Faith, Freedom, And The Founders’ Intent

What if the most powerful myths about America’s origins collapse under the weight of the Founders’ own words? We open the door to a wider, evidence-rich view of faith, freedom, and law—starting with God-given rights in the Declaration and Franklin’s call to prayer when the Constitutional Convention hit a wall. Instead of arguing about what professors or pundits say, we walk through primary sources and show how to challenge bad history—and even your favorite AI—by requiring original documents.

From there, we pivot to the numbers shaping the future. Western fertility has fallen below replacement, changing how nations sustain workforces, culture, and political coalitions. We unpack why the U.S. sits near 1.8 children per woman, how Europe trends even lower, and what happens when immigration meets automation. Israel’s story is more complex: Jewish and Arab birthrates are closer than many assume, with local variations that matter. Over time, immigrant fertility converges toward host-country norms, but the gap still moves maps. The thread through all of this is clear: demographics aren’t destiny, but they’re a powerful signal about the health and direction of a society.

Finally, we take on a creative listener proposal: could states blunt big-city dominance by adopting an Electoral College-style system for representation? We explain the constitutional guardrails—one person, one vote—and why county-equal models can’t govern legislative districts. Still, there’s room for smarter fixes: independent redistricting, clear transparency, compactness standards, and maps that respect communities of interest. Across every segment, our aim is the same: pair moral clarity with constitutional craftsmanship, and let facts lead. If you’re ready for a candid, source-driven tour through America’s foundations, shifting demographics, and the mechanics of fair representation, you’ll feel right at home.

If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves thoughtful debate, and leave a review so more people can find conversations grounded in principles and primary sources.

Chapters

• 0:00 Foundations Of Freedom Thursday Begins
• 1:18 Global Reach And Texas Banter
• 6:15 Core Principles: Biblical, Historical, Constitutional
• 6:47 Were The Founders Religious?
• 13:05 Using Primary Sources Against Bad History
• 14:34 Break And Resource Spotlight
• 15:45 Demographics: Israel, West, And Birthrates
• 21:06 Immigration, Automation, And Low-Wage Work
• 24:20 Can States Use An Electoral College For Districts?

Transcript

Rick Green [00:00:07] Welcome to the WallBuilders Show. Thanks for joining us today on a Good News Friday. Of course, Fridays, we just kind of catch up on some of the good news. Of course, every program around here seems to be a good news, even when there's tough topics. We've of course got a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective. And as long as you got that historical perspective and certainly that biblical perspective, you can, you can be optimistic going into the future cause you know, who holds the future, but Good News Fridays give us a chance to hear some of the evidence of the good things happening out there. Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton. Looking forward to today, guys. Let's dive in. David, first piece of good news today. 

David Barton [00:00:39] Well, I'm gonna go back in history. A book that we finished, I guess, Tim, last year was it, we finished Building the Republic, The American Story, was that last year? 

Tim Barton [00:00:51] I'm glad you said Building the Republic because I was like well, we we almost finished the World at War we almost finished a couple others but yes, I think Building the Republic came out last February maybe? Man, you know this point it could have been in 24 not 25 so I think it came out in 24 so it's been out a year and a half almost two years now. 

David Barton [00:01:13] Got it! Well, in that book, we go through the first seven presidents, all of whom had a role in the American Revolution. So literally we did that because you got all, all those presidents were Founding Fathers, they participated in the birth America, they all had different roles, different things they did. And it was interesting going through and studying them to see how different they were from each other, but how they each had a set of skills that was quite remarkable and John Quincy Adams is really pretty amazing. Just a brilliant guy, he's kind of a curmudgeon in some ways. It's not that he's, he would be the guy you'd want to sit down and have coffee with over a table and have just soft chat. I don't think he would like that. He would get intellectual real fast and he's a real deep thinker and he was a great policy guy. He was a great strategist on political strategy like in the antislavery debates and things he did. And so, he was the Secretary of State actually for President James Monroe. And under President Monroe, all sorts of good stuff happened, and not the least of which was that they, that he wrote what was known as the Monroe Doctrine. And Monroe Doctrine was significant because at that point in time, so many of the older, I guess, dynasties of the world, France and Spain and, and the Dutch and so many others still considered America kind of like a toddler or maybe an insubordinate teenager or whatever. They just didn't have a whole lot of respect for them. We got some of that respect in the war of 1812 when the British came and threw everything, they had at us and we stood toe to toe with them and finally we agreed to end the war. It's not that we want or they won. We just kind of agreed to end the war. So, we had stood up to a major power and shown that we had strength. And it's like that kind of made the rest of the world raise their eyebrows a little bit and say, well, maybe these guys aren't toddlers after all. And so, part of what happened as a result of that is John Quincy Adams comes up with what's called the Monroe Doctrine. And the Monroe doctrine written by JQA but issued under President James Monroe said, look, America, we're in the Western Hemisphere. All you other guys are in a different hemisphere. Great Britain, you're across the ocean, you're on the other side of the Atlantic, same with Spain, same with France, same with all you guys, quit messing with us over on this side of world. And we're just, we're serving you notice now that we're not gonna let you come in and colonize other nations and take over other nations, and we're gonna let move into our part of the world and be a threat to us. And so, as a result, at that point in time in Latin America and South America particularly, there was a lot of colonization going on, Colombia and Ecuador and other nations were trying to become free and independent nations and here we come, Spain or France or somebody to knock down that independence movement. And so that doctrine is out there and we kind of learned about it in textbooks, and I guess I don't really think that I've thought about it much in modern terms at all, until Venezuela. And when Trump went into Venezuela, and there's been a lot of discussion over, hey, he can't do that, that's a foreign nation. What I had not realized was that just a matter of days, maybe weeks before he went into Venezuela, he re-released, and I'm looking here at the presidential message he released. He reasserted the Monroe Doctrine with what was called the Trump corollary and it's going back to founding fathers and I don't think, it's really going to be hard to argue that the founding fathers like John Adams and Jefferson and Washington and Madison and John Quincy Adams weren't great constitutional scholars. And somebody like John Quincy Adams had no difficulty saying look stay out of our part of the world We're not going to let you come in and threaten us from outside our borders. And I had not thought of Venezuela in terms of the Monroe Doctrine, that we're saying hey China and Russia and Cuba, you guys trying to move into our backyard and you guys using that country to send stuff in that kills more than 100,000 Americans a year, we're not gonna let you do that. And it gave me a whole different perspective on what happened with Venezuela because if you go back to the Monroe doctrine and what the Founding Fathers themselves set forth, we didn't want other nations being a threat to us in our own backyard. And so, I think that's good news that Trump had laid out this historical basis for the logic behind what he did with Venezuela and laid it out really well. And for anybody that wants to go, they can go in the White House, but it's December the 2nd of 2025, so roughly four weeks before he hit Venezuela. But this is about the time he started telling them, you guys better back down. You know, you got some off-ramps here. We're warning you, don't keep doing this stuff. And they kept doing it. But I think it's good news to see that you've got an administration that's looking all the way back to historical precedent of the Founding Fathers and applying those principles today in a very different technological world, but the same principle still applies. Don't come into our backyard and start trying to threaten us from nations that are our neighbors. We're not gonna let that kind of hostility exist in our backyard. And so I just think that's good news to, when I read that, that presidential message on Monroe Doctrine, the two, it's part of the America 250 because this is, you know, this is the year when we, we remember back to the beginning of America, that we went all the way back to The Founding Fathers and use that Monroe Doctrine now with the Trump Corollary to say, we're not going to put up with this in our part of world. I think that that's really good. 

Rick Green [00:07:00] Now, David, did you say that was the Donroe Doctrine? The Donroe Doctrine? Is that, is that, or is that just the new, I'm sorry. I'm just being silly. 

David Barton [00:07:10] Nice try. 

Rick Green [00:07:10] Oh wait, Tim. Yeah. The Don Roe Doctrine. It's a new, but, but I didn't know the history like that. That was, you said we studied in school. I certainly didn't no JQA wrote it. That gives me all the more respect for it. But yeah, definitely it's one of those, another time when Trump's actions end up being really scholarly research. And backed up by the team and the legal team that he has really, really good stuff. 

Tim Barton [00:07:34] This is one of the times, too, when it's worth maybe pointing out to people that the reason you have to be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater is because when Donald Trump says something like this is this is the Donroe doctrine. In fact, I made it way better. It's better now because of what I've done to it. Sometimes he says things and, of course, for people like us that we're trying to analyze the actual policy of what's going on, we can filter through and we might chuckle, we might roll our eyes every now and then. As he has to continually reaffirm, he's the best there's ever been. He makes everything better And that's again, that's fine for us because we can navigate We're so grateful God has him there so grateful for what he's doing in so many areas. But I think this is also where a lot of times people can't get past sometimes what he says or how he says it to actually notice what he is doing and Dad to your point why oftentimes what he is doing is actually the constitutionally correct thing to do. And I think this is a really great example of where we have to be mature enough to not throw the baby out with the bathwater. And this is the right, the old analogy that in a family, there was one bathtub and everybody takes turns taking a bath in it by the time you've gone through all the family members, the bath water is super, super dirty and the baby is the last one of bath. And if you're not careful, right, people would say, hey, let's just throw the bathwater out. Wait, the baby's still in it. And that's kind of, you know, where this funny analogy or this example came from. You don't throw the baby out with the bath water right. You don't throw something really, really valuable out because there's something in there that you feel like doesn't belong, or right, that the water's dirty, whatever else. I think there's a lot of things that President Trump has done that liberals, Democrats, the progressive media has highlighted on, and they have tried to use it to avoid out all of the good things that have been going on. And frankly, we've talked about, I think on Wednesday we talked about it, that there's a lot of reasons what happened with the Venezuela situation was really, really good. And we didn't even go through all of them. We just highlighted a little bit, but this is where we can see. And again, I wanna say this as a help to people out there when they might hear one of their liberal friends saying, but wait a second, he said this. Okay, no, I get it. Sometimes he says things that we might roll our eyes at. I get that. But what he is doing, the policy, not the personality, not the posts, the tweets, the whatever social media, Truth Social, whatever it is he's doing. Yeah, get beyond that. The policy is really, really good. And guys, that's one of the things that for the last year plus, we've been celebrating so much good in a policy direction coming from President Trump. And this is just one more example. 

Rick Green [00:10:16] All right, I am really embarrassed to say guys, I am learning so much today on our Good News Friday program. Only on Wall Builders will you learn both about the Monroe Doctrine and where don't throw the baby out with the bath water came from. And I genuinely had no idea on either one. I know I should remember the Monroe Doctrine that one's pretty bad. But I have never heard the story of where that expression, and I've used the expression. It's kind of like all the idioms from the Bible we use all the time we don't even know that it came from the bible that David, you did a presentation on that years ago I forget what it was like 270 or something idioms that you documented that we use in our daily, you know, vernacular, but we just don't know that that comes from the Bible. Anyway, all that to say, folks, you never know what you're going to learn on the WallBuilders Show or how ignorant Rick is. Yeah. Anyway, a quick break. I know it's Tim's turn for good news, but we're almost halfway there. So might as well break here. We'll be right back, folks. You're listening to the WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:12:16] Welcome back to The WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us on this Good News Friday. Tim Barton's up next with the next piece of good news. I should have asked for an idiom. I should've asked for some additional story in addition to the baby with the bath water. That was good, man. How have I never heard that? It's crazy. 

Tim Barton [00:12:31] Well, two birds in the bush is worth one in the rock of the pocket of your jacket. 

David Barton [00:12:38] And Rick, it's really because in this generation, you've never had to have five, six, seven, eight people take a bath in the same bathtub with the same amount of water, so you've got no basis for experience of knowing where the world that came from. I hope not. 

Rick Green [00:12:55] Nah, this is true. This is true, all right, Tim, now up to you, man. What's the good news? 

Tim Barton [00:13:00] Item for the day? Well, I'm going to California. This one I actually hadn't heard about. I just saw this news article. It's from the Ninth Circuit, but the title of the article says, Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down California Ban on Open Carry of Firearms. And the bottom line just earlier this week, actually, and I am surprised I hadn't seen or heard of it until article but there was a panel from the Ninth Circuit and they ruled in two to one in favor of a gun owner, when he challenged, the gun owner's name is Mark Baird, he challenged the or sued the California Attorney General Rob Bonta about something that had been done. And apparently the state prohibited open carry of guns in counties that have more than 200,000 residents, saying it violates or he argued that that violates Constitutional right to carry but the state has said if there's 200,000 people or more in a county you can't open carry guns. And so, the case actually went to a federal district court the federal district Court denied Baird's request for an injunction blocking the law. They said you have to prove you could succeed and he appealed in the Ninth Circuit and they sent it back to the Federal or to the district court rather and they said guys he doesn't have to show that like he doesn't bear the burden of proof that he could succeed on this, you need to review it. They didn't review it, so the Ninth Circuit actually then came out when the district court refused to do this, and actually by refusing to do this, the district court, when it went back to the district courts, they just granted a summary judgment in favor of the state without reviewing any of it. And so, he appealed again. The Ninth circuit, and guys, we have talked over the last couple of years about a lot of victories coming from the Ninth Circuit. I remember when I first started doing radio with you guys this point, fifteen years ago, probably, it's been a minute since I started doing radio with you guys. But y'all used to call the Ninth Circuit, the Ninth Circus because of how liberal it was, how crazy the justice were on there, creating, fabricating, doing all kinds of stuff and, and Dad, you might remember, I don't mean to put you on the spot, but I I'm going to, was the Ninth Circuit, the one that had the most rulings overturned by the Supreme Court? They would have crazy rulings, the Supreme Court would come back and say, yeah, that's incorrect. We're not doing that. Was that the Ninth Circuit? 

David Barton [00:15:27] Yeah, and it was so bad it was like more than all the others combined pretty much. I mean, they were way out there out of step with the Supreme Court. And that was not a conservative Supreme Court at the time, by the way, that was a liberal Supreme Court and they were even out of step with that liberal Supreme court. 

Tim Barton [00:15:43] Crazy the Ninth Circuit used to be. We have seen it shift really since President Trump's first term. There are now many more conservative justices or even the better way to say it is constitutional justices. And so anyway back to this decision there was a 2-1 ruling. Circuit Judge Lawrence Van Dyke said that the state law was inconsistent with the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 ruling, the Bruin decision, and that the decision held there was Constitutional right to bear arms and public for self-defense and that gun restrictions must adhere to this nation's historic tradition of fire regulations and guys that that made me think of even some of the current standards when it comes to even religious liberty, religious activity, religious expression, that if there's a long-standing history and tradition, there should be a presumption of constitutionality. Well, that's kind of what the 2022 Bruin decision said that you need to go back to the historic tradition of firearm regulations for the nation. Van Dyke pointed out that there are about 30 states that allow open carry and I did not know this until 2022 California allowed residents to carry holster handguns openly so they could open carry as long as you had in a holster until 2022. And I forget sometimes until I read things like this and remember oh yeah California two decades ago was a republican and state. And even though they were kind of going in a crazier direction, right? When you have Arnold Schwarzenegger as your Republican governor, you're not the most conservative state, but this is the place where Ronald Reagan came from. California used to be very conservative. They had a lot of conservative laws. They're the ones that, Dad, was a 2008 when they did the marriage amendment between one-man and one-woman proposition eight. Was that 2008? Or was it before that? 

David Barton [00:17:33] Now it was earlier than that. It was Hawaii, Vermont, and then California was Prop 22 that they had. Well, Prop 8 and Prop 22. But yeah, that was earlier, earlier than '08, as I recall. 

Tim Barton [00:17:47] Well, we don't have another break or I'd look it up on the break, but I do think it was in the 2000s nonetheless when it happened. Not to digress on this, just again, pointing out California used to be conservative. Well, 2022, you could still open carry in California. Well, the other judge in the 2-1 decision, so on the 2 side, was circuit judge, Kenneth Lee, and he criticized the state, and this is his quote, apparently resorted that the state, he's saying, apparently reverted to subterfuge to deny its citizens or second amendment rights and what's also crazy in this article points out, although California claims people in counties with populations of under 200,000 can apply for an open carry license, the state acknowledges, now this is California acknowledging, it has no record of even one open carry license being issued. So, the state was like, guys, they can apply for them. We're not saying nobody can, you have to apply for it. And then when they were asked, the state was like oh yeah, I mean, we've never issued a license for someone to open carry. Again, just crazy. But the good news is the Ninth Circuit struck this down saying that you cannot take away someone's constitutional right to carry and, in this case, open carry for the purposes of self-defense. So, it's another major victory and one of the inalienable rights, the founding fathers recognize that the government exists according to the founding Fathers and the Declaration of Independence to secure these rights, governments are ensued among men to secure our God-given rights is why we have the government in the first place. And in this case, there was a Ninth Circuit decision that reminded the state of California, you cannot take away people's inalienable rights. That is really good news. 

David Barton [00:19:35] And by the way, Tim, I just checked while you were talking. It was Prop 8 and it was 2008. So, Hawaii was before that, you got it right, 2008. Prop 8, Prop 22 was much more recent, but it was Prop eight in 2008, where California refused to go with same-sex unions at that point in time. 

Rick Green [00:19:56] I almost jumped in and, and said, yeah, it was 2000. You're in by the hair of your chinny chin chin, with 2000, but Grok says, I looked it up too, David. You're a hundred percent right. Tim was right 2008. That's crazy guys. Think about that 2008. So, the year that Obama gets elected, California defines marriage as one man and one woman. Isn't that wild? 

Tim Barton [00:20:19] And it's worth noting too, when President Obama ran his first term, he said marriage is between one man and one woman. That's right, that's right. That was something that the Democrats maintained at that point. And guys, I do want to point out that me getting this 2008 right, I think the reason was, I have not learned as many things as you have, so I've had less to remember. That's why I remembered that one. That's true. 

Rick Green [00:20:47] See, David, I feel like we got that backhanded comment. Yes. Backhanded compliment? 

Tim Barton [00:20:50] What I'm saying is your file cabinets are way more full than mine are, so you had a lot more to sort through, mine was a lot easier. 

Rick Green [00:20:58] Oh, hey, I got to say, though, man, I love that as a good news item for today because, you know, there's so many of these states that have gone so far left and sometimes people think it's not worth fighting those fights. Like, you are we just, you know, give up on Massachusetts or California or whatever it might be. So, what a huge victory building on the Bruin victory from whatever it would, 2022. So, congrats to this plaintiff, whoever it was that that pushed this thing all the way through and congrats to all of our friends. We have so many friends in California. That's a huge victory for that state. 

Tim Barton [00:21:30] Yeah, with Mark Baird from California. So, Mark, great job for having you stand up on this one. 

[00:21:36] Way to go, Mark. Alright David, next piece of good news, bro.

David Barton [00:21:39] Well, it's also in the federal courts. It's also a federal circuit court. So, this one comes out of the first circuit, which by the way, the ninth circuit, California, the first Circuit is Massachusetts and Maine and all those super conservative States on the East coast, like, yeah, not hardly. So, this is another very liberal court. Now this goes back to the One Big Beautiful Bill, July 4th, 2025. In that, Trump defunded Planned Parenthood. He defunded abortion providers, anybody who's received more than $800,000 in federal grants, abortion provider, since I think it was 2023, you're not eligible for any federal grants and so it shut down, shut down Planned Parenthood. And I think I mentioned a week or so ago and just in passing on good news that in the first time in my life, I saw Planned Parenthood running ads on TV asking for contributions and they've not done that in my lifetime that I know of I certainly haven't seen it. But they have now started doing that in the last year because Trump and Republicans have just not funded them. And so, there's been a number of clinics closed down, Planned Parenthood clinics are going down. Doesn't mean abortions declining because the abortion pill is out there and so that's not a good deal. But at least the abortion clinics and Planned Parenthood is the number one provider's gone. So, what happened was when the One Big Beautiful Bill was passed, instantly the abortion people, pro-abortion folks, a number of states went into federal court, went into the Massachusetts area where that they are so rabid pro-abortion, maybe more so than California. I would say they probably are because California does have a lot of conservatives in it, which Massachusetts is pretty hard to find many up there, there are some. So they went to the federal court and in Massachusetts, and there's a judge up there who's been very consistent and overturning anything that restricts access to abortion. And so she overturned the, the ruling said, no, Congress can't defund the abortion providers. You have to provide money. And this is a bunch of Democrat attorney generals that filed suit and went after it. And what's interesting is the three judge panel, the first circuit came back and said, oh yes, Congress can do that. Congress can defund Planned Parenthood. Congress does not have to pay for abortions, et cetera. So, it's a really amazing decision, but here's the part with it that's amazing to me. The three judge, panel was made up of three Biden appointees. So, all three judges that ruled pro-life on this thing. Or, and I'm not going to say they rule pro-life, they actually ruled in favor of the law, and they actually rule that Congress does have the authority to do certain things, which we know from Article Two that they do, or Article One, I mean, that they do, it's really cool to see that in that circuit, the first circuit with three Obama judges, they uphold the ban on funding for Planned Parenthood. That's pretty almost miraculous, in my opinion, but it's great news because it is so quasi-miraculous. 

Rick Green [00:25:01] Do you think people are really realizing how much of the left has been funded by us through our taxpayer dollars? I mean, we've always known that about Planned Parenthood, and to see this, you're weakening the other side by turning off the spigot of our own dollars, and then of course we're now seeing it with the daycares and all this crazy stuff. I mean is there a critical mass here where the average voter finally figures this out? 

David Barton [00:25:25] The good news on the daycare is, even though it's funded by liberals and liberal groups, there were no kids in there to get indoctrinated, and that's the best part of it. They had all this money going, but there's no kids indoctrinated as a result, so that's good news. 

Rick Green [00:25:38] Yeah, well, that's true. You're working really hard to spin that one, brother. 

Tim Barton [00:25:43] That's like finding the silver lining on the silver bullet you were just shot with. Like there's silver lining there, but that's still going to kill you. Yeah, but we're to your point. I, you know, I think the Nick Shirley videos, when they came out a couple of weeks ago, I think it is, it has rocked the, the political landscape and so much of the nation. It's emboldened so many people now to go start doing more of those videos. And I think more and more people are waking up to this. And I, and I think this could be, this is not the October surprise. We often talk about in elections because it's not October yet, but this could be a significant impact on coming elections. 

Rick Green [00:26:24] Really, really good stuff, guys. Maybe a major shift in where we're going as a country as well. So good stuff. Good stuff. Thanks for all the good news, guys! We've got more next Friday. And of course, there's some at our website right now, wallbuilders.show. You can catch up on any of the programs you missed over the last few weeks and months. Have a fantastic weekend and thanks so much for listening to The WallBuilders Show.