Good News on Good Friday!

The restoration of America's moral and constitutional foundations is gaining remarkable momentum across multiple fronts. In Arkansas, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders has signed landmark legislation allowing the Ten Commandments to be displayed in public schools for the first time since 1980. This historic shift returns to a tradition that existed from America's founding until just four decades ago, recognizing the Decalogue as a foundational text that shaped our nation's legal and ethical framework.

The so-called "Founding Fathers Bill" passed in Arkansas now requires students to study the philosophical and moral principles that guided America's founders, particularly their understanding that rights come from God rather than government. These Arkansas initiatives create a model that other states can follow to restore civic education rooted in historical truth rather than modern revisionism.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court continues to rein in activist lower courts, upholding a 1940 immigration law that requires self-reporting by individuals in the country illegally. This enforcement mechanism could lead to "self-deportation," where people return to their home countries and apply through proper legal channels rather than face penalties. The Court also prevented activist judges from forcing the federal government to continue funding university DEI programs.

In the entertainment world, faith-based content is making a remarkable comeback. The animated film "King of Kings," based on Charles Dickens' story about Jesus, has claimed the number two spot at the box office with a $19 million opening weekend. This marks the most successful debut of a faith-based film since 1998's "The Prince of Egypt" and signals Hollywood's growing recognition of an underserved audience hungry for family-friendly entertainment that aligns with Biblical values.

As we celebrate Easter, it's worth remembering that America's founders themselves wrote extensively about the significance of Christ's resurrection. From Benjamin Rush to Charles Carroll, these signers of the Declaration of Independence viewed Easter as central to their personal faith and the nation's moral foundation.

Want to discover more about how faith shaped America's founding? Visit wallbuilders.com for historical documents, founding fathers' quotes about Easter, and resources to deepen your understanding of our nation's true heritage.

Chapters

• 0:00 Good News Friday Introduction
• 0:52 Arkansas Legislation Success
• 5:16 Legal Victories for Trump Administration
• 11:43 Faith in Entertainment Industry
• 21:02 Supreme Court Ruling on DEI Funding
• 24:31 Easter Reflections and American History

Transcript

Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the intersection of faith and culture. It's the wallbuilder show, taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. And it's good news Friday. We always look forward to Fridays around here because there's so much good news to catch up on. Of course, lately it's been good news pretty much every single day of the week. Not that everything's perfect. Not that every day we don't still have challenges. Not that the rot in the culture isn't real and we still have a lot of work to do is just the beginning. But it's just that because the beginning is filled with so much good news, we haven't had time to get to most of it. And so it's been piling up. So anyway, today we'll get to as much of that good news as we can. And we may even have to do an extra good news. Oh, I don't know, maybe a Monday instead of a Friday, because we just can't get to all of it on the, on the Fridays, but let's dive in. So with so much to get to, what do you guys want to start with? First piece of good news today. 

Tim Barton [00:00:52] Well, I think we ought to start with the fact that yesterday we got to be in Arkansas with Governor Sanders signing some incredible legislation. We had some legislators that were just champions and warriors and several really cool bills. The 10th Commandment Bill is something that we have been encouraging states to do since the overturning of Lemon from the Coach Kennedy decision in 2022. And and lemon for those that might not remember is been used and cited in, in federal cases over 7,000 times to stop religious activity or expression, things that have been a history and tradition of America for our entire existence. And all of a sudden over the last couple of decades, we were told, no, we can't do that anymore because that violates whatever kind of religious expression tests that the Supreme court back in 1971 had just made up out of thin air, uh, and so fortunately that was overturned in 2022. And one of the things that now can be restored is things like the display of the 10 Commandments back in schools where the 10 commandments were part of our educational system from the inception of American education back in 1947, all the way up until 1980. So literally, for like the entire existence of our nation, the 10 commandments were part of public education in 1980, the US Supreme Court said, no more 10 commandments. And there's now opportunities to restore the 10 commands back to help students understand that this is a basis. Of, of the moral and legal foundation in America from our beginning and, and helping students to see that and understand that code just even historically once again, but even seeing it historically, then there's some pretty practical thoughts and application of where we can see the moral values coming from, the moral value that shaped our legal system and jurisprudence system in America, et cetera. And so that's something that governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed, hat those are now something that can be in display in public schools in Arkansas. Also, there was a civics education bill. It was referred to in Arkansas as a founding fathers bill. And these are things we talked about. When we were up in Arkansas, we testified in committee, we talked to about passing in their house and their Senate, and we were just awaiting the governor to sign it. Well, she signed it. And and now it's going to require that students I think it's sixth through 12th grade might be seventh to 12th, grade, somewhere in that range. They have to go back and learn about the ideas that shaped the founding fathers, that led them to conclude that there was a God who gave us inalienable rights. The government exists to protect those rights. And it goes through a whole sequence of things. They need to learn for the moral foundation of the founding father's. We got to be there to be part of a signing that in Arkansas, they are going to refer to portions of Israel back as Judea and Samaria, the historical terms for some of those areas, as opposed to something like the West Bank. Even the idea of gold being part of, transactional gold. I think it's kind of the form behind it. We've talked about a little bit. I was hoping you. 

Rick Green [00:03:49] Going to say that because I saw a picture of Kevin and Marnie and Governor Sanders and I thought, man, I didn't even realize. I mean, I don't like getting beat by Arkansas guys, but I'm glad transactional goal got done. That's the first day to do it. Sorry, man jumped in on you there. 

Tim Barton [00:04:03] Well, no, and one of the things we, we told Governor Sanders, we told the legislators up there is Arkansas has now set a, a tone and a stage for the rest of the nation that they, they're now going to be the example we point to as we encourage other legislators, guys, these are things that you can do to make a difference in your state, to go back to some of these foundational constitutional principles and issues. And they're the model now for other states to follow. We are so grateful for their courage, for their leadership, and we're talking about it on our social media. We'll probably at some point need to interview some of these legislators and senators from Arkansas, let them tell part of their story, why it mattered, why they're doing it. But as there are still some states that their legislatures are still in session, we're hopeful, even here in Texas, for some good things to happen. The Senate in Texas has done an incredible job. We actually had some friends Who listened to the program say guys you talk about how bad it is in Texas point out It's bad in the house because on the Senate side. We're doing a really great stuff, and it's true The Senate had done an incredible job 

Speaker 3 [00:05:11] And Tim, I'll add to that. I got a text from one of our Senator friends who says, hey, point out how in the Texas Senate, they've already passed 500 good bills this year. So 500 there, we're still waiting. I would almost say for the first one from the House, but I can't quite say the first, but it's almost that stark a difference. 

Rick Green [00:05:30] Well, actually, David, I tell you what, we should celebrate. I think it was two o'clock yesterday morning that school choice passed in the house, so it's a little different from the Senate, not a lot. So they still got to conference and all that. So it's not a done deal, but that's big, bro. That's like, you know, what have we been at this 30 years pushing for school choice and, uh, so that we're talking triple decade and to see that get done, uh just hallelujah. So that, that's the first big And of course, you know, like you said, though, the Senate. I mean, and that was a month ago, right? The Senate was already done with all the major issues going into like, you know, 1st of March, and normally nobody does anything till March in the Texas Legislature. So yeah, kudos to the Senate for doing such a great job. And actually kudos to the House. 

Tim Barton [00:06:11] Well, all that being said, there are still several states where there could be some good news coming from those states on things they are doing. Yeah. However, at this point, Arkansas has finished their legislative session. Uh, their cycle and, and they now, God bless them, get some rest. Hopefully even today they're sleeping in there with their families as they get to celebrate good Friday, which we will definitely get to and talk about good Friday. Uh, I actually have some quotes from founding fathers. I want to read, uh, later, but right now it's worth acknowledging where we were yesterday. We got back late last night from Arkansas and there's just such good things happening. So kudos to the state legislators, the senators up in Arkansas. Uh, for what they're doing to restore some sanity, restore some foundational principles and even some moral values back in Arkansas. 

Rick Green [00:06:59] Yeah. And, you know, we've had so many of the state reps and senators from Arkansas come to the pro-family legislators conference and talk about a lot of these things over the years. And so to see them have the success is wonderful. Jim Dotson and others just great friends and doing a wonderful job there. And then it's, it's interesting today. I was having lunch with some of the students from Patriot Academy. We're out in, in Boston. And tonight we'll go watch Paul Revere do his midnight ride, the reenactment. And, and then tomorrow morning, the shot heard around the world. But anyway, they were asking me, okay, if JD Vance is likely the In 2028 who would you pick for VP and I didn't even know that you were there Tim and David I didn't know y'all had done the signing with Sarah today or yesterday and I and that was the first thing out of my mouth I was like well you know Sarah Huckabee Sanders is sure doing a good job as governor of Arkansas who knows you know maybe it'll be her anyway so I just had to say that before we left Arkansas all right David what do you got up first 

David Barton [00:07:47] Bro, we're not even through the first hundred days yet, and you're already picking the next precedent, we got a ways to go, bro. There's a lot more. 

Rick Green [00:07:56] We should enjoy what we have. You're right. 

David Barton [00:07:59] One of the things we've been covering, one of the things I really get into is the fact that when you have the judiciary doing the right thing, it makes such a difference and there's a whole lot more good news. And some of the good news is just simply, they're not doing stupid stuff and striking down things like the activist judiciary does. And so we've talked about the fact over the last four, four to six weeks, how that Trump is doing all this stuff, but he's getting sued like crazy. More than a hundred lawsuits have been brought to stop all the things he's doing, the things you promised he's gonna do. And we talked about how that really kind of, as you go up the food chain and the courts, we're probably gonna get better decisions as you up. And we talk even a couple of weeks ago about how the Supreme Court really started slapping down some of these lower courts and said, quit the form shopping, quit quit just going to a judge that's gonna give you the decision you want. You judges start doing the right thing and follow the law, et cetera. And so part of that is now really starting to show up. And talked a couple of weeks ago how the Supreme Court said, look, you stop the forum shopping and you take it to the court it's supposed to be in and you court stop this activism. And so one of the ways you can stop activism is when somebody comes to your court and files a lawsuit against the federal government, look and see if they even have a standing to be able to sue the federal Government. Just because you have an objection to something doesn't mean that the law has given you standing to be be able say, yeah, that is a violation of the law. Just because don't like something doesn't means that you can go to a judge and get it stopped. There's gotta be a law that's the basis of that and you have to say, hey, I don't something because it violates this law and you've gotta make them stop violating the law so a whole lot of these lawsuits being filed against Trump have been because people just didn't like what was going on and they really didn't have standing and even come bring the case. 

Rick Green [00:09:43] Wait, wait, wait. David, are you sure that there's not an orange hair, bad exception in the constitution or mean tweets laws that, no, no. Just make, just making sure. 

David Barton [00:09:53] Yeah, exactly right. Yeah, you know, if my feelings are hurt, I have a constitutional right to go to the federal courts and get them to stop everything that hurts my feelings. Yeah, no, that's not it. 

Rick Green [00:10:04] Well, and you remember bro, you remember when they got rid of the, or they tried to get rid of The Ten Commandments of the Texas Capitol, it was somebody that just walked by and then claimed that they had standing to do this. That's that, that's the type of standing that you should have to have a stake in, in that, you know, we, we talked about standing back with the election laws and all that, or the election challenges, if you're on the ballot and you think there was cheating or something wasn't done right, or they violated the constitution and you're a candidate, you should certainly have standing. But what you're talking about are situations where people are literally just saying, I just don't like what the president's doing, even though, As you said... He campaigned on these things. That's their real complaint. We actually have someone that got elected and is doing what they said they were going to do. 

David Barton [00:10:40] And going back to that case you mentioned at Texas, as there was an attorney walking across the Texas grounds, there were 17 monuments on Texas State Capitol grounds, and one of them was the Ten Commandments. And he said, every time I see that, I feel like an outsider in my own country. Well, great. You may feel like a plum on a fig tree. That doesn't give you standing to say, I want that thing down just because it offends me. And that's where the court was giving standing on that. And it came what was known as the center's veto. If I object to it, you have to take it down because it offends me. Wasn't even a basis in law for it. And so that went all the way to the US Supreme Court in 2005 and fortunately they came back. And that's part of when they started knocking down that dissenters veto is what it's called. I don't like it so I can get it vetoed. And now we're seeing a lot of the progressive judges come back with that kind of nonsense that if it offens you, you can do it. Well, one of the things that Trump promised from the very beginning back as he was campaigning, he started talking about this when he was in the first term. Is I'm going to get immigration under control. This illegal immigration, we're gonna get it stopped. And why is it illegal? Because it violates the law. He's not just talking about stopping immigration, he's talking about enforcing the laws. And we're going to all this illegal stuff stopped where he had tens of millions that came in against the law, and so he started doing that. And this is a decision that came down from the U.S. Supreme Court this last week, which is really interesting. And it goes back to the fact that there is a 1940 immigration law. Until 1940. We're talking before World War II, and it says if you're in the United States illegally, you have to notify us that you're here because if we find out you're illegally and you haven't notified us, you're gonna be looking at jail time. Now, if you notify us and we let you stay, that's one thing, but if you don't notify us and we find that about it, you're looking at jail time. So it's a lot smarter for you to let us know. Well, then they added some amendments to that in 1952. And then even as you got into 9-11 that came back with George W. Bush after the attack 9-11 They said hey if you're from these 25 countries you have to notify us if you hear illegally and 24 those 25 countries were Muslim countries and at that time they were you know declaring the jihad on the United States And so we have all these laws and Trump has said okay I'm going back to enforce that law if you were here illegally you tell us that you're here and if you do not tell us to you're here and we find out then you got jail time or fine coming and so all these groups started objecting, that's not fair, you can't do that. And all these group jumped in and started saying, we've got to get judges to stop that, he can't enforce that law. And the judges came back and said, you know what? You guys don't even have standing to sue. Just because you don't like the law doesn't mean that he can enforce the law. And that worked its way all the way up to the US Supreme Court and the Supreme Court upheld that. So that's a really big deal because that lets him move forward with a lot of that stuff he promised on immigration. Doesn't mean he's gonna throw everybody out, but what it does, this leads to what's called self-deportation, because they say, hey, you're here legally, you can stay or no, you're gonna have to go home. You gotta go back and do it legally, do it the right way. If you wanna get here, you go back and fill out the paperwork and fill up the forms and do all the right stuff. So I wondered how he was gonna get millions of people out of here. Well, this is part of it. You have self- deportation. You take yourself out so that you don't end up in jail. And then you come back and do it the right way, do it legally, follow the law. So this is really good news in my viewpoint that we're seeing the court start really squeezing down this effort to avoid the law, to ignore the law to do everything we can to stop the enforcement of the law it's nice to see them go back to actually upholding what the law says even if they disagree with what the laws says. 

Rick Green [00:14:24] I know you guys have a lot more good news, but we got to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Stay with us, folks. It's Good News Friday on The WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:15:37] Welcome back to the WallBuilders Show, thanks for staying with us on this Friday, lots of good news coming your way, Tim's up next. 

Tim Barton [00:15:43] Is actually pertaining to something we took our staff to do this week. Wednesday, before we flew up to Arkansas to be part of all the bill signing, we took out staff to go see the cartoon King of Kings. And it really was fun. It was based on a Charles Dickens story. And so the article I have says, Kim Keen's Charles Dicken's story about life of Jesus scores number two spot a box office. Now this is after opening weekend. And what they identified was that it was number two. That weekend and it earned more than 19 million dollars and to give some perspective on this it says the film was produced in South Korea it's now become the highest grossing debut of a faith-based film since DreamWorks animation from 1998 The Prince of Egypt and The Prince Of Egypt is still to this day one of my favorite cartoons, they did such a good job of the Bible story. And now that Val Kilmer has passed, he played the voice of Moses and God in Prince of Egypt. And then there were so many noted individuals who were voice actors in the Prince of Egyp, but this one's not a lot different. In the King of Kings, it has Pierce Brosnan, Oscar Isaac, Forrest Whitaker, Mark Hamill, Kenneth Branagh, Uma Thurman, on the list goes. Very, very impressive list, but a few things that this article highlighted I did not know about. Dickens is the one who wrote this story, at least the cartoon is an adaptation of his story. The story he wrote was The Life of Our Lord. The article points out he chose to read it to his children every Christmas. It was a treasured story for his family, so much so that Dickens refused to publish it. So he writes a story every Christmas He reads it to his family and he wrote this in the 1840s. It was so personal to his family, it remained unpublished until around 1930s or somewhere in the 1930s after his last child died, which then was even more fascinating because in the cartoon, it shows Charles Dickens and kind of gives a head nod to some of his more noted things, a Christmas Carol being one he was acting out on stage and it's got a son backstage and He's kind of distracting and as a side note guys, it did bother me a little bit in the movie when his son, the kids were being crazy and maybe, I mean, I don't know if it's super disrespectful as much as just rambunctious and out of control, but, but at one point they're, they're being a little sassy talking back to dad and I was like, Ooh, spank that boy right now. Obviously cartoons are not showing that same level of discipline, but as someone who grew up reading proverbs and learned about the rod. And foolishness being bound up in the heart of a child. It pained me a little bit to not see kind of the Proverbs idea of being embraced to some level, but it shows a father then telling his son, his son wanted to be king Arthor. And that was like a hero for him. And he said, son, let me tell you about the true King, the King of Kings and tells a story about Jesus. It just, it's such a well-told story. And one of the things the article points out, it- there were several people interviewed. And one of the answers was that this is an example of how there's been an underserved audience. And when there are people willing to tell the stories that are friendly for that audience, and this is people of faith, but also just families that want good entertainment for their children, that they will come and support these movies. And so knowing we are Easter weekend, everybody's already got family plans, there's probably a lot going on. But where we are, There's going to be some rainstorms this weekend. If it interrupts plans and you're looking for something to do, I would absolutely recommend going and seeing King of Kings. Now, I've got a six and three year old. I didn't take them because it was PG. I didn' know how intense some of the moments would be. It's a little intense, but I can say if your kids can watch maybe Frozen, where, you know, there's the Ice Man and there's some of those components, this was no more intense than Frozen would be if your kid's going make it to Frozen. They can probably make it through King of King's. But it's definitely a really, really good option. Would highly encourage it to even help our kids know part of the point of what this weekend is all about. It's cartoon on a screen, but it told so well. So it is really encouraging and it's good news that the number two show at the box office last weekend could be again this weekend, is King of Kings first weekend brought in $19 million. Hopefully that sends a really strong message to Hollywood as well. 

Rick Green [00:20:20] You know, guys, we talked to earlier in the week, you know, Tim, you shared president Trump's statement about Easter and we talked about, you know, the gospel being from the highest, you know, gates and the, and the highest mountains in the country and how cool that was and here it is in the entertainment industry to be doing that well, um, and this is our, of course, our friends over at vid angel that, that, that put this out so proud of those guys and what they're doing. But it's just win after win for the gospel. Like, you, you everybody says, You just want Republicans winning or you just, no, no. The gospel's winning. That's what's so cool here. This is great. David, what's your next piece of good news? 

David Barton [00:20:53] I'm going back to the courts for a minute because it's another win coming from the Supreme Court regarding lower courts and what they've done on other Trump policies. And this one deals with DEI. And so what the Trump administration says is, hey, we have civil rights laws. These civil rights law say we have to treat everyone equal regardless of race or gender. And your DEI says, well, not really. You have to tree certain genders and certain races. Different from everyone else. And so the federal government under Trump has said, no, no, everybody, you treat everybody the same. And so they have shut down tens of billions of dollars of grant money going to universities that were going there to help them not follow the law to treat everyone the same, treat certain groups differently and give them better treatment. And so within that framework, as you can imagine, a lot of the DEI states, eight of those states, California, New Mexico, and others. Filed a suit against the Trump administration and said, hey, they can't take this money away from universities. They've said they're gonna give us grant money they have to follow through and give that grant money. And so as the Supreme Court looked at this, it's interesting, I think Attorney General Pam Bondi after the court came down and said hey, no, you've gotta, they could definitely withhold that money because you've got to follow federal law. I love what Pam Bondy said. Attorney General, Pam Bondi, she said, this vindicates the Department of Justice what we've been arguing for months. Local judges do not have the jurisdiction to seize control of taxpayer dollars force the government to pay out billions and unilaterally haunt president Trump's policy agenda You can't let a local judge come in and tell the president how he's gonna spend his money or not spend his money, that's not the role of the courts and that's what the Supreme Court kind of slapped him down on and so this goes back for all these these laws But the cool part of this is is when the Supreme court looked at said, you know We think that it would do irreparable harm to the administration if they were forced to pay this money. Because let's say that it goes to the courts and the courts say, oh yeah, you did violate the civil rights law. The federal government can't get that money back. They will have given tens of billions of dollars. How are they gonna get it back? And then, as the Supreme Court also pointed out, well, a lot of these universities already admitted that they have plenty of money to keep operating without this. For example, Harvard wants nine billion from the federal government and these DEI kind of grants. Harvard's sitting on a $53 billion endowment. So they don't have to have this money. Of course they want the money. And so it's really cool that the courts went through and pointed out why that the lower courts were wrong in doing what they did here. And so, it's just another one of those things where that not only is it going up the food chain the right direction with the courts. But it's just nice to have a Supreme Court right now that for the last several years has started reading the Constitution and reading who makes the policy and that it's not the courts. And they're trying to keep the courts out of policy making, which is just really, really healthy. I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying that right now because we've gone through several decades in a row without being able to see that kind of restraint. But judicial restraint and those victories are very good right now. 

Rick Green [00:24:02] When you're going the direction towards tyranny and go into the direction of the Republic falling apart and then all of a sudden you have literally a 180 going the right way it's just it absolutely should feel good and enjoy it this is very good stuff well guys as we head into the weekend Easter weekend as I said I'll be tonight watching Paul Revere do his midnight ride and and tomorrow the shot heard around the world but Sunday of course Easter and we're gonna be at the monument to the forefathers and my son Reagan is gonna preach a sermon on Easter and were gathering people there for that so it's gonna be a fantastic weekend You know, Tim, this is,  this is a rich American history to celebrate this weekend. 

Tim Barton [00:24:35] It is. And one of the things that if people want to see some of the American history side of this, you can go to the wall builders website and you can just go in that search tab and put an Easter,  we have some examples of Easter sermons from earlier America, but also we have several articles that highlight just some quotes from founding fathers about Easter. As an example, Charles Carroll was a signer of the declaration and he explained the approaching festival of Easter and the merits and mercies of our Redeemer. Have led me, and by the way, he has Latin there, and I skipped over Latin, but if you read it, you'll read the Latin without me trying to butcher it, but he said it's led me into a chain of meditation and reasoning, and have inspired me with the hope of finding mercy before my judge, and of being happy in the life to come. Happiness, I wish you to participate with me by infusing into your heart a similar hope, and talking about because of Jesus, His resurrection from the dead, that we have hope. Benjamin Rush, another sign of the declaration, he explained, He forgave the crime of murder on his cross. And after his resurrection, he commanded his disciples to preach the gospel of forgiveness. First to Jerusalem, where he well knew his murderers still resided. These striking facts are recorded for our imitation and seem intended to show that the son of God died not only to reconcile God to man, but to reconcile men to each other. There's so many other good quotes. And certainly as we are looking at Easter and celebrating the life, the death. The burial, the resurrection of Jesus. This is not something that's even new for America to celebrate. The founding fathers themselves celebrated and wrote about Easter, the importance of Easter. You can find more of those quotes at wallbuilders.com. 

Rick Green [00:26:14] That's wallbuilders.com to get those resources. Be sure and just go on the website today and also go to wallbuilder.show and share today's program. Get that good news in the hands of as many of your fellow Americans as you possibly can. And let's have a wonderful celebration this weekend. We'll see you next week. In fact, guys, I know you got more good news. What do you say we have a good news Monday? I know it sounds weird. Just doesn't have the same pop, doesn't the same ring, but I think we're gonna do it because we just hadn't been able to catch up folks. So count on some more good new after the weekend. We'll you Monday right here on the WallBuilder Show.