiers love to hear his stories. They call them pops or paps because they all know he's this old dude.

And then one day he let it slip as he's telling stories about, like writing for the Boni Express, he let it slip how old he was. He was 69 years old. And they said, oh my goodness right. His commanding officer's like this is crazy, we cannot have you over here. And so they send him back. He's forced to retire. He's a little upset about the whole thing because he really wanted to be over there when he was 80 years old.

Word had gotten out that he really wanted to relive the glory days of the Pony Express, and so the governor of New York tells him that if he will come to New York he'll give him an official mail dispatch. It was a letter and it was to the mayor of San Francisco, which is where the Pony Express route finished back in the day. And he said you can take this letter, deliver it for me, pony Express. You're living the glory days again. And the report said it took Bronco Charlie approximately eight months to make this ride, because at this point you're going from New York all the way to California. He's on one horse and eight months he's having to deal with all kinds of weather, whatever the storm is, whatever the temperature is, and this dude's dealing. He turns 81 on his trip out there. So, just incredible story, he delivers the mail. He's this national name and a hero. As he would go through towns, people would show up and they're cheering for him, because this is like the last surviving rider for the Pony Express. It's his incredible story.

Well, he finishes his ride, he goes home, retires back on his farm on the ranch when he's 92, world War II broke out and he decided he wanted to go sign up for World War II again. When he went to sign up for World War II again, the recruitment officer said sir, you're too old, right, you're not quite what we're looking for in enlisting soldiers. But somebody recognized him and they knew like this is Bronco Charlie. He's a really famous guy. And they asked would you be willing to come and maybe help sell war bonds to raise money? And the way the report came was that they said Bronco Charlie was told, meet us here, we're going to get on a train and we're going to go from town to town on this train. And it was reported that he said wait a second. No, no, I am not going to ride a train, you tell me where to go, I'll get on my horse and I'll ride and meet you there. And again it was reported that he would ride his horse to these locations to sell war bonds when he was a hundred years old.

He was interviewed right before. I think it was his 101st birthday is when the interview was, but he's around 100 years old and the reporter asked you've lived this incredible life. Do you have any regrets as you look back all the things you've done? Are there any regrets? He said the only regret I have right now is that I can't be with my brothers in Korea as they're fighting this war over in Korea. He's like, and I don't know why they won't take me because I still can add value. He said I can take a bullwhip and I can crack a cigarette in half at 16 feet or 26 feet, whatever it was. He said I don't know why they won't take me. I'm still really useful.

He lived to be 105 years old, but the whole time this guy was just courageous and salty enough that he wasn't going to back down.

He was always ready to do what needed to be done.

And so, dad, right to your point, when you heard this World War II veteran speak last night and he's talking about how you know he's ready to sign up again, it's very much.

Is that similar attitude and part of why maybe they're called the greatest generation because they're willing to do what needs to be done to to find victory and find success. But certainly he was one of those noted individuals that spoke, and as I'm watching on TV, as I'm watching it stream, I know we can't hear everything that you hear in the arena because it's whatever microphones are picking up at that moment, and that's why I was really curious what stood out to you, and so I can only imagine the reception he received. We certainly could see his face and that he really appreciated it. It's a really unique moment for him. But for those wondering that Bronco Charlie story, that's part of it and that's why, dad, I was with you, my thought when he said I'll sign up again. That's a Bronco Charlie moment, right there, going back to one of these former generation guys who was always ready to sign up to do what needs to be done.

David Barton

Yeah, and that was really kind of characteristic of the whole thing last night is I don't know the guy's name, but he had a really cool story and that was so many of the speakers. They had several gold star families telling the story of their kids and a lot of their kids that died were at the Abbey Gate on the final closing part of the evacuation from Afghanistan when Biden shut things down. And they were. It was just kind of a different tone because you're used to hearing political people or major business leaders or Fortune 500 guys or whatever do things with president, but this is common, grassroots, every everyday, ordinary people with their own stories, whether it was education or whatever it was. So it was.

It was striking in that sense and it was all about getting America stronger border military in that sense and it was all about getting America strong a border military. There were a number of military veterans and one of the guys was a Medal of Honor winner I didn't recognize his name, but distinguished guy and he says everywhere he goes he tells people they need to join the military and he gets right now I don't want to join the military, I don't like this woke stuff. And he said it's not the military it used to be, and people want to fight for their country and they love America, but they don't want all the woke stuff imposed on them and they don't want the kind of DEI stuff that appeared that we saw with Secret Service stuff defending President Trump last week. So that was really the tone. It was just average, common, ordinary people telling their stories and they were really good stories, quite frankly.

Tim Barton

Okay, well, we need to take a quick break, then we'll come back. Obviously, a lot more we can talk about. We haven't gotten into Donald Trump Jr's speech, or even Donald Trump Jr's daughter, trump's granddaughter I thought she did a great job and certainly JD Vance, somebody that for the most part again, most Americans aren't really familiar with his story and who he is, what kind of candidate he's going to be, what kind of leader he's going to be. So we need to get into all that. So you guys, stay with us. We'll be right back after this short break.

Break

Tim Barton

Welcome back to the WallBuilder Show. The intersection of faith and culture. My name is Tim Barton, joined again by my dad, David Barton, as we are discussing all of the events from the Republican National Convention that happened yesterday. We're actually recording this the evening late wee hours of the morning after the convention is over. So normally on Thursday we have a Foundation of Freedom Thursday episode and we get into questions pertaining to the Constitution and we thought we really need to cover some of what's happening at the convention.

And, dad, certainly, as we talk about what's happening in the convention, this really does apply to some of the constitutional things because even as we get forward and let's start with JD Vance's speech for a little bit, some of what he talked about we're storing some basic things in America. There's a lot of the restoration that he acknowledged needs to happen. That really is things that we would say that that's part of some constitutional structure and maybe even original intent from the founding fathers of getting back to what America was envisioned to be, what we should be. And so let me just throw to you what stood out to you from JD Vance's speech, and is there something maybe we learned from him from his speech that he gave that might help us know more of what kind of vice president he will be?

David Barton

You know the fact that he grew up literally in hillbilly culture, so much poverty, so much depredation, devastation, the whole structure of life. At that point in that state where he grew up and I guess Ron Howard made a movie out of that he did a book called Hillbilly Elegy which, by the way, dad, hillbilly Elegy is the number one selling book right now is what I've heard on Audible online.

Tim Barton

All these people I mean a little bit like when Trump first became president and people wanted to try to get a better feel for Trump and they were told if you read the art of the deal, you're going to understand a lot about the way Trump thinks, and so I think there's a lot of people now seeing hillbilly elegy and thinking the same way. Actually, during his speech, I went online and I got it from Audible. I thought, okay, I would like to know part of this guy's story too, part of what he thinks and why he thinks it. And so, yes, to that end, his book became very successful, was then made a movie documenting some of this. I just wanted to point out that that book right now is doing very, very well because people are wanting to know who this guy really is.

David Barton

And it is a story of his childhood and growing up in a tough situation, and so he's not a privileged kid. He didn't have that. He grew up in a very broken situation. He's overcome all that and what I you know he went through and said here's the four things that are really important. And what I thought was important was he started with God, and that was the number one thing he said was the most important, and that's where everything has to start. And back when the convention started at the beginning of the week, I was asked to speak to a group and they asked me to speak about God in just a real simple sense, and so I was struck with the fact that if you go to the book of Genesis, the first three words says in the beginning. And you go okay, in the beginning, what In the beginning? God. So God is the fourth word of the book. And okay, what about God? And it says God created. That's the fifth word of the book. So you have the very start. The very start is God, and what God does is he creates. And so you take that concept and that's where John 1, 3 says nothing exists, that he did not create. Everything that exists is something he created. And so if you take the concept that God is the creator and that everything comes from him and you have to start with him, then you take it to the declaration and the founding fathers put that identical philosophy in the declaration. They recognize a creator God, that from him flows a moral law right and wrong, the laws of nature, nature's God, or what's called the natural law, and then within the natural law are inalienable rights, or what are called natural rights, and those are God-given rights. It's the duty of government to protect those rights out of Genesis 9:6. So that's the American philosophy of government. And to have a secular philosophy of government that leaves God out of it, man becomes God. He decides what is and is not going to be created by him. He'll destroy the family if he wants to, and recreate it in his own image or gender, anything else. So it all has to start with God and then, as you go through the Constitution, bill of Rights, everything else. If it's not God-centered, it's a problem.

And this is where we get into the thing that if you don't have a big God, you will have a big government, if you don't recognize the God that says here's what's right and wrong. Here's the rights you have. If you don't have that, then you're going to have government start telling you what rights you can and can't have. And that really struck me, as this is the big right now. This is the big definition between Republicans and Democrats is whether you acknowledge this is God, who has natural law, natural rights. And so as we were listening to the speeches, I was surprised at how many openly on national TV said look, there are only two genders, they are male and female, and they were very pointed about the two genders and I thought you know, that's actually a lot of political courage to be able to say that in this climate, because you know you're going to get attacked. So I think the God factor was what struck me the most and what JD was talking about.

Tim Barton

Well, dad, too, I think it's important, as they're even acknowledging right I mean, trump Jr talked about this, jd Vance talked about this that there are only two genders, and that is very important, because part of the criticism that we've even acknowledged with what happened when you look at the traditional platform that Republicans have always had, when that was replaced with the Trump team putting in some of maybe more of the Trump campaign goals and some of his vision and mission and some of his promises and it was a watered down version when it came to marriage, when it came to wife are the two biggest criticisms that especially people of faith looked at. But I think it is worth balancing this thought that when they're acknowledging there's only two genders, they're acknowledging something very fundamental and valuable, because where does marriage come from? It comes from man and woman, and so, even though people say, well, they're weaker on the issue of marriage, I actually think that probably the reason they're weaker on the issue of marriage is because we live in a culture where the church has not done a good job explaining or defining traditional values, roles and marriage. Why do we have so many people inside the church and why do we have churches right now splitting over this issue, and I'm saying this not as a cover for them as much as an acknowledgement that if the church would have been better in communicating biblical values, if the church would have actually had the courage and backbone over the last several decades to be a leader in culture instead of trying to be so seeker friendly, that we've introduced so many people to Jesus and so many of those people have never learned to live like Jesus and have never learned to become disciples or go make disciples, we've missed a lot of the point.

But when you are starting with some fundamental truths, there's only two genders. This is where, when the founding fathers found common ground, it was. We hold these truths to be self-evident. There was truth they united around and ultimately, all truth comes from God. Jesus said he's the way, the truth and the life. So the fact that they're finding truth, and the truth they're finding is some common foundation, like Genesis 1, 26 and 27, verse 27, that God made them in his image, male and female. He created them.

This is a significant truth they're identifying and it does give me a little hope, even going forward. I think we talked about it even earlier this week, where I think it's real possible that you see Trump become far more bold in his faith because of what happened on that Saturday assassination attempt. I think it's very possible also that JD Vance he is, from what we are hearing and understanding, he is diving deeper into his faith over the last year, and so the fact that, as you mentioned, one of the first things he talks about is mentioning God in his speech and God's protection over President Trump and God's plan for the future. There's a lot of things he said that are quite significant, and it does give me hope that both of those individuals could be on a journey to knowing God, Jesus, the Bible, even more, which could be encouraging. Obviously, it presses people of faith to have leaders that make that acknowledgement, but even where they are now, the fact that they are defending basic truth so strongly is very encouraging to me.

David Barton

And the other thing that we saw that we felt was weak in the platform and I had national articles ran about this in op-eds and other things was it was weak in the platform and I had national articles ran about this in off-eds and other things was it definitely weakened in the pro-life area as well, and yet throughout this convention it's not weak at all. I mean, they've been very clear about the unborn and protecting the unborn, and one of the things we said back then the platform may have changed because they simply wanted a shorter platform. The other platform we've had is 67 to 70 pages. It's a great philosophical statement, but I was seeing on billboards, even in Milwaukee that it says hey, you don't know what we believe here, read the Republican platform.

You could never have had a billboard saying read the Republican platform four years ago. It'd taken you an hour or two hours to read it, and so part of what they wanted was something that they could push out to the people and say, hey, read what we believe, what we think. And so they did shorten it. There's no question that about 70% shorter than what it has been. And so the concern was have they changed on their beliefs? Have they changed their values and it does not appear so from the convention of what we're seeing. It appears that they're really strong still.

Tim Barton

Well, and I would also point out, for those who want to know more about even our political leaders, we do a pastor's briefing up in Washington DC a couple of times a year. We have one coming up in September for pastors, for ministry leaders, where you get to meet so many more of the people behind the scenes, and so sometimes you have the face of a political movement that might not have the same values as the base and the core, and if you want to know some of these individuals, we encourage you to go to the Wall Brothers website find out more. That is all for today. You guys join us tomorrow and we will try to give you more news and updates from the convention. We'll see you then. Thank you,