MTM - Interview with Dan Fenton/Patriot Academy

Ever wonder why so many smart people feel lost when policy gets real? We invited Dan Fenton from Patriot Academy to walk us through a practical path from frustration to action—one living room class, one church cohort, one teen legislative debate at a time. Dan’s story moves from aviation management and profound personal loss to a renewed calling: equip citizens to understand the Constitution from the founders’ own words and use that knowledge to love their neighbors through clear, local action.

We unpack the heartbeat of Patriot Academy, founded by former Texas legislator Rick Green: form leaders of character who can read primary sources, reason from first principles, and navigate real legislative process. Dan explains core offerings like Constitution Alive, filmed at Independence Hall with David Barton, and Biblical Citizenship, which connects faith-informed ethics to everyday civic responsibility. We also spotlight Rebuilding Liberty, a four-part, highly practical series that helps participants choose an issue—parental rights, property rights, election engagement—and map the specific steps to make a measurable difference before the midterms and beyond.

What makes this model work is accessibility. Anyone can become a free host at PatriotAcademy.com, stream sessions at home or church, and invite friends, students, or a homeschool co-op. Workbooks translate the Constitution into plain English alongside the original text, and flexible formats fit lunch breaks or Sunday afternoons. For teens, regional and national leadership congresses turn abstract civics into hands-on learning: draft a bill, debate it, feel the momentum of process. Alumni stories show how confidence grows when young people see how laws are made and where their voices count.

If you care about civic literacy, parental rights, or simply want your community to think clearly and act with grace, this conversation offers a friendly on-ramp. Listen, share with someone who’s ready to host a class, and help us grow a generation that knows the text, loves their neighbors, and steps up with courage. Enjoy the episode, and if it sparks ideas, subscribe, leave a review, and tell us where you’d launch your first class.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Welcome to Morden Medicine. I'm your host, Dr. Robert Jackson. Bringing a few biblical insights and stories from the country doctors, Rusty, Dusty Scrapbook. Well, today I'm privileged to have a special guest with me online. His name is Dan Fenton, and Dan is with Patriot Academy. I just met Dan recently, heard a presentation that he met, and I'm telling you, it really excited me and warmed my heart. And I immediately went to Dan and said, Well, ask him if he would allow me to interview him for More Than Medicine. And he uh very quickly agreed. So he's here online with me. Dan, welcome to More Than Medicine.

SPEAKER_03 1:04

Well, thank you, Dr. Jackson. Uh it's a blessing and an honor to uh have a chance to be with you all today.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Well, thank you, sir. First of all, I want you to tell my listeners a little bit about who you are, where you came from, and what your background is so they'll kind of have a feel for who you are.

Dan’s Faith, Family, And Career Journey

SPEAKER_03 1:20

All right, excellent. Well, um kind of going uh way back, I I really I grew up in in northern northeastern Ohio. Um after after high school, I actually went off to Bible college and had the intention of becoming a youth pastor. Um, but uh there were some things that happened in with life, and you know, before I knew it, I was 24 years old and married, and uh in a very short time we had four children. Um God uh put me in a position where I ended up being uh involved in aviation, uh aviation management, uh more on a customer service side, but I worked with uh companies from Northwest Airlines to a um private jet company called NetJets and uh worked my way up through management and um different things happened in the economy, which then kind of pushed me into sales. So I did sales for a number of years. And um unfortunately um my wife uh uh passed in 2019, so I was widowed in 2019 uh because of cancer and uh went through a you know a couple of really rough years um dealing with that with my with my children. Uh my youngest was only 15 years old at that time, so um it's kind of rough putting me in a situation where uh I had three children at home when she passed. Um but God is great, gracious, and God brought um an amazing woman into my life that actually I was introduced to her by somebody who knew my family and somebody who knew my late wife. And uh that was probably God knew that that was probably the only way my my children would be accepting of a new uh new woman in my life. So um she uh we we started and started dating. We were married in uh 2022, and um I was able to retire uh from working uh in sales at that time, and we both we both went off to Bible college. We went off to uh Colorado to go to Karas Bible College with Andrew Womack Ministries. Uh we both graduated from their program in 2023. Uh I actually did my first year uh as soon as uh I met Cheryl, she introduced me to the school, and she was already out in Colorado at the time, and I was in Ohio. And so uh I started the online program for the first year, knocked it out as fast as I could, and um we got married and I moved out to Colorado for the second year. So um, but we moved back to the Carolinas. Let me kind of you know transition, move as quick as I can. We moved out to Color uh North Carolina in 23 and then decided that we uh had a heart for Greenville. So we made the the move down to Greenville in 24. Um now as I mentioned uh when I met Dr. Jackson that um you know in all the every time there was an election that came up, I was just frustrated. I was just extremely frustrated because I was always amazed how many how ignorant my friends were, and unfortunately about 50% of the American public.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

Yeah.

Frustration With Civics And COVID Policies

SPEAKER_03 4:11

And so uh I uh I I was looking for a solution, but I I didn't have one. And you know, COVID came along, and you know, we all know what went through with COVID and how um how the government shut down everything, including our churches. And uh the fact that they were calling churches non-essential just seems uh you know, they we've got bars open, we've got you know uh box, big box stores open, um all kinds of uh things that were open, but churches were non-essential. So um in 2024, unfortunately, I was still in the same boat, but at the end of 2024, um I've been listening to wall builders, uh David and Tim Barton, and their wall builder show had uh had an advertisement for uh for Patriot Academy. And I was intrigued, and um I started digging into you know some of the materials they had and um tell you tell you direct me, Doctor, how you want me to go into all this.

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Well, tell uh you know, I was intrigued by whole the whole notion of Patriot Academy as you described it uh at the meeting I attended. So tell tell our listeners a little bit about Patriot Academy and what it's about and what its objectives are, because I I found all of that to be fascinating.

Discovering Patriot Academy

Mission And Origins Of Patriot Academy

Constitution Alive And Founders’ Perspective

New Courses And Rebuilding Liberty

Goals Before The Midterms

SPEAKER_03 5:25

Excellent. Um well, let me just start off with you know, the commercial that got me through the Wall Builder Show basically went, have you noticed the vacuum of leadership in America? We're looking around for leaders of principle to step up, and too often no one is there. God is raising up a generation of young leaders with a passion for impacting the world around them. They're crying out for the mentorship and leadership training they need. Patriot Academy was created to meet that need. Patriot Academy graduates now serve in state capitals around America, in the halls of Congress, in business, in the film industry, in the pulpit, and in every area of the culture. They're leading effectively and impacting the world around them. Patriot Academy is now expanding across the nation, and now is your chance to experience this life-changing program that trains champions to change the world. Our core program is still for young leaders, 16 to 25 years old, but we now also have a citizen training program for adults. Help us fill the void of leadership in America, join us in training champions to change the world at Patriotacademy.com. So that was that was kind of what grabbed hold of me and made me want to know more. Um, but really, Patriot Academy was developed by a gentleman named Rick Green. Um, if you know if anybody of your listeners watch Flashpoint, uh Rick is a regular uh guest on there now. But in 1998, he was elected um into this Texas state house as a new uh Texas state representative. Um and he quickly found out how how could the people around him um be so uh again, I guess, ignorant to conservative values and conservative principles and um even having a terrible understanding of the Constitution and not really understanding how where our rights come from, and that our rights come from God. Um so in 2020 he started talking with supporters, and by 2003, he developed Patriot Academy originally with a small group of young people. Again, you know, his original focus was to raise up new leaders because you know he tried to you know tried to teach and talk to and you know, tried to do constitution classes for uh some of the other representatives, and he was just running up against the wall. So he started with the 16 to 25-year-old group, and you know, their original program kind of featured interactive workshops, uh, mock legislative sessions and mentoring. Um, and so you know, students from across the country started coming in for this. Now, Patriot Academy's mission is to equip and educate a generation of citizen leaders to champion the cause of freedom and truth in every sector of society as we help restore the our constitutional republic and the biblical principles that cause a nation to thrive. So um, again, they have they have these uh regional and and national uh leadership congresses where they bring in these young people. Uh so they've got large groups of these young people, but in 2012, uh Rick developed a program called Constitution Alive, where he actually went to Independence Hall in Philadelphia and recorded this class uh right there in Philadelphia, along with a lot of sessions with David Barton, kind of going back through, you know, how do we understand the Constitution? The best way to understand the Constitution is to go back to what our founders spoke about and you know what it what's in their writings, what's in their teachings, what were they, what were they focusing on? Because you know, going into the Constitution, you know, they they gathered in in uh 1787 in June, and they fought for five weeks, not coming together. And and some of them were ready to give up and go home. But Benjamin Franklin, who most people consider the least religious of the group, but we got to remember, least religious in those days was nothing compared to the anti-religious we have in our modern day. But he stood up and said, Hey, we need to, you know, when we met in this room 11 years ago, we had daily prayer. And so he he led them back to going into prayer and actually, you know, in his short speech that he gave, he actually had 14 biblical references. So our founding fathers knew the scripture so well that they couldn't even give a 14-sentence paragraph without having biblical references in almost every sentence of what they taught. So when you go back to those um, you know, the writings of John Adams, um, you know, writing to his wife Abigail and talking about the time in prayer, and there was a there were sessions where they spent two hours in prayer and worship um before they even you know discussed policies. So when you look at all those things that went into it, uh Rick Reen said, we need to get back, we need to teach people these truths about our founding fathers and about the the happenings that took place to create our constitution. So in 2012, um they came out with their first class and they released that so that you know people could originally teach it kind of in churches. Um there was actually a gentleman in in Colorado who kind of picked up on this and uh he actually became our first coach. Um he just started having groups. He said that his church originally gave him a room that was the size of a closet, and uh he said he met with three guys, and every you know, as soon as he would get done with the class, meet more people were hungry for the information he was providing. Well, we now have almost 20,000 active coaches across the country. And in 2021, after COVID, in response to uh COVID, we came out with a class called Biblical Citizenship, which is you know, what is what is being a biblical citizen? Being a biblical citizen is just being a good neighbor and loving our neighbors and caring for our neighbors. And when we when we work to be good citizens, it helps everybody around us. And then uh most recently um in 20 um 2025, just last year, they produced what they call Rebuilding Liberty. And Rebuilding Liberty uh actually gives a 12-step uh program. You know, there's a lot of 12-step programs out there, but their goal is hey, you just pick, you pick the area, you know, maybe it's protecting uh parental rights. We've got states out there, and uh I'm sure, Doctor, you've seen this with some of the things with abortion, but you know, these states are taking away parents' rights to actually have an impact on what their children are doing. There was 14 states that actually said if a parent didn't agree with their child becoming transgender and changing their gender, that the state would actually take these children away from these parents. 14 states in this, you know, the United States of America, which is appalling to me and just crazy. So maybe it's fighting for parental rights, maybe it's fighting for property rights, um, you know, the number of permits you have to get to build anything nowadays. Um, we were talking earlier about a pickleball court and um that all the different permits you have to go through to do any type of construction project, you know, where the government's trying to control what you can do on your own land. They think that some bureaucrat knows better what's better for you and your neighbors than than you do. Um so there's things like that. So it's just there's so many things we've got so much work to do leading up to these midterms. Um, the goal of Patriot Academy is actually to get these classes uh in front of the goal, is is five million people before the midterms this November, November 3rd uh is very important midterm. And if we can get, you know, right now we've had about 1.5 million people who've been through the classes, and I know 3.5 seems like a huge number, but it's just a matter of getting getting the information out to people, letting them know. And again, we've we've got 20,000 coaches currently. The goal is to just keep increasing that number of coaches.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

So um, yeah, that's a big goal, but it's a doable goal with that many people.

SPEAKER_03 13:22

Absolutely, absolutely.

Local Classes And Teen Engagement

SPEAKER_01 13:24

Well, what is your response locally when you have uh people that attend your classes and find out what you're about?

How To Host Or Coach For Free

SPEAKER_03 13:32

Well, um I'm uh when I first started, my first class that I actually did was biblical citizenship, and I was I was blessed that I had a gentleman from my church bring his three teenagers. And so, you know, my first class, I had just the four of them, and uh I had then had a few more people come in as I was as I was doing the class. But to be able to have um have this these truths, you know, uh talk to you know to teenagers, to have teenagers hungry for understanding about our history and about how they can they can take steps to be um good citizens, even though even though only one of the the children was of uh voting age, the other two were were excited about the information. And that's what you know, we've got to get this information in the hands of our young people. Um also I I've got an opportunity uh at my church. I'm part of Outreach Church here in Greenville and uh in March, March 15th and 22nd. Uh, we're actually uh having classes at the church where um you know we'll be able to use the sanctuary. We're gonna have access to the full sanctuary, which holds about um 500 people. And so that'll be a large opportunity. Um, but I've done I've done Zoom classes where I can do a four-week Zoom class. I can I can go to a church and you know do them in like rebuilding liberty is a four four-episode um class. Um actually for outreach church, we're gonna do that in two Sunday afternoons. So we're gonna break it up into two two and a half hour segments. So there's there's several different ways you can combine classes. Um, they've got what they call lunch break versions where they're just condensed versions. So there's there's multiple different ways of presenting these classes, and I mean somebody could become a host with Patriot Academy absolutely free, which means they would just go to patriotacademy.com, register as a host, and that gives them access to all the classes. So even if they just want to learn the information for themselves, they can go to patriotacademy.com and register as a host. And then if they choose to do a class, praise God. We we have we have more individuals who are out there um sharing the information. So again, being a host is absolutely free. Um again, you can become a coach, which gives you a little bit more access and some discounts. Um so there's a yearly coach program, and then there's a lifetime coach program.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

So I'm I'm so if I just wanted to if I just wanted to invite some of my friends over, I could sign up as a host and I would get access to what?

SPEAKER_03 16:04

Uh CDs or well, they they do have um you know flash drives, they could go in the computer, but uh once you sign up as a host, you actually have the information available online. Okay. So I was finding, you know, with some of my classes that I could stream the information to my TV more easily going through the um the internet through the website than I was with the flash drive. For some reason, when I tried to use the flash drive and stream it to my TV, I would get a delay. So their lips would be moving, but the words wouldn't be lined up. So I did find going through the website. So again, that's absolutely free. You don't have to even you know buy the class and get the flash drive. It's right there online.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

And then I could invite people over who would want to learn the information. I could just have a party at my house and and I'd be the host and the information's online and on my TV. Is that fair to say? Absolutely. Absolutely. Now tell me the different courses. If I wanted to be a host, how many different courses could I quote instruct my people with?

SPEAKER_03 17:08

Well, um biblical biblical citizenship was again was the first class I did. Uh it's typically an eight-week class.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 17:15

Um now when you do it as an eight-week class, those sessions, um, each of those eight is an hour and a half.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 17:22

So I we have other coaches who actually split that into 16 classes. So they do 45-minute segments because 45 minutes seems a little bit easier for some people to digest. But then I've had other people who've combined it and had four weeks where they do three hours uh of videos and then do some discussion and and condense the time. So biblical citizenship is uh eight-week program, but they have a five uh five-session lunch break version. The idea is that somebody could uh get on during their lunch break, uh, 45-minute videos, five 45-minute videos, and those are quick and pretty easy. Um, the Constitution Alive class is a is a deep dive into the into the Constitution. And actually, that's a six or a 10-week program. And then the again, the newest is the is the easiest to present these days because the newest is rebuilding liberty. And again, the goal is preparing for uh for America's 250th uh celebration and the midterms. So we're getting ready, you know, getting people ready for to celebrate our nation's 250th uh anniversary, as well as preparing people to be knowledgeable going into these midterm elections in November.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

I got you.

unknown 18:37

Man.

Homeschool And Co‑op Applications

SPEAKER_03 18:38

And I'm sorry, re Rebuilding Liberty again was just four 45-minute sessions. Uh again, so I what I normally do with that is I uh do the video. Um, and then afterwards, you know, you've got 15, 20 minutes of discussion time, depending on if people are hanging out at the house, we'll probably go about a half hour uh after the videos are done. So an hour, hour and 15 minutes, and uh you're all wrapped up. So it doesn't get much easier than that. Four sessions, uh an hour to an hour and 15 minutes, and uh you're getting a lot of great information in people's hands.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

All right. Now I I have my wife used to teach at a homeschool co-op. She taught excellent in writing. But there are lots of people who participate in these homeschool co-ops. If somebody wanted to use this material to teach the constitution and various uh aspects of of what Patriot Academy teaches, could they use this as a part of a co-op to teach the Constitution and teach where we came from as a nation, uh as a part of a homeschool co-op?

Youth Congresses And Real-World Outcomes

SPEAKER_03 19:44

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, most most certainly. Uh each of the courses now rebuilding liberty um is the most recent and and that we've we've had some edit issues uh with getting that work back book out. So we should actually have that workbook out in just a f um hopefully within just a couple weeks. Um but like the Constitution Alive um workbook, you know, the workbook covers, you know, gives a breakdown, great questions for each of the of the 10 weeks, um, but then it has a constitution made easy. So it actually has uh a breakdown of the constitution with with one side that has the actual constitution, and on the other page it kind of breaks down, okay, what's it saying over there? Let's put it in in English that we we currently speak because everything written, you know, when it was written uh 250 years ago, they spoke a little bit differently than we talk nowadays. So uh try to make it as easy as we can. Uh the same thing with biblical citizenship. Um, it has a workbook for the eight-week course that goes you know week by week. Yeah, again, another breakdown of the of the Constitution. So uh the main, you know, both of those courses have a lot of great information regarding the Constitution because I mean that's our foundation. If we don't know what you know what our rights are, um I mean we can't how do we stand up for our right to assemble and our you know uh right to freedom of religion if we don't know what our rights are?

SPEAKER_01 21:11

I understand that fully. Well, this gives me a lot of ideas, Dan. I'm just I'm just bubbling over with ideas myself. A lot of venues where we could teach this to adults, teach it to high schoolers, homeschoolers, church classes, you know, it's a lot of uh and it's just delightful to know that there's somebody out there who's already created the the material. Uh we just got to take advantage of it, you know.

SPEAKER_03 21:38

Yeah, yeah. And again, I mean it's such a blessing that I mean uh Patriot Academy has supporters because really, you know, even though you have access to that information online for free, you know, it it still costs them to produce it. So they they estimated it costs about six dollars per person who goes through the course to pre produce those classes. So there's there's definitely Owners out there who are making up for that. Again, they're they're building a campus in Texas. They've already got a meeting area, but they're actually trying to build it to kind of represent the Independence Hall in Philadelphia. And again, there it's just it's a it's an amazing opportunity and having you know having it for free. It's a program that's already in place, that's available.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Now, if our children participate in Patriot Academy, um they're they're still having these programs where they can participate and debate and and uh mock legislative sessions, that sort of thing?

SPEAKER_03 22:38

Well the uh the the regional um regional leadership uh congresses, I think the closest one to us actually takes place in Florida. Um they have one in Delaware, uh believe one in Indiana, and then Texas is where they do the national because that's again their their main campus is there in Texas. Um but it's you know normally these leadership congresses they have about a hundred to a hundred and fifty uh young people who show up. And again, you know, um there's a gentleman who's only 23 years old that was elected to the uh state house in West Virginia uh out of the program. And so there's there's young people and all kinds of different you know that have been elected to smaller offices throughout the country, but it just gives them a foundation of how does the process work? How do you write a bill? Because you know, we do most of us don't think about you know the processes a bill takes before it can be you know put you know put into law. Yeah, there's so many steps. And if they don't understand the steps, then how can they help progress and create new laws?

Why Reaching Young People Matters

SPEAKER_01 23:41

How long are these camps when these students go?

SPEAKER_03 23:43

Uh the Congresses I normally I believe are are three days for the regional congresses. Um when they meet out in in Texas, the National Congress actually goes Monday through Friday.

SPEAKER_01 23:55

I gotcha.

SPEAKER_03 23:56

So it ends up being a full week for the National Congress.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:59

Because they're again they're bringing everybody in from around the country. So they do end up taking a full week for the National Congress, but normally they try to do it in a weekend uh setting for the regional congresses.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

I gotcha. Well, this is fascinating, Dan. I I want you to know all all of this is intriguing to me because I'm like you. Uh uh adults often are set in concrete, and and you can teach them things, but but to see them take action uh sometimes it just doesn't happen. And if we don't reach our young people at an early age before they become set in concrete, they're absolutely then our nation's never going to change. And I agree with you and the Patriot Academy folks that it's imperative that we reach our young people at a young age, teach them the Constitution, teach them the history of our nation, and then we can raise up a new generation of patriots. I understand that philosophy exactly. Well, thank you. Thank you, Dan. Thank you for your time, thank you for your expertise, and thank you for sharing all of this uh with my listening audience. Any last comments before we sign off?

SPEAKER_03 25:14

Unfortunately, our school systems have failed us. Um the the progressive movement has brought in so much things into our schools that we're we've gone, you know, our school systems unfortunately have gone so far off the truth. So having a program like Patriot Academy uh that's that's that's teaching these these processes and an understanding of the Constitution from the founders' perspective and not from their progressive teachers is just vitally important these days.

SPEAKER_01 25:41

I hear you. I hear you, and I agree with that wholeheartedly. Now, Dan, before we go, tell my listeners how they can get uh in top contact with Patriot Academy or with you if if they need to.

SPEAKER_03 25:53

Well, the best way is through Patriotacademy.com. Um actually, if you go onto the website, there's a place where you can find a class. Um so if you search for a class, you can find a class that's available in your community or even a Zoom class with you know determine the best time of the week that works for you for a Zoom class or if there's a local class, but patriotacademy.com, or if somebody wanted to reach me, they could reach me at dan dot fentan, and that's spelled F isn't Frank E-N-T-O-N, the number 3 at gmail.com. Again, that's dan.fenton3 at gmail.com.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

All right. Well, thank you kindly. Thank you for your time, and we'll go sign off. We'll see you again next week. Until then, remember that Jesus loves you and your doctor loves you, and may the Lord bless you real good.

SPEAKER_00 26:45

Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Medicine or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, Instagram, or webpage at JacksonFamily Medicree.com. Also, don't forget to check out Dr. Jackson, I think.