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Understanding Religious Freedom and Free Speech with Kelly Shackelford of First Liberty
Rick Green: This is at the The Core on American Family Radio. Welcome to at the The Core with Walker Wildmon over Green McGregor, America's Constitution coach. And we got a great guest to just kick off the program with this afternoon, Kelly Shackelford. You're probably familiar with him. First Liberty does a amazing work all over the country, but, does its best work at the Supreme Court. undefeated, I think. I mean, just incredible record. Huge cases. Coach Kennedy case, so many others that they've done. So anytime we get a chance to catch up with Kelly Shackelford, I'm going to take advantage of that opportunity. Kelly, thanks so much for coming on today, man.
Kelly Shackelford: Oh, happy to do it, Rick.
Rick Green: We all have. Actually, I was going to tell you, I was going to ask this. How many cases at a time do you all have going? Because you all have so many lines of the water and so many footage folks you're defending.
Kelly Shackelford: It's a lot we've had, I was just looking through it. We're about to have a board meeting. We had over 400 last year.
Rick Green: Yeah.
Dr. Mark David Hall: Wow.
Kelly Shackelford: Last year. And we've, we've had two wins at the Supreme Court, and now we just got another case, that we'll be arguing in December. So hopefully that'll be another win in the Supreme Court. So we, there's a lot of them. You know, unfortunately, we had to turn a lot away. We just don't have. We, we do as many as we can, capacity wise. But I think last year we had 400 and like 70 cases. And we turned, we, we had to turn down 1500 and something of them, man.
Rick Green: Well, you guys, you know, the Lord's favor is on you. There's no question about it. And, both with, with getting the right cases, but also just the, the skills to win. And So, yeah, this would be amazing. Another Supreme Court case.
Dr. Mark David Hall: What.
Rick Green: Tell us about the case. And, and I guess that's, yeah, December, man. We're only a few weeks out before you'll be out there arguing it.
Kelly Shackelford: It's, it's, it's coming quick. it's a really important case. I think it's one that every, every person should care about, even if they're not person of faith. I mean, every parent, every citizen. this is a case, it's a, it's really off of a law in Washington state that says that if your child, your minor child runs away and goes to like, a state shelter, there is a requirement that they notify you within like 72 hours. Of course the parents are, you know, don't even know if their child is alive. but there's one exception. The exception is if your child is seeking gender modification and the, and the parent disagrees, then they're not going to notify you.
Rick Green: Wow.
Kelly Shackelford: So this is the government saying, your child is ours, not yours. You're not the authority.
Rick Green: This is a minor.
Kelly Shackelford: These are minors.
Rick Green: Yeah.
Kelly Shackelford: And, and so it's just an outrageous. I mean, think of the schools where they were doing this kind of stuff, where they were kind of trying to transition people's children and keeping it from them.
Rick Green: Yeah.
Kelly Shackelford: I mean, those people could pick up and go to another school. We, you can't just pick up and go anywhere here if your child runs away. So it literally. I mean, we've got clients who've had their children run away and are terrified of this. We have clients who, their children are suffering from gender dysphoria. And so it's literally changing what they say in their own home right now because, you know, it could trigger this. And then, but, ultimately, what happened here. And we just got this below, they lost. At every step. Below, they've lost. And the argument, that the court gave the 9th Circuit was they said, look, you know, nobody's been hurt yet, so, sorry, you'll have to wait until one of your children is maimed, essentially. So they've said there's no standing. The parents have no standing with a law that says if your child takes off, we don't have to tell you at all. and it's basically clarification.
Rick Green: This could be a kid in Washington running away to somewhere else in Washington, but could also be a kid coming from another state. Right. That comes into that state. I remember Newsom talking about doing this in California years ago, and I didn't realize Washington had. Yeah, okay. Okay. Sorry to interrupt you. Go ahead.
Kelly Shackelford: So this. This affects every. Every person. And of course, behind all this, which you teach a lot about the Constitution, is a really, really important principle. This whole idea of children not being children of the state. I mean, yeah.
Dr. Mark David Hall: the.
Kelly Shackelford: The law, you know, if you ever look at Marxism or communism or whatever, one of their first things is to get rid of the nuclear family.
Rick Green: That's right.
Kelly Shackelford: And the child is directly. It's a child of the state. Intermediary institutions like the parents, like the church, those exist in free societies. They do not in communist or socialist or Marxist societies. This is a direct attack, a frontal attack upon a freedom country, and it's an attack upon every parent as well. So it's a. It's going to be a really important precedent that the Supreme Court hands down. Again, we're arguing it December, seventh. I would encourage people put that on your prayer list. And yes, if people want to follow, they can go to first liberty.org and get on that insider alert. It's free. And every Friday, we'll send an update and we'll keep people updated on this. But this, I can't think of a more important issue.
Rick Green: And sometimes what you were just describing, people might think, oh, nobody thinks the kids belong to the state. But these leftists, even liberal politicians in America, they give it away sometimes when they say they're all our kids. We heard Biden and others say that kind of thing. The kids belong to all of us. That's their way of saying they belong to the state. And if the parent is doing something that the state disagrees with, the state can take over. And here we have it in actual policy. Kelly. December 7th. So that. So. So you. Will you be arguing the case or are you going to be the one arguing the case?
Kelly Shackelford: Our lead counsel is Gene Share. Gene's, been a friend for a long time, has his own law firm, Sheer, Jaffe, who has done a lot of big cases. so we're excited to work with him and get him ready. And, and he clerked, for Justice Scalia. So he's, he's been around the court a long time. But it's one to put on your prayer list for sure. Yeah.
Rick Green: And, and Kelly, this is not just Washington state. Right. I mean, this is something everybody, as you said, across the country that could have a kid that runs into that state, but also other states that have done similar kind of things. So if you win this, Lord willing, let's just say Lord willing, you win this, it'll affect families, across the entire nation.
Kelly Shackelford: It will. And even if the law didn't, which it does, because your child can run away from anywhere and they're not going to tell you, it will in the precedent it sets. It's going to set the precedent for who is the authority over children. What are the rights of parents? Can you do this kind of thing? so, you know, if, if God forbid, we were to lose, you know, if you're not in a conservative state, pretty much expect this to come to your state. Yeah. So, this is going to be huge. And the precedent lays down for the authority of parents over their children in the United States.
Rick Green: You've had other cases that were kind of like this in terms of say, for instance, a school, required to notify parents over certain things being taught or certain things if a kid asks for, you know, some sort of medical procedure or whatever it might be. So it's, it seemed philosophy here is basically the parents at least right to know and not be. Have an end run and things be done with their children without them ever even knowing about which we know is happening. Right. The grooming that happens with, in some of these schools and the, you know, they have them for eight hours a day and a lot of times parents end up shocked. I mean, honestly, it was. One of the things that turned Elon Musk into a conservative was they did this to one of his kids.
Kelly Shackelford: Yeah.
Rick Green: so this is, this is not a first, it's not your first rodeo on this philosophy and having to fight this battle.
Kelly Shackelford: We just finished, we just finished the case, Rick. out of California with, families who. That the school ordered all of the fifth graders to read a book called My Shadow is Pink to Their kindergarten buddy, they were forcing, you know, 11 year olds to push gender ideology on little kindergartners. And some of them said, I, I don't feel good about doing that to my kindergarten buddy to make them confused about who they are. And so the parents went to the school and said, why aren't you notifying us? You know, you should be telling us if you're going to go into something like, and number two, our child needs a religious exemption. The school's response was, you have no right to be notified and we're not giving religious exemptions. In other words, you parents don't know what's right and wrong. We know what's right and wrong. Yeah, we know we had to go into federal court. We got a Democrat judge, appointed judge, federal court. And even that judge said, this violates parental rights, this violates the Constitution. They do have a right to religious exemption. And so, they've just settled the case after we won in court and they're changing the policy so that this never happens again. Parents will be notified and people, will get religious exemptions. But it shows you the kind of thing that's going on all over the country. Yeah.
Rick Green: And parents, you know, we encourage you, be aware of what's happening at your school, get involved, show up at the school board meetings, ask questions. and there's so much you can do. Kelly, would definitely be praying. I would encourage people to get, go to first liberty.org get on a monthly donation to these guys. They do these cases. I didn't realize it was that many, man. I thought you were going to say, you know, 30 or 40 cases is still a lot. That's a huge caseload, 400 and something cases. folks help them do what they're doing. It's incredible the victories that they've had. It affects every single one of us. They're fighting for us and our kids. Kelly Shackelford, your champ, man. Appreciate you, brother.
Kelly Shackelford: Always great being with you, Rick.
Rick Green: Always. That was Kelly Shackelford from First Liberty.
Introducing Coach Tom Mullins and His New Book on Grandpa's Wisdom
Next up is Coach Thom Mullins. Love this guy Christchurch in Florida. Remember speaking there years ago and of course he's had the Bartons out and they just did incredible work. New book. Thanks so much for coming on to talk about it, coach.
Thom Mullins: Hey, I'm excited about being with you all.
Rick Green: Well, we love you brother. Love your ministry and all that you've done over the years and, thrilled to hear that you just got back from a hunting trip. that's one of my, favorite things to do as well. But excited about the book, Grandpa's Wisdom. Tell us about it.
Thom Mullins: Well, you know, my grandfather was the key influencer in my life. and he was a man's man and he was a godly man and he just, you know, he led by example in his life and he modeled his life. And I wanted to take the wisdom that he had shared with me all through my life that shaped my life and I wanted to share it with others. And you know, when, when I grew up there was kind of a common set of values that pretty well embrace most people in your communities. But we're not dealing with that today, Rick, as you well know. And I didn't want these core values to be lost and I wanted to capture them, and be able to share them and then put a little bit of Grandpa's wisdom on them as I went through the book.
Rick Green: I love it. It's so needed right now, man, because so many people are literally asking, what does it mean to be an American? What is a value system worth saving? So showing that to people in a fun way, right?
Thom Mullins: And Grandpa told us, he taught us principles that live by. And these are principles that are, you know, it across every cultural line through all the decades. These, these, these principles are true because they were built upon the word of God and, and the character that God wants us to display in our lives. And so I share in very short chapters, the principle, and then the wisdom of it applied. And then a lot of what Grandpa would say to you today if he could talk to you about that principle. And then I close out every chapter with here's what wisdom's reward is for your life when you apply these principles to your life. And so I really enjoyed writing the book.
Rick Green: Well that's why I love the subtitle Unlocking the Secrets of a Victorious Life. Too many people are have been black pilled right there where they, where they're just down all the time and they, or they've given up on America. I mean you, you taught people for years, Christ fellowship, how important it is to have the right perspective. A biblical perspective is not like the 10 spies that were depressed when they came back from looking at the promised land. It's the Joshua and Caleb mindset. That sounds like what your grandfather taught you.
Thom Mullins: Right? You know, the interesting thing is like, like I have a chapter in there. Like, you know, you'll always go the second mile. Here's what grandpa taught me. He said, always give more than is expected of you. So what Whatever the expectation is, whatever job or assignment you may have, that's your starting point, but that's not your finishing point. That's where you start. But you're going to always strive to exceed. And. And when I speak to graduates or I'm speaking at college commencements or wherever I go, I say, listen, there are no traffic jams on the second mile. Jesus said, if a man asks you to go one mile, go two. And it's on that second mile that you establish who you are, your true identity. And when you go the second mile, you'll never lack for new opportunities that will expose himself. One of the great examples in the Word of God is Rebecca. And remember that when Abraham sent his servant out, to find appropriate wife for Isaac the son, the son of promise, he came into the village, and the village girls are out there drawing water. But Rebecca, she brought him a cup of water. But then she looked at him and said, I will water your camels as well. Now, that wasn't expected. A camel drinks 20 gallons of water. My goodness, 10 camels, that's 200 gallons of water. That girl had to draw and pour in a trough for the camels to drink. She went to second, third, fourth mouth. Well, because of it, she was selected as the wife, and she stepped into history as a part of the great line. And I just, I break that out in the book where if you're willing to go the second mile, you will stand out. God never created us to be average anyways. He wants us to stand out. And when you do stand out, you'll never lack for new opportunities.
Rick Green: Wow. I didn't. I never thought about the amount of water and how many camels she had.
Thom Mullins: 200 gallons. Think about that. With probably a gallon jug. How many trips and how many hours did that take her to do that? And then, you know, you look at, Joseph life, and you always see that Joseph was always put in charge. Why was he put in charge? You go back, you realize that everything entrusted to him, he made it better.
Rick Green: You got to hang with us, folks. You know, this is going to be good. Stay with us. Coach Thom Mullins. Our guest will be right back on at the core, America's 250th birthday.
Kirk Cameron: It's a great excuse to have some
Rick Green: extra cake and ice cream, but we can help your celebration go well beyond that.
Kirk Cameron: Show your patriotism with America 250 apparel
Rick Green: that will become a memento of this special year. We also have special episodes on AFA Stream to help underscore that America is
Kirk Cameron: a Christian nation and help you find
Rick Green: God in the Constitution, find all of this and more in one place. Afa.net topics 250 this is at the The Core on American Family Radio with your host, Rick Green.
The Unwavering Commitment to Excellence and Honoring God in All Your Endeavors
We're back here on at Court with Walker Walmart Greene. Thanks for staying with me, Coach. Thom Mullins, our special guest. You were just talking about Joseph, Coach, go ahead.
Thom Mullins: So I love that when you're committed to making whatever's entrusted to you better once again, you'll never lack for new opportunities or advancement, in your life when you live that way. And that was what grandpa, you know, taught me. And just, that's just one little chapter right there.
Rick Green: Oh, man, I love it. I love it. That is so good. I always thought about Joseph just being somebody that he couldn't have been a sour puss, right? He couldn't have been down and bitter, otherwise he wouldn't have gotten all those, you know, appointments and, and, you know, moved up and, and been somebody that leaders wanted to be around. They, they wanted him to get the promotions and, man, that's what you're teaching.
Thom Mullins: Before the apostle Paul coined the phrase in Colossians, you know, whatever you do in word and deed, do it as unto the Lord. Joseph had that in his heart. There was something in his heart. He says, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to do my very best at this. You know, I, I, I tell young people all the time, don't ever, don't ever allow the size of your assignment dictate the amount of effort you put into fulfilling that assignment. In other words, sometimes we think that's a small assignment, it's not really a big of deal, and we kind of go about half heartedly. But Joseph, it's really true about him. Whatever his assignment was, he did with all of his heart. And so he never lacked for new opportunities, never lacked for new advancement in everything he did because he did it with excellence. And I'm convinced, Rick, that when we do things with excellence, it not only honors God, but it will expand our influence, upon the lives of others when we are committed to simply do the very best we can and give it our very best effort, no matter what the size of the assignment is.
Rick Green: Grandpa's wisdom unlocking the secrets of a victorious life coach. God bless you, man. I'm going to certainly remember, even just from our little bit of time together today, no traffic jams on the second mile, baby.
Thom Mullins: Come on.
Rick Green: I'm, borrowing that one from you.
Thom Mullins: From now on, grab that one and run. I got one more thing I want to share. Yeah. That Grandpa would say, guard your integrity in everything you do, and it will guard you m. God's blessings be on you, man. We love you guys.
Rick Green: You too. Thom Mullins. God bless you, brother. Thanks for coming on. That was coach Thom Mullins. Some of grandpa's wisdom. You got to love it.
Introducing Mark David Hall and His Insights on Abraham Lincoln's Faith
All right, we're going to switch gears now. Start talking about Lincoln. Yeah, that's right, Lincoln. Mark David hall, our special guest sucker, a prolific author and incredible professor. Thanks so much for coming on, Mark. Looking forward to this conversation.
Dr. Mark David Hall: Thanks so much for having me.
Rick Green: Hey, we got a great question on Abraham Lincoln, but first of all, congrats on the White House video that went viral that you did such a great job in that. What a great summation. And, so many people impacted by that. Enjoyed it.
Dr. Mark David Hall: Thank you. Yeah, I was honored to do it. And of course, the topic was the faith of the founders. all the videos are good, but I'm glad the White House chose to emphasize that many of the founders were good, godly orthodox Christians who looked at the Bible and the Christian political tradition as they, broke from Great Britain and created their constitutional order. So, yeah, it was a real honor. Thank you.
Rick Green: It was good. Well done and, concise, and just glad to see so many people watch that and get that education. Well, let's jump in. Here's what the listener wrote, in. I have a friend who believes a lot of conspiracy surrounding Abraham Lincoln, that he was a dictator and suppressed free speech, etc. I was curious if you know of any good material on Lincoln that I can read that would help me better defend him. I wanted to also hear what, you had to say on the subject. And of course, you know, in the David. Tim. David and Tim Barton and Rick Greene conversation, it was. Wow, we need Mark David hall on this one. So. So what are your thoughts, man?
Dr. Mark David Hall: Thank you. I would say pretty much anything written by Allen Guelzo, the great student of Abraham Lincoln in the Civil War. A fine historian now at the Hamilton center down at the University of Florida. He has a great book, the Faith of Abraham Lincoln, that I think very accurately and fairly treats his faith and treats some of these claims that, Lincoln was a dictator. You know, some of them have a kernel of truth. For instance, Abraham Lincoln basically, abolished the writ of habeas corpus in Maryland. He's, of course, trying very, very difficult, very hard to keep Maryland in the Union. Maryland and Virginia of course surround Washington, D.C. virginia has left the Union. And if Maryland leaves the union, and Maryland, of course, was a slave state, we would be in a lot of trouble, we being the north, in this case being the free states. And so he just simply abolished writ of habeas corpus so he could arrest troublemakers and, keep the peace and keep Maryland in the Union. Now, that is constitutionally problematic because of course, the US Constitution says that Congress can abolish or, pause the writ of habeas corpus, but not the chief executive. But there's some times in American history, I think, where political leaders or statesmen just need to act. A good example of this is, Thomas Jefferson. When he had a chance to buy Louisiana from France, he was really worried that he did not have the constitutional authority to do so. He thought, maybe we should amend the Constitution so that we could buy Louisiana. But when push came to shove, it was such a good real estate bargain that he went ahead and did it. And thank goodness he did.
Rick Green: Yeah, no kidding. So a lot of people thankful for that one today for sure. And just make sure I got the book right. So this is our Ancient Faith. That's the one by, Allen Guelzo.
Dr. Mark David Hall: well, that may be a book by him. I'm thinking of the, book called the Faith of Abraham Lincoln. Unless I'm mistaken, the title.
Rick Green: No. Gotcha. Okay, good. And, I was just looking up his website. Looks like all his books are there on, alenguelzo.com so check that out as well. Dr. Hall, there seems to be a turning point of interest in these subjects. And I want to say it this way, the truth getting out. In other words, there's been so much revision over the last 50, 60 years and controlled so much by, most educational institutions. The Smithsonian. We're even seeing exposes on the Smithsonian now. It just seems like there's a real turning point happening right now. Are you feeling the same thing? Because you're out there on the front lines with so many of these debates?
Dr. Mark David Hall: You know, sometimes there needs to be a revision. Right. I think, shortly after his presidency, Dwight D. Eisenhower was seen as a. As a failed president, as someone who was, you know, used to being a good military general, but just couldn't handle being president, didn't know what he was up to. historians have gone back and looked at that over the last 20, 30 years. They've revised the earlier take on Dwight D. Eisenhower and said, actually, he was an excellent president. He knew what he was doing. He was, involved and he was pursuing very important policies, such as checking the Soviets in very important ways. But the sort of revision you're talking about, I agree with. It's a problematic when historians, especially progressive historians, 16, 19 types, which aren't even historians, right, they're journalists, want to tear down America's founders, want to tear down a great president like Abraham Lincoln. And I think some of that's just driven by progressive ideology, some of it's driven by Marxism, some of it's driven by an anti American ideology. And yeah, it's very problematic. And so it's our job as writers of history to challenge this, to push back against it and say, no, wait a minute, let's you know, let's be careful in these claims. So take the claim about Abraham Lincoln. I think it's fair to say that we don't want to hold Abraham Lincoln up as a saint. We can point to some of his actions that are maybe problematic from a constitutional perspective and we might be critical of those. But again, if we step back and look at an imbalance, a union is threatened, Washington D.C. is threatened. Something has to be done. I think in my personal opinion, his actions are justifiable, even if constitutionally problematic.
Rick Green: And even just taking the whole package, I mean, you know, he was faced with maybe the toughest presidency of all in terms of what he had to deal with and, and to hold the union together to get to the point that he did to, you know, I'm like you, I'm m. Okay. Yeah. There's some areas that are, that are problematic. But I mean, me personally, I rank him number two out of all of my favorite, not my favorite, all of the presidents in terms of their effectiveness and what they did to save the country and keep the country together in his case. So, yeah, I mean, overall record, I don't know how we could say anything other than wow, he accomplished a great presidency, in my opinion.
Dr. Mark David Hall: Periodically there are surveys taken of, academic historians and political scientists and such, and we should take them with a grain of salt when it comes to recent presidents. So someone like Ronald Reagan, I think is one of the greatest presidents, but he's always ranked very, very low because I think many of the historians used, to be anyway, grew up when he was president. They're progressives, they don't like him. And even more recent historians tend in that direction. So if you leave out the recent presidents from let's say, M. Nixon on up, historians always agree, number one is either George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. Number two is the other. I mean, it's just consistent. Liberal historians, conservative historians, pretty much anyone except the Southern agrarians that are still kind of mad about the Civil War will rank Lincoln as either number one or number two. And I think that's, a very fair ranking.
Rick Green: Yeah, it's funny you mentioned that, though, because we. We get a lot of hate mail sometimes when we bring up this topic and we say positive things about Lincoln, because there are. There's definitely still people that hold on to, just. Just the anger after Reconstruction got passed down. And they. And they still feel it very much so. and in some ways I can understand. But, you know, if you step back and look at the whole thing, I'm thankful. I'm thankful. And I think the faith part, is an important part to remember about him as well. so good, so good catch, us up on you. So, you've been at Regent now for a few years. Tell us how things are going at Regent. Michele Bachman, our friend, is there as well. And we always encourage people to keep Regent on their list of possible, colleges to attend. We had a lot of Patriot Academy kids go there and go through the law school there as well. But, catch us up on you and what's going on there. Regent.
Dr. Mark David Hall: Thank you. Yeah, Regent is going full bore. The law school is excellent. I'm not in the law school, but I know a lot of the law profs, and they are great. In my opinion of Regent, law was already high, but it's higher than it was. I'm in the Robertson School of Government. Of course, they brought me in because we started a new PhD program. I almost literally cannot think of a better place in the country you could go to study American history, especially the American founding, religious liberty, church, state relations. And I'm not just talking about myself. There are a number of good colleagues there that one could work with. As I said, we have a PhD program. We have an MA program. It's solid. The undergraduate college is growing. The honors program is remarkable. So, yeah, highest, highest marks. I do have news for you. We just learned, I think it was just last week, that Dean Bachmann is stepping away as Dean. She's going to focus on, Israel in combating anti Semitism in her public speaking. And she'll still be attempting to raise funds for Regent. So she'll be involved with Regent. I think she'll still be a promoter of the Robertson School of Government, but she won't be my, direct dean. And so essentially we have basically an interim arrangement for this upcoming year and we'll see what they do with it in the future. If I can mention, Rick, one thing. I direct a study for, First Liberty, the religious liberty advocacy group called Religious Liberty in the States. Just last week we released our 2026 findings and we have a new leader. basically we look at 50 distinct ways that states can choose to protect religious liberty or not. And Arkansas has shot to the top. Arkansas is about 25th in the nation three years ago, and they've passed a series of laws that have now made them number one in the nation. They surpassed Florida, which was number one last year. Yeah, no, it's great. It's fantastic. And Tennessee did wonderful as well. Florida's still up there. Number three, I think. So I would encourage your listeners to go to Religious Liberty in the States.
Arkansas's Advancement in Religious Liberty Protections and Key Legislative Victories
A whole study is online. the study, all the data and whatnot, but in a very accessible form. So I would really encourage any of your listeners who are interested in religious liberty to go look at the study.
Rick Green: I'm going to guess that for a state to move that much on the list in that short of a period of time, clearly the governor had to have a lot to do with that. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. we've got some great friends in the legislature there that were able to get some good things passed in the last couple of years, but that's a lot of movement in three years. So there had to be good leadership to get them there.
Dr. Mark David Hall: You know, that's exactly right. they passed, a wonderful, back in 2015, a religious freedom Restoration act, which is the most important thing a state could have, but then recently passed a good medical conscience protection. And then they passed a wonderful bill that basically protects anyone who might be asked to participate in a wedding ceremony to which they have religious objections. So it protects clergy, it protects judges and other public officials, but very importantly, it protects individuals like bakers and florists and musicians who might be asked to participate in a same sex wedding ceremony. And yet they have religious convictions. I'm thinking here of a Jack Phillips. So no longer now in the states of Mississippi, in Arkansas, can you have a situation where someone like a Jack Phillips or an Eryn and Melissa Klein are basically persecuted out of business. I guess Jack Phillips is still in business. Declines aren't, so yeah, Arkansas is making some real important strides. And you're exactly right. The government was at the center of this advancement.
Rick Green: Well, Mark, I don't, I don't usually admit this to people, but I'm, a Razorback myself. I was born in Little Rock. I got to Texas as quick as I could. I'm an American by birth and a Texan only by the grace of God. But anyway, that's great to hear about, about Arkansas and Tennessee and just, just progress right in all of these states. Regent Edu for those of you, that as we were talking about the incredible university there, and also not only, the right philosophy and foundations being taught there, an absolutely gorgeous campus and beautiful place to be, there in Virginia as well. Dr. Mark David Hall. Bless you, brother. Great having you on. Let's get you back soon.
Dr. Mark David Hall: Thank you very much.
Rick Green: Well, there you have it, folks. Not all academics are bad. seriously, always love having Professor Mark David hall on at Regent University now. Doing a great job there. And, one of the few places that, I recommend young people go. Of course, the number one place I recommend the young people go is the Patriot Institute. That's the place you really want to be. No, seriously, we love Regent, Love Liberty. There's a few schools out there we do recommend. we've, had, you know, a few programs recently with some of our Patriot Institute grads. We've talked about some of the things being offered there. We've got some really cool announcements coming up that are, I, think going to really surprise you with the type of degrees you're going to be able to get through Patriot Academy and our, Our partnerships with Southeastern University and Oakbrook and some other really cool places. So some cool stuff. just be listening carefully in the next, two or three weeks. Plan, to be making some big announcements, that I think are going to really encourage you and also give young people some additional outlets for pursuing whatever it is that God's called them to you. I mean, that's the main thing. I always tell kids I'd love to have you at Patriot Academy, but more than anything, I want you to be where God wants you. I want you to be in God's perfect will, not even just his permissive will. You can be doing good things, but not be in that sweet spot where you really feel God's pleasure. As the famous Olympian Rick Liddell said, God made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure. I always joke with the kids when I tell that story and say, when I run, I don't feel anyone's pleasure because I hate running. But that's not what God's called me to do. at any rate, we want to help these young people find that purpose, find what it is that God's called them to do. And you know, it could be a particular university or school or education or ministry or mission trip or whatever it might be. The key is helping them ask the right questions to figure out what that thing is. We call it living your purpose. What has God called you to? There's a, you know the scripture about God giving you the desires of your heart? we don't think that means he just let you do whatever you want. I think that means he literally plants certain desires within you that will help you find that perfect will where you do feel his pleasure when you're doing that thing, because you know that you're in the, in that sweet spot. If you're interested in that, you can go to patriotacademy.com We've got a book and an audio series on that called living your purpose. But we teach that at all of our Patriot Academy programs, the leadership congresses, which are just, you know, three to seven days in a state capitol somewhere in the country. And also at the Patriot Institute when you come spend a full year with us. Check it out [email protected] we're going to take a quick break. You're listening to at the core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green.
Biblical Citizenship in Modern America: A Free National Class with Expert Instructors
This is at the The Core on American Family Radio with your host, Rick Greene. We're back here on that's core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Greene. Thanks to all my guests that join, me today. I'm going to close out today's final segment with a teaser for a national class that we're about to do in just a couple of weeks. Now this is a class that you can actually sign up [email protected] for free. It's called biblical citizenship in modern America. It's our most popular class. About 2 million people have been through this thing. Thousands and thousands of churches have done this across the country. And it's phenomenal. I mean we're talking Charlie Kirk, Bob, McKeown, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, David Barton, Tim Barton, Kirk Cameron, so many others that are in there helping to teach biblical citizenship. So I just want to give you a little teaser today. It's basically the first part of the class and, and let you know, you can sign up for free and join us for a national class. We call this basically a national online class on Monday nights. We're gonna be doing this at 8pm Central Time every Monday night for eight, weeks in a row. It's gonna start on October 12th and you can sign [email protected] let's jump in and get a little taste. By the way, when you do that national class with us, we'll do some live sort of, you know, special guests each week, open the class with that, then we'll watch the class video, and then I'll be available to take, questions at the end of class with whoever the special guest is for that night. So it's a great time to interact and you can ask questions, you know, through the chat, and there'll be thousands of people on there with us. It'll be fun. So if you'd like to join us on that, check it [email protected] let's jump in and get a little taste of biblical citizenship in modern America. Say we're spoiled. I mean, we really. We've enjoyed freedom so much for so long, and we haven't had to pay the price for it, that now all of a sudden, when we start experiencing a little bit of tyranny, we almost become like, you know, snowflakes and want to run to our safe spaces instead of saying, hey, let's learn. How can we win? How can we be like those pilgrims that came over and went through so much to try to launch Freedom?
Kirk Cameron: That's right. One of the things that you and other historians have taught me is that the pilgrims came over and they landed in a wilderness with nothing but, some Bibles and some chickens, and they built the template for the greatest country in the history of the Earth. We are here in a virtual paradise in California, United States, the greatest country in the world. We were born into this many, many of us with churches on every corner and everything else, and we're letting it all fall through our fingers. So we have a different mindset than they had. I mean, they fought for liberty, we're fighting from liberty, and we're just watching it go, afraid of those who are just writing the narrative before us. But we've got a book that already wrote the story long before they showed up, and it says that Jesus wins.
Rick Green: That's right. Amen. Amen.
Kirk Cameron: I think now I sound like, boy, I'm on board with the whole, like, I got it all understood. But I'll tell you what, I don't. I don't understand the steps and the strategy for the how to. For everyday citizens like you and me. I get voting, and we need to continue to do a better job at that. But I also understand that we, got to get more involved in the things that those quotes told us. Education and Law and government and arts and entertainment and medicine and military and everything.
Rick Green: Well, before we get to the action steps, let's lay a good foundation of what the principles are that will produce that, and then we'll talk about how to do those. Those action steps. And that was. You went on a journey, really, with your movie Monumental, and. And you rediscovered the secret sauce. I mean, you went back and found the formula that was not in 1776. 150 years before that.
Kirk Cameron: That's right.
Rick Green: Before you go to the monument itself, tell us what surprised you most. And then we're going to take a quick break and we're going to come back and get the whole story. But I'm wondering if there was one thing out of all, because you discovered a lot, and the movie's fantastic. We want to recommend it. But what was your number one shock?
Kirk Cameron: I think my number one shock as I went to retrace the escape route of the Pilgrims. Because my idea was, if our country's headed in the wrong direction, who can best point us in the right direction? Well, the right blames the left, the left blames the right. The rich blame the poor. The poor point to the rich as the ones causing the problems. the church points to Hollywood for corrupting the world, and the media points to the church as the cause of all the problems and wars in the world. And I think with everybody playing the blame game, who can give us the right answer?
Rick Green: That was almost a Johnny Cash song. The one on the right blames the one. One in the middle. The one. Anyway, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Kirk's like, where did that come from?
Dr. Mark David Hall: Now I'm thinking.
Kirk Cameron: Now I'm thinking of all my favorite Johnny Cash songs.
Rick Green: Sorry. I told you we were gonna have fun doing this.
Kirk Cameron: And so I thought, well, maybe it's as simple as we just forgot what made us such a great nation in the first place. And there were people who basically had a recipe for liberty and justice for all. And they didn't have cell phones, they didn't have the Internet. They didn't have, all these things. If only I could talk to them. Well, you know, I didn't have a DeLorean, and I couldn't go back, you know, like Marty McFly, and visit them. So I did the next best thing, and I went to England and began retracing the escape route of the separatists, the Pilgrims, as they called themselves. And they escaped to Holland, where. Where they spent 12 years with their pastor, Jon Robinson, who taught them these Biblical nation building techniques found in the Scriptures. And those are the things that they, that they tucked away in their hearts and in their minds and brought over on the Mayflower to the NewSong World. And they began living them out. And what surprised me the most was that the Pilgrims were not just these, oh, I don't know, in fifth grade I have this picture that I can just see even right now in my mind of these people in drab clothes with, you know, belt buckles on their shoes, holding turkey guns and these funny hats. And they were people who were just running from a king because they wanted religious liberty. I learned that these were the radical free thinking Biblicists who had a biblical worldview and understood that even the government was under the authority of God. And if he was abusing his power. Power that they needed to do something about that. Because Jesus came to set captives free and came to give liberty both internally from sin and externally from tyrants. And so they risked everything to come across an ocean and land in a wilderness in the winter so that they could, in essence, lay their faces down in the snow and die, so that their children could use their backs as stepping stones to get to a land of promise and liberty.
Bobby Roza: And.
Kirk Cameron: And that's the kind of Christian I want to be.
Rick Green: Amen. Amen. Oh, man. And they, So what you're saying is they didn't just sit around and complain about whatever was happening with the government, they actually took action. And I always miss that very important point. 12 years of study, basically. 12 years of getting ready. We always want the solution next month, you know, right now. Immediate gratification. 12 years of preparing themselves before they even came.
Kirk Cameron: That's right. And they were learning the principles from their pastor. Okay, so these are nation building, government principles, political principles, if you will, from their pastor. And that told me that, wow, pastors have sure come a long way. Most pastors won't touch politics with a ten foot pole. but these are the things I have to discuss with my children. These are the things on social media and in the news that really get us riled up. And if there's anyone I want to hear about this stuff from, it's from the man of God who has been given wisdom in the pulpit to educate us about how to see them through the lens of the scriptures. And that's what I love about the pilgrims.
Rick Green: I love it. Let's take a deep dive. Let's go into those principles and what they actually laid as our foundation. We're going to take a quick Break. When we come back, Kirk Cameron's going to explain what he learned from Monumental and what the Pilgrims did to launch this freedom on this continent. We'll be back on Biblical Citizenship. That was awesome, man. So good. There's nothing like bones to remind you of your heritage.
Kelly Shackelford: The set of ideas
Rick Green: that is is
Kelly Shackelford: being implemented and advanced.
Rick Green: This capital at this time is terribly
Kelly Shackelford: frightening to people who are students of history.
Thom Mullins: And when you look at the Roman Empire, the parallels to what is going on in America are absolutely frightening.
Rick Green: And the question is, are we going
Kirk Cameron: to go the right path ourselves or
Rick Green: are we going to continue down the wrong path that so many nations have fallen into? I can't promise forever.
The National Monument to the Forefathers: A Detailed Look at America's Foundational Principles
Kirk Cameron: Welcome back to Biblical Citizenship in Modern America. my name is Kirk Cameron and, Rick and I were just talking about a journey that I took retracing the escape route of the Pilgrims from England to Holland, where they spent 12 years with their pastor, Jon Robbins, and he taught them the nation building techniques in the Bible so that they could go and establish a new colony, a new society that would bring heaven's principles to earth. And these principles, interestingly, were the same principles that were used in the ancient Hebrew Republic under the leadership of Moses, and they apply to us today and they bring blessing to us today. So continuing this journey, I followed them to Massachusetts. That's ultimately where they come to Plymouth, and that's where we know of Plymouth Rock. But I discovered that there was something else that they left for us, and it was a marker they left for us, an instruction manual for how to create liberty and preserve liberty. It was almost as though the Pilgrims knew that man's heart was selfish enough and prideful enough to eventually drift from the essential principles and that we would need someone to pull us back. Almost as though we would throw the instruction manual out the window like Rick said, and we would need someone to give us another one. I discovered that they left for us a giant granite monument in the middle of a forest, hidden in a place where most people don't even know it's there. It's called the National Monument to the Forefathers. It is the largest granite monument in America. And it spells out the Pilgrim's secret sauce recipe for how to build and sustain a free and justice under the word of God. And most people have never even heard of it. I've actually created a replica of this monument. It's the only one in the world that I know of that is detailed like this. In fact, I hired the best sculptors in the world. This is the Weta Workshop, the ones who did all the sculpting for the sculptures in Lord of the Rings and Avatar and King Kong. And they've replicated this in great detail. And I want to show you this, this incredibly important and hidden monument that is sitting on a hill right now, tucked behind a forest of trees in Plymouth, Massachusetts. This monument spells out the recipe for liberty. This is the instructions on how to build a free and just and prosperous nation like ours. Now, just to give you some perspective, if you were to stand next to the real monument, you would, at 6ft tall, come up to right here. So you would come up to this line right here if you were standing there. And by the way, I encourage everyone to make a pilgrimage to Plymouth, Massachusetts, and go to the real national monument of the forefathers. So here it is, the largest granite monument in America. Our pilgrim forefathers and felt that this monument was so important that they inscribed these principles, they carved it into granite so that we would never forget and never lose our way. How many of you think that we are forgetting our essential principles and our first love for this country and its principles, and we are losing our way? That's right. We definitely are. This is our way back home. And I want to decode and decipher this for you. Now, notice, there's a lot of detail here. But the most obvious features are the five human figures around this monument. Now, the largest one is also the one at the top. It's also at the very center, the very spine, the very backbone and core of this monument. Now, I want to read for you at the very front, this is the national monument to the forefathers. This is erected by a grateful people in remembrance of their labor, sacrifice and sufferings for the cause of civil and religious liberty. So they made this for the purpose of liberty. What does liberty mean? Freedom. Freedom. That's what Jesus came to bring us. Freedom and eternal life. And it's two kinds of freedom that they were all about. It was both, internal freedom, that's religious freedom, the freedom from sin, the freedom to worship God. And external freedom. Civil freedom, the freedom from governments that tell you that you can't have your friends come over to your house at Christmas time and sing Christmas carols. Freedom from a government that tells you how to live, how to die, where you'll work, what you eat, what you wear, what kind of music you can and can't listen to. This is the kind of tyranny that they wanted to be set free from. And this gives you the instructions on how to obtain that. So back to the top of the monument. This largest figure is what they believed was primary. Most important, her name is written right here. And it says faith. Faith. We know that. George Washington told us that. 150 years later, we find that faith is at the very heart and soul of this American republic. And our forefathers and foremothers knew this. And it's not just any faith. Notice. Notice the details. Faith is pointing to the one true God of heaven.
Rick Green: Oh, man, there's so much more there. You've got to take the national class with us. Go to patriotacademy.com today. Get signed up. It starts October 12th. It'll be at 8pm on Monday nights. It will be live. You're going to have a great time. Check it out. Patriotacademy.com we're out of time. Today. You've been listening to at the The Core.
Kirk Cameron: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
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Understanding Religious Freedom and Free Speech with Kelly Shackelford of First Liberty
Rick Green: This is at the The Core on American Family Radio. Welcome to at the The Core with Walker Wildmon over Green McGregor, America's Constitution coach. And we got a great guest to just kick off the program with this afternoon, Kelly Shackelford. You're probably familiar with him. First Liberty does a amazing work all over the country, but, does its best work at the Supreme Court. undefeated, I think. I mean, just incredible record. Huge cases. Coach Kennedy case, so many others that they've done. So anytime we get a chance to catch up with Kelly Shackelford, I'm going to take advantage of that opportunity. Kelly, thanks so much for coming on today, man.
Kelly Shackelford: Oh, happy to do it, Rick.
Rick Green: We all have. Actually, I was going to tell you, I was going to ask this. How many cases at a time do you all have going? Because you all have so many lines of the water and so many footage folks you're defending.
Kelly Shackelford: It's a lot we've had, I was just looking through it. We're about to have a board meeting. We had over 400 last year.
Rick Green: Yeah.
Dr. Mark David Hall: Wow.
Kelly Shackelford: Last year. And we've, we've had two wins at the Supreme Court, and now we just got another case, that we'll be arguing in December. So hopefully that'll be another win in the Supreme Court. So we, there's a lot of them. You know, unfortunately, we had to turn a lot away. We just don't have. We, we do as many as we can, capacity wise. But I think last year we had 400 and like 70 cases. And we turned, we, we had to turn down 1500 and something of them, man.
Rick Green: Well, you guys, you know, the Lord's favor is on you. There's no question about it. And, both with, with getting the right cases, but also just the, the skills to win. And So, yeah, this would be amazing. Another Supreme Court case.
Dr. Mark David Hall: What.
Rick Green: Tell us about the case. And, and I guess that's, yeah, December, man. We're only a few weeks out before you'll be out there arguing it.
Kelly Shackelford: It's, it's, it's coming quick. it's a really important case. I think it's one that every, every person should care about, even if they're not person of faith. I mean, every parent, every citizen. this is a case, it's a, it's really off of a law in Washington state that says that if your child, your minor child runs away and goes to like, a state shelter, there is a requirement that they notify you within like 72 hours. Of course the parents are, you know, don't even know if their child is alive. but there's one exception. The exception is if your child is seeking gender modification and the, and the parent disagrees, then they're not going to notify you.
Rick Green: Wow.
Kelly Shackelford: So this is the government saying, your child is ours, not yours. You're not the authority.
Rick Green: This is a minor.
Kelly Shackelford: These are minors.
Rick Green: Yeah.
Kelly Shackelford: And, and so it's just an outrageous. I mean, think of the schools where they were doing this kind of stuff, where they were kind of trying to transition people's children and keeping it from them.
Rick Green: Yeah.
Kelly Shackelford: I mean, those people could pick up and go to another school. We, you can't just pick up and go anywhere here if your child runs away. So it literally. I mean, we've got clients who've had their children run away and are terrified of this. We have clients who, their children are suffering from gender dysphoria. And so it's literally changing what they say in their own home right now because, you know, it could trigger this. And then, but, ultimately, what happened here. And we just got this below, they lost. At every step. Below, they've lost. And the argument, that the court gave the 9th Circuit was they said, look, you know, nobody's been hurt yet, so, sorry, you'll have to wait until one of your children is maimed, essentially. So they've said there's no standing. The parents have no standing with a law that says if your child takes off, we don't have to tell you at all. and it's basically clarification.
Rick Green: This could be a kid in Washington running away to somewhere else in Washington, but could also be a kid coming from another state. Right. That comes into that state. I remember Newsom talking about doing this in California years ago, and I didn't realize Washington had. Yeah, okay. Okay. Sorry to interrupt you. Go ahead.
Kelly Shackelford: So this. This affects every. Every person. And of course, behind all this, which you teach a lot about the Constitution, is a really, really important principle. This whole idea of children not being children of the state. I mean, yeah.
Dr. Mark David Hall: the.
Kelly Shackelford: The law, you know, if you ever look at Marxism or communism or whatever, one of their first things is to get rid of the nuclear family.
Rick Green: That's right.
Kelly Shackelford: And the child is directly. It's a child of the state. Intermediary institutions like the parents, like the church, those exist in free societies. They do not in communist or socialist or Marxist societies. This is a direct attack, a frontal attack upon a freedom country, and it's an attack upon every parent as well. So it's a. It's going to be a really important precedent that the Supreme Court hands down. Again, we're arguing it December, seventh. I would encourage people put that on your prayer list. And yes, if people want to follow, they can go to first liberty.org and get on that insider alert. It's free. And every Friday, we'll send an update and we'll keep people updated on this. But this, I can't think of a more important issue.
Rick Green: And sometimes what you were just describing, people might think, oh, nobody thinks the kids belong to the state. But these leftists, even liberal politicians in America, they give it away sometimes when they say they're all our kids. We heard Biden and others say that kind of thing. The kids belong to all of us. That's their way of saying they belong to the state. And if the parent is doing something that the state disagrees with, the state can take over. And here we have it in actual policy. Kelly. December 7th. So that. So. So you. Will you be arguing the case or are you going to be the one arguing the case?
Kelly Shackelford: Our lead counsel is Gene Share. Gene's, been a friend for a long time, has his own law firm, Sheer, Jaffe, who has done a lot of big cases. so we're excited to work with him and get him ready. And, and he clerked, for Justice Scalia. So he's, he's been around the court a long time. But it's one to put on your prayer list for sure. Yeah.
Rick Green: And, and Kelly, this is not just Washington state. Right. I mean, this is something everybody, as you said, across the country that could have a kid that runs into that state, but also other states that have done similar kind of things. So if you win this, Lord willing, let's just say Lord willing, you win this, it'll affect families, across the entire nation.
Kelly Shackelford: It will. And even if the law didn't, which it does, because your child can run away from anywhere and they're not going to tell you, it will in the precedent it sets. It's going to set the precedent for who is the authority over children. What are the rights of parents? Can you do this kind of thing? so, you know, if, if God forbid, we were to lose, you know, if you're not in a conservative state, pretty much expect this to come to your state. Yeah. So, this is going to be huge. And the precedent lays down for the authority of parents over their children in the United States.
Rick Green: You've had other cases that were kind of like this in terms of say, for instance, a school, required to notify parents over certain things being taught or certain things if a kid asks for, you know, some sort of medical procedure or whatever it might be. So it's, it seemed philosophy here is basically the parents at least right to know and not be. Have an end run and things be done with their children without them ever even knowing about which we know is happening. Right. The grooming that happens with, in some of these schools and the, you know, they have them for eight hours a day and a lot of times parents end up shocked. I mean, honestly, it was. One of the things that turned Elon Musk into a conservative was they did this to one of his kids.
Kelly Shackelford: Yeah.
Rick Green: so this is, this is not a first, it's not your first rodeo on this philosophy and having to fight this battle.
Kelly Shackelford: We just finished, we just finished the case, Rick. out of California with, families who. That the school ordered all of the fifth graders to read a book called My Shadow is Pink to Their kindergarten buddy, they were forcing, you know, 11 year olds to push gender ideology on little kindergartners. And some of them said, I, I don't feel good about doing that to my kindergarten buddy to make them confused about who they are. And so the parents went to the school and said, why aren't you notifying us? You know, you should be telling us if you're going to go into something like, and number two, our child needs a religious exemption. The school's response was, you have no right to be notified and we're not giving religious exemptions. In other words, you parents don't know what's right and wrong. We know what's right and wrong. Yeah, we know we had to go into federal court. We got a Democrat judge, appointed judge, federal court. And even that judge said, this violates parental rights, this violates the Constitution. They do have a right to religious exemption. And so, they've just settled the case after we won in court and they're changing the policy so that this never happens again. Parents will be notified and people, will get religious exemptions. But it shows you the kind of thing that's going on all over the country. Yeah.
Rick Green: And parents, you know, we encourage you, be aware of what's happening at your school, get involved, show up at the school board meetings, ask questions. and there's so much you can do. Kelly, would definitely be praying. I would encourage people to get, go to first liberty.org get on a monthly donation to these guys. They do these cases. I didn't realize it was that many, man. I thought you were going to say, you know, 30 or 40 cases is still a lot. That's a huge caseload, 400 and something cases. folks help them do what they're doing. It's incredible the victories that they've had. It affects every single one of us. They're fighting for us and our kids. Kelly Shackelford, your champ, man. Appreciate you, brother.
Kelly Shackelford: Always great being with you, Rick.
Rick Green: Always. That was Kelly Shackelford from First Liberty.
Introducing Coach Tom Mullins and His New Book on Grandpa's Wisdom
Next up is Coach Thom Mullins. Love this guy Christchurch in Florida. Remember speaking there years ago and of course he's had the Bartons out and they just did incredible work. New book. Thanks so much for coming on to talk about it, coach.
Thom Mullins: Hey, I'm excited about being with you all.
Rick Green: Well, we love you brother. Love your ministry and all that you've done over the years and, thrilled to hear that you just got back from a hunting trip. that's one of my, favorite things to do as well. But excited about the book, Grandpa's Wisdom. Tell us about it.
Thom Mullins: Well, you know, my grandfather was the key influencer in my life. and he was a man's man and he was a godly man and he just, you know, he led by example in his life and he modeled his life. And I wanted to take the wisdom that he had shared with me all through my life that shaped my life and I wanted to share it with others. And you know, when, when I grew up there was kind of a common set of values that pretty well embrace most people in your communities. But we're not dealing with that today, Rick, as you well know. And I didn't want these core values to be lost and I wanted to capture them, and be able to share them and then put a little bit of Grandpa's wisdom on them as I went through the book.
Rick Green: I love it. It's so needed right now, man, because so many people are literally asking, what does it mean to be an American? What is a value system worth saving? So showing that to people in a fun way, right?
Thom Mullins: And Grandpa told us, he taught us principles that live by. And these are principles that are, you know, it across every cultural line through all the decades. These, these, these principles are true because they were built upon the word of God and, and the character that God wants us to display in our lives. And so I share in very short chapters, the principle, and then the wisdom of it applied. And then a lot of what Grandpa would say to you today if he could talk to you about that principle. And then I close out every chapter with here's what wisdom's reward is for your life when you apply these principles to your life. And so I really enjoyed writing the book.
Rick Green: Well that's why I love the subtitle Unlocking the Secrets of a Victorious Life. Too many people are have been black pilled right there where they, where they're just down all the time and they, or they've given up on America. I mean you, you taught people for years, Christ fellowship, how important it is to have the right perspective. A biblical perspective is not like the 10 spies that were depressed when they came back from looking at the promised land. It's the Joshua and Caleb mindset. That sounds like what your grandfather taught you.
Thom Mullins: Right? You know, the interesting thing is like, like I have a chapter in there. Like, you know, you'll always go the second mile. Here's what grandpa taught me. He said, always give more than is expected of you. So what Whatever the expectation is, whatever job or assignment you may have, that's your starting point, but that's not your finishing point. That's where you start. But you're going to always strive to exceed. And. And when I speak to graduates or I'm speaking at college commencements or wherever I go, I say, listen, there are no traffic jams on the second mile. Jesus said, if a man asks you to go one mile, go two. And it's on that second mile that you establish who you are, your true identity. And when you go the second mile, you'll never lack for new opportunities that will expose himself. One of the great examples in the Word of God is Rebecca. And remember that when Abraham sent his servant out, to find appropriate wife for Isaac the son, the son of promise, he came into the village, and the village girls are out there drawing water. But Rebecca, she brought him a cup of water. But then she looked at him and said, I will water your camels as well. Now, that wasn't expected. A camel drinks 20 gallons of water. My goodness, 10 camels, that's 200 gallons of water. That girl had to draw and pour in a trough for the camels to drink. She went to second, third, fourth mouth. Well, because of it, she was selected as the wife, and she stepped into history as a part of the great line. And I just, I break that out in the book where if you're willing to go the second mile, you will stand out. God never created us to be average anyways. He wants us to stand out. And when you do stand out, you'll never lack for new opportunities.
Rick Green: Wow. I didn't. I never thought about the amount of water and how many camels she had.
Thom Mullins: 200 gallons. Think about that. With probably a gallon jug. How many trips and how many hours did that take her to do that? And then, you know, you look at, Joseph life, and you always see that Joseph was always put in charge. Why was he put in charge? You go back, you realize that everything entrusted to him, he made it better.
Rick Green: You got to hang with us, folks. You know, this is going to be good. Stay with us. Coach Thom Mullins. Our guest will be right back on at the core, America's 250th birthday.
Kirk Cameron: It's a great excuse to have some
Rick Green: extra cake and ice cream, but we can help your celebration go well beyond that.
Kirk Cameron: Show your patriotism with America 250 apparel
Rick Green: that will become a memento of this special year. We also have special episodes on AFA Stream to help underscore that America is
Kirk Cameron: a Christian nation and help you find
Rick Green: God in the Constitution, find all of this and more in one place. Afa.net topics 250 this is at the The Core on American Family Radio with your host, Rick Green.
The Unwavering Commitment to Excellence and Honoring God in All Your Endeavors
We're back here on at Court with Walker Walmart Greene. Thanks for staying with me, Coach. Thom Mullins, our special guest. You were just talking about Joseph, Coach, go ahead.
Thom Mullins: So I love that when you're committed to making whatever's entrusted to you better once again, you'll never lack for new opportunities or advancement, in your life when you live that way. And that was what grandpa, you know, taught me. And just, that's just one little chapter right there.
Rick Green: Oh, man, I love it. I love it. That is so good. I always thought about Joseph just being somebody that he couldn't have been a sour puss, right? He couldn't have been down and bitter, otherwise he wouldn't have gotten all those, you know, appointments and, and, you know, moved up and, and been somebody that leaders wanted to be around. They, they wanted him to get the promotions and, man, that's what you're teaching.
Thom Mullins: Before the apostle Paul coined the phrase in Colossians, you know, whatever you do in word and deed, do it as unto the Lord. Joseph had that in his heart. There was something in his heart. He says, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to do my very best at this. You know, I, I, I tell young people all the time, don't ever, don't ever allow the size of your assignment dictate the amount of effort you put into fulfilling that assignment. In other words, sometimes we think that's a small assignment, it's not really a big of deal, and we kind of go about half heartedly. But Joseph, it's really true about him. Whatever his assignment was, he did with all of his heart. And so he never lacked for new opportunities, never lacked for new advancement in everything he did because he did it with excellence. And I'm convinced, Rick, that when we do things with excellence, it not only honors God, but it will expand our influence, upon the lives of others when we are committed to simply do the very best we can and give it our very best effort, no matter what the size of the assignment is.
Rick Green: Grandpa's wisdom unlocking the secrets of a victorious life coach. God bless you, man. I'm going to certainly remember, even just from our little bit of time together today, no traffic jams on the second mile, baby.
Thom Mullins: Come on.
Rick Green: I'm, borrowing that one from you.
Thom Mullins: From now on, grab that one and run. I got one more thing I want to share. Yeah. That Grandpa would say, guard your integrity in everything you do, and it will guard you m. God's blessings be on you, man. We love you guys.
Rick Green: You too. Thom Mullins. God bless you, brother. Thanks for coming on. That was coach Thom Mullins. Some of grandpa's wisdom. You got to love it.
Introducing Mark David Hall and His Insights on Abraham Lincoln's Faith
All right, we're going to switch gears now. Start talking about Lincoln. Yeah, that's right, Lincoln. Mark David hall, our special guest sucker, a prolific author and incredible professor. Thanks so much for coming on, Mark. Looking forward to this conversation.
Dr. Mark David Hall: Thanks so much for having me.
Rick Green: Hey, we got a great question on Abraham Lincoln, but first of all, congrats on the White House video that went viral that you did such a great job in that. What a great summation. And, so many people impacted by that. Enjoyed it.
Dr. Mark David Hall: Thank you. Yeah, I was honored to do it. And of course, the topic was the faith of the founders. all the videos are good, but I'm glad the White House chose to emphasize that many of the founders were good, godly orthodox Christians who looked at the Bible and the Christian political tradition as they, broke from Great Britain and created their constitutional order. So, yeah, it was a real honor. Thank you.
Rick Green: It was good. Well done and, concise, and just glad to see so many people watch that and get that education. Well, let's jump in. Here's what the listener wrote, in. I have a friend who believes a lot of conspiracy surrounding Abraham Lincoln, that he was a dictator and suppressed free speech, etc. I was curious if you know of any good material on Lincoln that I can read that would help me better defend him. I wanted to also hear what, you had to say on the subject. And of course, you know, in the David. Tim. David and Tim Barton and Rick Greene conversation, it was. Wow, we need Mark David hall on this one. So. So what are your thoughts, man?
Dr. Mark David Hall: Thank you. I would say pretty much anything written by Allen Guelzo, the great student of Abraham Lincoln in the Civil War. A fine historian now at the Hamilton center down at the University of Florida. He has a great book, the Faith of Abraham Lincoln, that I think very accurately and fairly treats his faith and treats some of these claims that, Lincoln was a dictator. You know, some of them have a kernel of truth. For instance, Abraham Lincoln basically, abolished the writ of habeas corpus in Maryland. He's, of course, trying very, very difficult, very hard to keep Maryland in the Union. Maryland and Virginia of course surround Washington, D.C. virginia has left the Union. And if Maryland leaves the union, and Maryland, of course, was a slave state, we would be in a lot of trouble, we being the north, in this case being the free states. And so he just simply abolished writ of habeas corpus so he could arrest troublemakers and, keep the peace and keep Maryland in the Union. Now, that is constitutionally problematic because of course, the US Constitution says that Congress can abolish or, pause the writ of habeas corpus, but not the chief executive. But there's some times in American history, I think, where political leaders or statesmen just need to act. A good example of this is, Thomas Jefferson. When he had a chance to buy Louisiana from France, he was really worried that he did not have the constitutional authority to do so. He thought, maybe we should amend the Constitution so that we could buy Louisiana. But when push came to shove, it was such a good real estate bargain that he went ahead and did it. And thank goodness he did.
Rick Green: Yeah, no kidding. So a lot of people thankful for that one today for sure. And just make sure I got the book right. So this is our Ancient Faith. That's the one by, Allen Guelzo.
Dr. Mark David Hall: well, that may be a book by him. I'm thinking of the, book called the Faith of Abraham Lincoln. Unless I'm mistaken, the title.
Rick Green: No. Gotcha. Okay, good. And, I was just looking up his website. Looks like all his books are there on, alenguelzo.com so check that out as well. Dr. Hall, there seems to be a turning point of interest in these subjects. And I want to say it this way, the truth getting out. In other words, there's been so much revision over the last 50, 60 years and controlled so much by, most educational institutions. The Smithsonian. We're even seeing exposes on the Smithsonian now. It just seems like there's a real turning point happening right now. Are you feeling the same thing? Because you're out there on the front lines with so many of these debates?
Dr. Mark David Hall: You know, sometimes there needs to be a revision. Right. I think, shortly after his presidency, Dwight D. Eisenhower was seen as a. As a failed president, as someone who was, you know, used to being a good military general, but just couldn't handle being president, didn't know what he was up to. historians have gone back and looked at that over the last 20, 30 years. They've revised the earlier take on Dwight D. Eisenhower and said, actually, he was an excellent president. He knew what he was doing. He was, involved and he was pursuing very important policies, such as checking the Soviets in very important ways. But the sort of revision you're talking about, I agree with. It's a problematic when historians, especially progressive historians, 16, 19 types, which aren't even historians, right, they're journalists, want to tear down America's founders, want to tear down a great president like Abraham Lincoln. And I think some of that's just driven by progressive ideology, some of it's driven by Marxism, some of it's driven by an anti American ideology. And yeah, it's very problematic. And so it's our job as writers of history to challenge this, to push back against it and say, no, wait a minute, let's you know, let's be careful in these claims. So take the claim about Abraham Lincoln. I think it's fair to say that we don't want to hold Abraham Lincoln up as a saint. We can point to some of his actions that are maybe problematic from a constitutional perspective and we might be critical of those. But again, if we step back and look at an imbalance, a union is threatened, Washington D.C. is threatened. Something has to be done. I think in my personal opinion, his actions are justifiable, even if constitutionally problematic.
Rick Green: And even just taking the whole package, I mean, you know, he was faced with maybe the toughest presidency of all in terms of what he had to deal with and, and to hold the union together to get to the point that he did to, you know, I'm like you, I'm m. Okay. Yeah. There's some areas that are, that are problematic. But I mean, me personally, I rank him number two out of all of my favorite, not my favorite, all of the presidents in terms of their effectiveness and what they did to save the country and keep the country together in his case. So, yeah, I mean, overall record, I don't know how we could say anything other than wow, he accomplished a great presidency, in my opinion.
Dr. Mark David Hall: Periodically there are surveys taken of, academic historians and political scientists and such, and we should take them with a grain of salt when it comes to recent presidents. So someone like Ronald Reagan, I think is one of the greatest presidents, but he's always ranked very, very low because I think many of the historians used, to be anyway, grew up when he was president. They're progressives, they don't like him. And even more recent historians tend in that direction. So if you leave out the recent presidents from let's say, M. Nixon on up, historians always agree, number one is either George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. Number two is the other. I mean, it's just consistent. Liberal historians, conservative historians, pretty much anyone except the Southern agrarians that are still kind of mad about the Civil War will rank Lincoln as either number one or number two. And I think that's, a very fair ranking.
Rick Green: Yeah, it's funny you mentioned that, though, because we. We get a lot of hate mail sometimes when we bring up this topic and we say positive things about Lincoln, because there are. There's definitely still people that hold on to, just. Just the anger after Reconstruction got passed down. And they. And they still feel it very much so. and in some ways I can understand. But, you know, if you step back and look at the whole thing, I'm thankful. I'm thankful. And I think the faith part, is an important part to remember about him as well. so good, so good catch, us up on you. So, you've been at Regent now for a few years. Tell us how things are going at Regent. Michele Bachman, our friend, is there as well. And we always encourage people to keep Regent on their list of possible, colleges to attend. We had a lot of Patriot Academy kids go there and go through the law school there as well. But, catch us up on you and what's going on there. Regent.
Dr. Mark David Hall: Thank you. Yeah, Regent is going full bore. The law school is excellent. I'm not in the law school, but I know a lot of the law profs, and they are great. In my opinion of Regent, law was already high, but it's higher than it was. I'm in the Robertson School of Government. Of course, they brought me in because we started a new PhD program. I almost literally cannot think of a better place in the country you could go to study American history, especially the American founding, religious liberty, church, state relations. And I'm not just talking about myself. There are a number of good colleagues there that one could work with. As I said, we have a PhD program. We have an MA program. It's solid. The undergraduate college is growing. The honors program is remarkable. So, yeah, highest, highest marks. I do have news for you. We just learned, I think it was just last week, that Dean Bachmann is stepping away as Dean. She's going to focus on, Israel in combating anti Semitism in her public speaking. And she'll still be attempting to raise funds for Regent. So she'll be involved with Regent. I think she'll still be a promoter of the Robertson School of Government, but she won't be my, direct dean. And so essentially we have basically an interim arrangement for this upcoming year and we'll see what they do with it in the future. If I can mention, Rick, one thing. I direct a study for, First Liberty, the religious liberty advocacy group called Religious Liberty in the States. Just last week we released our 2026 findings and we have a new leader. basically we look at 50 distinct ways that states can choose to protect religious liberty or not. And Arkansas has shot to the top. Arkansas is about 25th in the nation three years ago, and they've passed a series of laws that have now made them number one in the nation. They surpassed Florida, which was number one last year. Yeah, no, it's great. It's fantastic. And Tennessee did wonderful as well. Florida's still up there. Number three, I think. So I would encourage your listeners to go to Religious Liberty in the States.
Arkansas's Advancement in Religious Liberty Protections and Key Legislative Victories
A whole study is online. the study, all the data and whatnot, but in a very accessible form. So I would really encourage any of your listeners who are interested in religious liberty to go look at the study.
Rick Green: I'm going to guess that for a state to move that much on the list in that short of a period of time, clearly the governor had to have a lot to do with that. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. we've got some great friends in the legislature there that were able to get some good things passed in the last couple of years, but that's a lot of movement in three years. So there had to be good leadership to get them there.
Dr. Mark David Hall: You know, that's exactly right. they passed, a wonderful, back in 2015, a religious freedom Restoration act, which is the most important thing a state could have, but then recently passed a good medical conscience protection. And then they passed a wonderful bill that basically protects anyone who might be asked to participate in a wedding ceremony to which they have religious objections. So it protects clergy, it protects judges and other public officials, but very importantly, it protects individuals like bakers and florists and musicians who might be asked to participate in a same sex wedding ceremony. And yet they have religious convictions. I'm thinking here of a Jack Phillips. So no longer now in the states of Mississippi, in Arkansas, can you have a situation where someone like a Jack Phillips or an Eryn and Melissa Klein are basically persecuted out of business. I guess Jack Phillips is still in business. Declines aren't, so yeah, Arkansas is making some real important strides. And you're exactly right. The government was at the center of this advancement.
Rick Green: Well, Mark, I don't, I don't usually admit this to people, but I'm, a Razorback myself. I was born in Little Rock. I got to Texas as quick as I could. I'm an American by birth and a Texan only by the grace of God. But anyway, that's great to hear about, about Arkansas and Tennessee and just, just progress right in all of these states. Regent Edu for those of you, that as we were talking about the incredible university there, and also not only, the right philosophy and foundations being taught there, an absolutely gorgeous campus and beautiful place to be, there in Virginia as well. Dr. Mark David Hall. Bless you, brother. Great having you on. Let's get you back soon.
Dr. Mark David Hall: Thank you very much.
Rick Green: Well, there you have it, folks. Not all academics are bad. seriously, always love having Professor Mark David hall on at Regent University now. Doing a great job there. And, one of the few places that, I recommend young people go. Of course, the number one place I recommend the young people go is the Patriot Institute. That's the place you really want to be. No, seriously, we love Regent, Love Liberty. There's a few schools out there we do recommend. we've, had, you know, a few programs recently with some of our Patriot Institute grads. We've talked about some of the things being offered there. We've got some really cool announcements coming up that are, I, think going to really surprise you with the type of degrees you're going to be able to get through Patriot Academy and our, Our partnerships with Southeastern University and Oakbrook and some other really cool places. So some cool stuff. just be listening carefully in the next, two or three weeks. Plan, to be making some big announcements, that I think are going to really encourage you and also give young people some additional outlets for pursuing whatever it is that God's called them to you. I mean, that's the main thing. I always tell kids I'd love to have you at Patriot Academy, but more than anything, I want you to be where God wants you. I want you to be in God's perfect will, not even just his permissive will. You can be doing good things, but not be in that sweet spot where you really feel God's pleasure. As the famous Olympian Rick Liddell said, God made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure. I always joke with the kids when I tell that story and say, when I run, I don't feel anyone's pleasure because I hate running. But that's not what God's called me to do. at any rate, we want to help these young people find that purpose, find what it is that God's called them to do. And you know, it could be a particular university or school or education or ministry or mission trip or whatever it might be. The key is helping them ask the right questions to figure out what that thing is. We call it living your purpose. What has God called you to? There's a, you know the scripture about God giving you the desires of your heart? we don't think that means he just let you do whatever you want. I think that means he literally plants certain desires within you that will help you find that perfect will where you do feel his pleasure when you're doing that thing, because you know that you're in the, in that sweet spot. If you're interested in that, you can go to patriotacademy.com We've got a book and an audio series on that called living your purpose. But we teach that at all of our Patriot Academy programs, the leadership congresses, which are just, you know, three to seven days in a state capitol somewhere in the country. And also at the Patriot Institute when you come spend a full year with us. Check it out [email protected] we're going to take a quick break. You're listening to at the core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green.
Biblical Citizenship in Modern America: A Free National Class with Expert Instructors
This is at the The Core on American Family Radio with your host, Rick Greene. We're back here on that's core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Greene. Thanks to all my guests that join, me today. I'm going to close out today's final segment with a teaser for a national class that we're about to do in just a couple of weeks. Now this is a class that you can actually sign up [email protected] for free. It's called biblical citizenship in modern America. It's our most popular class. About 2 million people have been through this thing. Thousands and thousands of churches have done this across the country. And it's phenomenal. I mean we're talking Charlie Kirk, Bob, McKeown, Rabbi Daniel Lapin, David Barton, Tim Barton, Kirk Cameron, so many others that are in there helping to teach biblical citizenship. So I just want to give you a little teaser today. It's basically the first part of the class and, and let you know, you can sign up for free and join us for a national class. We call this basically a national online class on Monday nights. We're gonna be doing this at 8pm Central Time every Monday night for eight, weeks in a row. It's gonna start on October 12th and you can sign [email protected] let's jump in and get a little taste. By the way, when you do that national class with us, we'll do some live sort of, you know, special guests each week, open the class with that, then we'll watch the class video, and then I'll be available to take, questions at the end of class with whoever the special guest is for that night. So it's a great time to interact and you can ask questions, you know, through the chat, and there'll be thousands of people on there with us. It'll be fun. So if you'd like to join us on that, check it [email protected] let's jump in and get a little taste of biblical citizenship in modern America. Say we're spoiled. I mean, we really. We've enjoyed freedom so much for so long, and we haven't had to pay the price for it, that now all of a sudden, when we start experiencing a little bit of tyranny, we almost become like, you know, snowflakes and want to run to our safe spaces instead of saying, hey, let's learn. How can we win? How can we be like those pilgrims that came over and went through so much to try to launch Freedom?
Kirk Cameron: That's right. One of the things that you and other historians have taught me is that the pilgrims came over and they landed in a wilderness with nothing but, some Bibles and some chickens, and they built the template for the greatest country in the history of the Earth. We are here in a virtual paradise in California, United States, the greatest country in the world. We were born into this many, many of us with churches on every corner and everything else, and we're letting it all fall through our fingers. So we have a different mindset than they had. I mean, they fought for liberty, we're fighting from liberty, and we're just watching it go, afraid of those who are just writing the narrative before us. But we've got a book that already wrote the story long before they showed up, and it says that Jesus wins.
Rick Green: That's right. Amen. Amen.
Kirk Cameron: I think now I sound like, boy, I'm on board with the whole, like, I got it all understood. But I'll tell you what, I don't. I don't understand the steps and the strategy for the how to. For everyday citizens like you and me. I get voting, and we need to continue to do a better job at that. But I also understand that we, got to get more involved in the things that those quotes told us. Education and Law and government and arts and entertainment and medicine and military and everything.
Rick Green: Well, before we get to the action steps, let's lay a good foundation of what the principles are that will produce that, and then we'll talk about how to do those. Those action steps. And that was. You went on a journey, really, with your movie Monumental, and. And you rediscovered the secret sauce. I mean, you went back and found the formula that was not in 1776. 150 years before that.
Kirk Cameron: That's right.
Rick Green: Before you go to the monument itself, tell us what surprised you most. And then we're going to take a quick break and we're going to come back and get the whole story. But I'm wondering if there was one thing out of all, because you discovered a lot, and the movie's fantastic. We want to recommend it. But what was your number one shock?
Kirk Cameron: I think my number one shock as I went to retrace the escape route of the Pilgrims. Because my idea was, if our country's headed in the wrong direction, who can best point us in the right direction? Well, the right blames the left, the left blames the right. The rich blame the poor. The poor point to the rich as the ones causing the problems. the church points to Hollywood for corrupting the world, and the media points to the church as the cause of all the problems and wars in the world. And I think with everybody playing the blame game, who can give us the right answer?
Rick Green: That was almost a Johnny Cash song. The one on the right blames the one. One in the middle. The one. Anyway, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Kirk's like, where did that come from?
Dr. Mark David Hall: Now I'm thinking.
Kirk Cameron: Now I'm thinking of all my favorite Johnny Cash songs.
Rick Green: Sorry. I told you we were gonna have fun doing this.
Kirk Cameron: And so I thought, well, maybe it's as simple as we just forgot what made us such a great nation in the first place. And there were people who basically had a recipe for liberty and justice for all. And they didn't have cell phones, they didn't have the Internet. They didn't have, all these things. If only I could talk to them. Well, you know, I didn't have a DeLorean, and I couldn't go back, you know, like Marty McFly, and visit them. So I did the next best thing, and I went to England and began retracing the escape route of the separatists, the Pilgrims, as they called themselves. And they escaped to Holland, where. Where they spent 12 years with their pastor, Jon Robinson, who taught them these Biblical nation building techniques found in the Scriptures. And those are the things that they, that they tucked away in their hearts and in their minds and brought over on the Mayflower to the NewSong World. And they began living them out. And what surprised me the most was that the Pilgrims were not just these, oh, I don't know, in fifth grade I have this picture that I can just see even right now in my mind of these people in drab clothes with, you know, belt buckles on their shoes, holding turkey guns and these funny hats. And they were people who were just running from a king because they wanted religious liberty. I learned that these were the radical free thinking Biblicists who had a biblical worldview and understood that even the government was under the authority of God. And if he was abusing his power. Power that they needed to do something about that. Because Jesus came to set captives free and came to give liberty both internally from sin and externally from tyrants. And so they risked everything to come across an ocean and land in a wilderness in the winter so that they could, in essence, lay their faces down in the snow and die, so that their children could use their backs as stepping stones to get to a land of promise and liberty.
Bobby Roza: And.
Kirk Cameron: And that's the kind of Christian I want to be.
Rick Green: Amen. Amen. Oh, man. And they, So what you're saying is they didn't just sit around and complain about whatever was happening with the government, they actually took action. And I always miss that very important point. 12 years of study, basically. 12 years of getting ready. We always want the solution next month, you know, right now. Immediate gratification. 12 years of preparing themselves before they even came.
Kirk Cameron: That's right. And they were learning the principles from their pastor. Okay, so these are nation building, government principles, political principles, if you will, from their pastor. And that told me that, wow, pastors have sure come a long way. Most pastors won't touch politics with a ten foot pole. but these are the things I have to discuss with my children. These are the things on social media and in the news that really get us riled up. And if there's anyone I want to hear about this stuff from, it's from the man of God who has been given wisdom in the pulpit to educate us about how to see them through the lens of the scriptures. And that's what I love about the pilgrims.
Rick Green: I love it. Let's take a deep dive. Let's go into those principles and what they actually laid as our foundation. We're going to take a quick Break. When we come back, Kirk Cameron's going to explain what he learned from Monumental and what the Pilgrims did to launch this freedom on this continent. We'll be back on Biblical Citizenship. That was awesome, man. So good. There's nothing like bones to remind you of your heritage.
Kelly Shackelford: The set of ideas
Rick Green: that is is
Kelly Shackelford: being implemented and advanced.
Rick Green: This capital at this time is terribly
Kelly Shackelford: frightening to people who are students of history.
Thom Mullins: And when you look at the Roman Empire, the parallels to what is going on in America are absolutely frightening.
Rick Green: And the question is, are we going
Kirk Cameron: to go the right path ourselves or
Rick Green: are we going to continue down the wrong path that so many nations have fallen into? I can't promise forever.
The National Monument to the Forefathers: A Detailed Look at America's Foundational Principles
Kirk Cameron: Welcome back to Biblical Citizenship in Modern America. my name is Kirk Cameron and, Rick and I were just talking about a journey that I took retracing the escape route of the Pilgrims from England to Holland, where they spent 12 years with their pastor, Jon Robbins, and he taught them the nation building techniques in the Bible so that they could go and establish a new colony, a new society that would bring heaven's principles to earth. And these principles, interestingly, were the same principles that were used in the ancient Hebrew Republic under the leadership of Moses, and they apply to us today and they bring blessing to us today. So continuing this journey, I followed them to Massachusetts. That's ultimately where they come to Plymouth, and that's where we know of Plymouth Rock. But I discovered that there was something else that they left for us, and it was a marker they left for us, an instruction manual for how to create liberty and preserve liberty. It was almost as though the Pilgrims knew that man's heart was selfish enough and prideful enough to eventually drift from the essential principles and that we would need someone to pull us back. Almost as though we would throw the instruction manual out the window like Rick said, and we would need someone to give us another one. I discovered that they left for us a giant granite monument in the middle of a forest, hidden in a place where most people don't even know it's there. It's called the National Monument to the Forefathers. It is the largest granite monument in America. And it spells out the Pilgrim's secret sauce recipe for how to build and sustain a free and justice under the word of God. And most people have never even heard of it. I've actually created a replica of this monument. It's the only one in the world that I know of that is detailed like this. In fact, I hired the best sculptors in the world. This is the Weta Workshop, the ones who did all the sculpting for the sculptures in Lord of the Rings and Avatar and King Kong. And they've replicated this in great detail. And I want to show you this, this incredibly important and hidden monument that is sitting on a hill right now, tucked behind a forest of trees in Plymouth, Massachusetts. This monument spells out the recipe for liberty. This is the instructions on how to build a free and just and prosperous nation like ours. Now, just to give you some perspective, if you were to stand next to the real monument, you would, at 6ft tall, come up to right here. So you would come up to this line right here if you were standing there. And by the way, I encourage everyone to make a pilgrimage to Plymouth, Massachusetts, and go to the real national monument of the forefathers. So here it is, the largest granite monument in America. Our pilgrim forefathers and felt that this monument was so important that they inscribed these principles, they carved it into granite so that we would never forget and never lose our way. How many of you think that we are forgetting our essential principles and our first love for this country and its principles, and we are losing our way? That's right. We definitely are. This is our way back home. And I want to decode and decipher this for you. Now, notice, there's a lot of detail here. But the most obvious features are the five human figures around this monument. Now, the largest one is also the one at the top. It's also at the very center, the very spine, the very backbone and core of this monument. Now, I want to read for you at the very front, this is the national monument to the forefathers. This is erected by a grateful people in remembrance of their labor, sacrifice and sufferings for the cause of civil and religious liberty. So they made this for the purpose of liberty. What does liberty mean? Freedom. Freedom. That's what Jesus came to bring us. Freedom and eternal life. And it's two kinds of freedom that they were all about. It was both, internal freedom, that's religious freedom, the freedom from sin, the freedom to worship God. And external freedom. Civil freedom, the freedom from governments that tell you that you can't have your friends come over to your house at Christmas time and sing Christmas carols. Freedom from a government that tells you how to live, how to die, where you'll work, what you eat, what you wear, what kind of music you can and can't listen to. This is the kind of tyranny that they wanted to be set free from. And this gives you the instructions on how to obtain that. So back to the top of the monument. This largest figure is what they believed was primary. Most important, her name is written right here. And it says faith. Faith. We know that. George Washington told us that. 150 years later, we find that faith is at the very heart and soul of this American republic. And our forefathers and foremothers knew this. And it's not just any faith. Notice. Notice the details. Faith is pointing to the one true God of heaven.
Rick Green: Oh, man, there's so much more there. You've got to take the national class with us. Go to patriotacademy.com today. Get signed up. It starts October 12th. It'll be at 8pm on Monday nights. It will be live. You're going to have a great time. Check it out. Patriotacademy.com we're out of time. Today. You've been listening to at the The Core.
Kirk Cameron: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.
In this compelling episode, we tackle the pressing issue of parental rights and government overreach with special guest Kelly Shackelford from First Liberty. We delve into a critical case that questions the authority of parents when it comes to their children's welfare and the implications of state policies that prioritize government control over family autonomy.
Additionally, Coach Thom Tillis shares insights from his new book, "Grandpa's Wisdom," emphasizing the timeless principles that guide us towards a victorious life. Join us as we explore these vital conversations that shape our understanding of freedom, faith, and family.
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