What Happens When A Nation Prays Again

A 20% nationwide drop in murder. Thousands of missing kids found. Tens of thousands of Texas families rushing to school choice on day one. If you’re tired of doomscrolling, we’ve got a stack of stories that point to something different: when leaders restrain evil, protect families, and tell the truth out loud, the results show up in the numbers and in the culture.

We start with new FBI data and what it says about law enforcement priorities, public safety, gangs, fentanyl seizures, and the renewed pursuit of child predators. From there, we shift to an unexpected cultural signal: the Melania documentary hitting number one on Amazon Prime in the US and worldwide. We talk about what the film reportedly highlights, why the media attention feels lopsided, and why viewers’ choices can quietly undermine propaganda.

Next we get practical with education policy and the Texas school choice rollout, including the scale of the program, who applies, and why competition tends to raise academic outcomes while lowering costs. We also cover a tense international story involving the Iranian women’s soccer team threatened for refusing to sing Iran’s anthem, plus the push for asylum protections in Australia. We close with the National Prayer Breakfast, the America Praise Initiative, and the May 17 prayer gathering on the National Mall as part of the 250th anniversary.

If you care about faith and culture, FBI crime statistics, school choice in Texas, and how prayer shows up in public life, this conversation ties it together. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs some good news, and leave a review with the story that mattered most to you.

Transcript

Rick Green [00:00:07] You found your way to the intersection of faith and culture. It's the WallBuilders Show on a Friday, which means we got a lot of good news coming your way. So, I'll keep this short. I'm Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton. Find out more about us at wallbuilders.com. Let's jump in. First piece of good new, David. 

David Barton [00:00:23] It's actually looking back over the past year, you know, Trump been in now a little more than a year, but various agencies are releasing their reports of what the last year has been like. And, and so FBI has released data over the last year. Looking at what happened with crime, et cetera, in the United States. And so, under Trump's first year, and I can't tell you how fun it has been to not see the FBI as Gestapo political police that are enforcing agendas and enforcing DEI and everything else. Are actually going after criminals who actually did what used to be considered just absolute crimes but were somewhat excused under DEI type of stuff. So having said that and looking back, last year with this new enforcement mentality we're going to enforce the laws, we're taking the bad guys off the streets. Murder rates fell by 20% nationwide, that's the largest decline on record. So, number one, it is now safer than it's been in a long time in the United States and the largest declined on record, and again, they're going after whoever did the crimes and not releasing them because of their nationality or because of their illegals or legals or whatever. So, it's just fun to enforce the law to see that done. They captured four of the Ten Most Wanted on the FBI's most wanted list. They got four of them last year the last time they caught four took four years to do that. So, they quadrupled the number that they have captured on the Most Wanted the list, they took out 1800 gangs, they have a 210% increase of taking out gangs from the previous year so more than doubled. They took about forty-four hundred pounds of fentanyl and that's enough to kill one-third of the United States. So took massive amounts of drugs off. And when measured by arrests and disruptions and victim recoveries, it's the most productive year the FBI had. And here's what here's really got me with it; so, they get all this good stuff done, it's safer and they spent 1.2 billion less in doing that. So really effective, really productive, less money spent. And on top of that, they hired 1,422 new people, including 500 special agents. So, they increased staff, they've increased agents, they've decreased cost, and they've made America safer than it's been in a really long time. And by the way, they also found 6,000 missing children. And arrested 1,700 child predators. And that was a group that was being left largely alone, unfortunately, under previous administration. They had not done much in going after child pornography, child predators, et cetera, and that has turned around. So, this is just a wonderful report over what's happened the last year, FBI out with this report. Now, to me, this is really good news. This is what the Bible talks about, that you're supposed to have the sword of justice to punish the wicked, reward the righteous, and that's the way this is gone, and I haven't seen one like this in a long time. It's really fun to see. 

Rick Green [00:03:47] Well, it's almost as if restraining evil somehow lines up with the laws of nature and nature's God. So, and you get good results. Very, very good news and a big, big change, man. I mean, that, that affects so many people. It affects the economy. It affects people's personal lives. I mean it's across the board. Good stuff. All right, Tim, where are you taking us, man? 

Tim Barton [00:04:07] Well, guys, this is an unusual one for me. It is what is currently number one, or at least it was last week, number one on Amazon Prime in the US and worldwide. It's a documentary called Melania. Now I can tell you, I haven't seen this. I know a lot of ladies that have seen this, but here's, and, and I'll go through some of what the article highlights. It's from the Epoch Times and why it's a big deal. But one of the things I think is so remarkable. Is not only has President Trump had better approval ratings at this point in the second term, higher than what President Obama, President Bush had with all of the criticism that has gone against him, with all of the hate that has gotten against president Trump and Melania for that matter, the fact that her documentary was the number one streaming thing. It, it surpassed Young Sherlock, which is one of their new TV shows is a big deal on Amazon prime. It is yet again, sending a message to people all over Hollywood. And not that necessarily a lot of those people are listening to all of these messages, but if they want to make money, maybe they will. Kind of like we talked about with some of the films like David and some of these other Christian films that have done really, really well. And it shows that people want more of this. It sends a message that as much as the media has attacked the current administration, the White House, and even Melania, the American people are not buying into all of the propaganda and this propaganda war. The film also, just a couple of highlights from it that is reported by the Epoch Times in this article, it documents some of the less well-known parts of her life, including philanthropy and human rights efforts, some of her effort working with foster children, the ones that are currently in homes, and then those that are transitioning out. It includes a portion of her helping free and Israeli hostage, Keith Siegel, on and on and it goes. And Amazon, guys, paid a lot of money to get this and then they paid a fair amount of money to advertise for this. So, they put in some work, but the fact that this is the number one thing streaming on Amazon as of this last week, it is really interesting to me. And maybe on some level encouraging that in the midst of the cultural war that we are engaging in with all of the propaganda around us, that maybe there are more sane people out there than we realize. And this is not to say that only sane people are watching this, and that if you're sane, you should watch it. Because I don't know that as guys, we're probably going to watch this. But it is nonetheless encouraging that not everybody is woke and not everybody is following all of the CNN propaganda for the stuff going on. So just a little news report that Melania reaches number one on Amazon Prime in US and worldwide. 

David Barton [00:07:01] And Tim, I saw a little bit about that. And there was something that struck me that I don't think I'd thought about before, because how often do you see Melania? I mean, she's kind of a showpiece when Trump shows up to do something. Maybe she's there, but she's not the headline of any news story that I've seen in forever. And I just hadn't really thought about what they did. But then as I think back, other first ladies, they have their own staff. They are super busy. They're doing several events a day, kind of like Trump does. What I saw in this this documentary talks about was they followed her for 28 days in the White House. 28 days they went through all the stuff that she did which I found remarkable. I just hadn't thought about all she does. 

Tim Barton [00:07:44] And Dad, what it says here in the article is it was for 20 days leading up to the election. So, 20 days, not 28 days. 

David Barton [00:07:51] There you go. 

Tim Barton [00:07:52] It's her journey leading up this, but to your point, we have seen so few reports on Melania and Michelle Obama was the media darling that, and this wasn't just like for The View, which is a bunch of women that are very liberal talking about other women in politics, et cetera. No, this was- I mean, Michelle Obama, late night talk show hosts, everybody was talking about Michelle and Melania, nobody virtually is talking about. And so, this is something that's kind of an inner look at what's going on for 20 days, that cameras just had access almost around the clock. And so, what they capture is very real. The director said that they weren't doing multiple takes trying to get a good take that this was, these were first take things they were showing. It was just for 20 days, they captured footage and they're just giving you an inside look at what happened. So, it's very real. And it's a significant contrast from what the media does with like a Hillary Clinton, a Michelle Obama, as opposed to someone who is brilliant, who is multicultural, bilingual, actually probably more than bilingual. I don't know how many languages she speaks. She speaks a lot of languages. And incredibly gifted, talented, beautiful lady. And the media has ignored her, but again, it shows the American people still have an interest, even though the media does not. So the Americans have not bought into the propaganda war. Americas not quite as woke as the media and social media might make us appear as maybe evidenced, not only, but certainly supporting the cause that Melania is the number one streaming thing on Amazon Prime. 

Rick Green [00:09:40] Yeah, but Tim, is she a doctor? Okay, come on. That's funny. Come on, Joe Biden, you know.... They made it sound like she was a doctor.

Tim Barton [00:09:48] I totally forgot about that, because I think it was Whoopi Goldberg on The View who said, oh, she's a brilliant medical doctor. And someone was like, actually, she has a PhD in education. She's not a medical doctor at all. But yes, not to be sidetracked by facts about what Joe Biden is or is not. 

Rick Green [00:10:08] Yeah. Yeah. All right. Good stuff. Let's see, David, we got, we got time for another before we go to break. What's your next piece of good news, man? 

David Barton [00:10:14] This ought to be a piece of good news for you, Rick. Cause way back when you ran for office, you're one of your top issues was, drum roll please, school choice. So, school choice in Texas, you did, man, that's, I'm not saying how many years ago that was, but it's a few. And so just a couple of weeks ago, I guess now three weeks ago in Texas. They made school choice available. They took $1 billion, no small amount. And they said, we're designating this. First come, first served on priority. They're, they are certainly going for low income and for those that have educational difficulties, whatever we're going to make it available for you first and we'll expand the program later, but we're starting with $1 billion and so here just, I guess three weeks ago or so they opened it up and on the first day, some 42,000 families applied and that was first day it was open. So, I mean, this open for a good while it's going to go. They expect about 100,000 kids, this will cover. Now, 100,000 kids sounds like a lot until you back up and say, no, wait a minute. Texas has got 5.52 million kids in Texas. So, we're talking about 1.8% of students can now have school choice. And so that's not that, that's massive amount for most other states, a billion dollars for school choice, oh my goodness, that huge. In Texas, that less than 2%. But it is a start. And so, the legislators, once they get this thing going, they're going to keep adding to it and building it. And it was interesting. The stats are that that of that, about 20 percent said, hey, we're going to take the money and homeschool about 80 percent said we're taking the money, we were going to private schools. But that that's still, you know, that's a lot of kids, 100000 kids. And so, at this point, this makes now 35 different entities. Meaning territories and states that now have school choice. It's sad that Texas had to be, you know, this late in the event, 35, but you've got Puerto Rico and Guam and DC that are the three non-states that do this. They're territories and then the federal city, and 32 states now have a school choice, and so far, in all 32 entities, and this was two years ago, so there were 32 entities then, but in every single entity that had adopted school choice, academic scores went up and costs went down. And so that's good news in itself, which we know the free market always works. Competition makes everything better. Having four hamburger joints on four different corners, you're gonna get better hamburgers with all four joints as a result because they're gonna compete with each other. The same with cars, the same with the suits you buy, the same that the electronics you get. Competition makes it all better. And so this is good news that Texas has finally made it over the crest of the hill with this. And I think that once this gets going, you're going to see the next session. They're going try to expand this, make it a lot bigger. It's actually cheaper for the state of Texas. They'll get higher scores out of this. It does not cost near as much to pay for private school for these kids as it does to put them through public school. So, this is actually better for taxpayers. You get better results, everything about it's better. It's just flat good news 

Rick Green [00:13:33] Yeah, like you said, David, it'll it'll improve the whole system. It's the, you know, even even those public schools that these kids are leaving eventually will have to respond to this and improve. And so, their, their environment, their classrooms, the level of the teachers and all of that will eventually go up. We've seen that happen everywhere school choice has been implemented. So yeah, very, very good news. Quick break fellas. We'll be right back. Stay with us folks. You're listening to good news Friday on the WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:15:04] Welcome back to The WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us today. It's Good News Friday and we're back over to Tim. 

Tim Barton [00:15:09] Well guys, this is coming from Australia, dealing with Iran, it is the Iranian women's soccer team, which generally speaking, we are not soccer people in general, but especially not women's soccer, and especially not Iranian women soccer, but this was a big deal because President Trump posted about it, got involved. What had happened, and there's an article from the Epoch Times that goes through a lot of the details. As stuff was unfolding between America and Iran, we talked about, I think on the show, certainly we did off air a lot, is the response of so many Iranian people to what the President did, taking out the dictator and the powers that be, so to speak, in Iran, that were so oppressive to the Iranian people. And the majority of Iranian people were applauding the President. They were chanting USA and God bless America and Iran, and then all over America as well. As this was unfolding and so there's a women's tournament down in Australia. It is the Asian Women's Cup or the Asian Cup Games. And as things are happening in Iran, part of the, the Iranian women's team, as the, their anthem was being played, they did not sing the anthem. And this was viewed by some of the Iranian leaders as them protesting Iran and not being supportive of a nation that was seemingly at war. And so, they were threatened. The Iranian state media called them wartime traitors. They were threatened with punishment for refusing to sing the country's national anthem, and this was before they lost to South Korea. And as this unfolds, there was concerns if they go home, what was going to happen to them? And President Trump said, well, we'll bring them to America. We'll give them asylum here, but they were in Australia. And so, he said that the Australian government, they ought to take them in. And so, this was actually on March 9th. Trump said that if Australia doesn't take them in, they're making a terrible humanitarian mistake. By allowing the Iranian team to be forced to go back home to Iran instead of offering asylum. The U.S. Will take them if you won't. But two hours later, Trump posted again on social media, I just spoke to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia concerning the Iranian National Women's soccer team. He's on it. Five have already been taken care of and the rest are on their way. Some, however, feel they must go back because they're worried about the safety of their families, including threats to some of those family members, if they don't turn. In any event, the prime minister is doing a very good job, uh, having to do this rather delicate situation. God bless Australia. So what was really fun in my mind about this is not only do you see another evidence of Iranian people that are supportive of what president Trump is doing, recognizing how terrible this regime, the Iranian regime has been to their own people. But also, when those women soccer players were threatened and all of them are between 18 and 34 years old, so really these are these are girls and young ladies. When they were threatened and their families were threatened the fact that President Trump stepped in and said that we will we'll give them asylum here, but hopefully since they're already in Australia, Australia will step up and do it. And the fact at Australia did, just encouraging yet again to see President Trump use some of his negotiating influence and skills and abilities, but also to see the response of some of the Iranian women and how they really are disgusted with some of what their own government has done and how supportive they are of what America has done on their behalf as the way they view it. So, a pretty cool story. 

Rick Green [00:19:04] I don't know how he does as much as he does, but then when, when you talk to people that work with him on a regular basis that are 20, 25, 30 years younger, they say they can't keep up with him. It's like, I don't know man, the Lord just gave him literally just this super strength to be able to, the long days, the types of meetings he's in. And he doesn't look at like, you know, you don't have, we've seen all we see those pictures of presidents after the first four years. They age so much and after eight years, I mean like night and day. I don't think you see it on him and he's isn't he 80? I think he turned 80.

Tim Barton [00:19:36] Yeah, Rick, to your point, he thrives on this kind of stuff. And, you know, Dad, one of the Psalms you often talk about in a military context, that when David wrote in the Psalms that it is God who trains my hands for war, right, he trains them for battle, my arms have been this bow of bronze, that God is really the one that equipped him, that equipped David for battle. And that's something that God still does for various people today, that God equips and gifts us all with different talents and abilities and for the different callings God puts on our life. But it is so clear, Rick, to your point, that Trump is the man for this job for so many reasons. But one of the indications that is remarkable is that most presidents in their first term, they are graying and they look old and tired. By their second term, there's so beat down and worn down and President Trump looks as fired up as ever and, and really in fairness, this, this is- almost like a third term in the sense of how long he's been fighting this. Because it was during Biden's term that the DOJ, FBI, everything was weaponized against him. He's dragged in and out of court. So, all the things that you would think would exhaust somebody mentally, physically, emotionally, that their body would be beat down, that it would, it would be evidenced in their appearance and it's not in him. He, he has been gifted and anointed by God for this season in this moment. And that is what it looks like from the outside. 

Rick Green [00:21:05] Yeah, yeah. Amazing! Amazing! All right, David, what's next, brother? 

David Barton [00:21:07] I'm gonna back up to the early part of February when we have the National Prayer Breakfast. National Prayer breakfast goes back to President Eisenhower. It's something he started. He was afraid America was becoming too secular. So, in his two terms, he did a number of things to put religion back front and center in America. Cause that was, he knew that was the basis of America and he felt like we were becoming too Secular. So, one of the things he did was gather world leaders, gather congressional leaders, gather America and other nations political leaders together and have a national prayer breakfast. And so that still goes to this day. And Trump actually spoke this year at the National Prayer Breakfast and talked about how important prayer was, how the Founding Fathers wanted prayer, how America was a built on prayer. And if we're gonna restore America, we gotta get that prayer back. And in doing that, he introduced the America Prays Initiative. Wanting people to get with others and pray an hour every week for America, get a bunch of other people together. And so he rolled out some initiatives on doing more about prayer. And by the way, while he was in that, while he talking about this, he took a little side trip. I thought it was pretty interesting. He called out political leaders who don't like to use the word God and won't use the word God and won't acknowledge God. And here was Trump lecturing political leaders about leaving God out of their conversation and he said some major politicians refuse to say the word God, they don't want to say it he said I say it. We're endowed with the sacred right to life, liberty not by our government but by God almighty Himself. And those words rang out from Philadelphia and they launched a revolution not just in but in the hearts of all humanity. And he wanted to talk about the Declaration of Independence and how it acknowledges God and how the Founding Fathers acknowledge God and how he's put the Declaration of Independence and original copy up in his office, which is really cool. When I saw that, it was so pristine that I really thought it was a replica, kind of like the kind you buy on Amazon or eBay or something else, because the original I've seen is the one in the National Archives that had, Tim, as you explained so often, so many ink lifts from it. They pulled the ink out of it to make duplicates of it over the over the generations and so the one I've seen there is so faded it's hard to read and then I looked at that one in his office and it was so crisp and clean and bright and I was not aware that they had done three actual copies of the Declaration that those guys signed and he's got one of those original copies right there. He said he said I look at that every day he said, I try to read that as often as I can, which is good for him. That's our birth certificate going back and getting those principles out of there. Awesome stuff, 171 words, six principles, awesome stuff. So, he got off on politicians and others who don't like to talk about God publicly. But then he came back and announced that on the 17th of May this year at the National Mall as part of the 250th, there's gonna be this big prayer event. He says it's a time to rededicate America as One Nation Under God. On our 250th birthday lesser rededicated America to God. Now, I don’t know the last time I've heard a political guy even talk about rededi... I know Reagan talked about bringing America back to God and so did Eisenhower others but in the modern era, I mean he's talking about we've got a like that Founders did, rededicate this nation to God. And so, he said, religion is coming back strong. And so. What they have is an event that plan on, it's called America Prays. It's gonna be on the 17th of May. Tim, you, me, we've already got our tickets. We're gonna be there at that event. It's going to be, I have no idea how big it'll be. I anticipate it's gonna hundreds of thousands. I think I mentioned a week or so ago that I've been three events at the National Mall that had a million people or more in it. And I think this may be one of those that may be the fourth event that has a million or more. I think a lot of people are going to show up and it's going to be a special time. So, a time to rededicate the nation to the Lord and Trump will be there and there's going be a lot people speaking that throughout that day. And it's gonna be a really, really cool event. So, all of that from President Trump at the National Prayer Breakfast. That's great announcements, great words coming from the President. It's a great tone to sit for America. 

Rick Green [00:25:34] Yeah, so even just that's just good news across the board guys and to set it set the stage for years more of good news, right? If we're actually bring in the nation together to pray on May 17th. Now for people that can't travel to DC for that is there a way to participate? I guess just watch online encourage people maybe get together in their homes and pray that day as well? 

Tim Barton [00:25:52] Yeah, there's definitely going to be a lot of streaming opportunities on social media. Easy to follow YouTube, easy to follow, but also, Dad, and Rick, it's worth pointing out. This is one of many spiritual things happening in D.C. You have America Reads the Bible, as we mentioned, which is happening in April. We're going to up there as well for a pastor's briefing. We have actually there's going to a lot of pastor’s events, the Faith Office, National Faith Advisory Board, a lot things going on, even leading up to this. So, there's a lot of pro-faith things happening. We'll try to keep people updated through our social media. But certainly, you can track this on even the White House and social media. They will have live streams going as it happens. 

Rick Green [00:26:30] Alright guys, thanks for all the good news and doing the research and bringing the articles to us. Folks, you can get more good news at our website, wallbuilders.show, to catch up on any radio programs you might have missed over the last few weeks. Have a fantastic weekend and we'll see you next week. You've been listening to The WallBuilders Show.