When Institutions Bend, Who Holds The Line

A judge tells Virginia Democrats a referendum is illegal, it goes forward anyway, and then the election gets set aside. That’s where Good News Friday starts: not with hot takes, but with the uncomfortable truth that election integrity depends on boring things like timing rules, publication requirements, and ballot language voters can actually trust. We walk through what the Virginia redistricting fight means, why turnout still matters in off-year elections, and what we’ll be watching as the state Supreme Court weighs in.

Then we shift to a story that hits harder on the personal level: Mark Houck, a Catholic dad and pro-life advocate, targeted under the FACE Act after praying outside a Planned Parenthood clinic. We talk about the escalation from a sidewalk confrontation to an early morning FBI raid, what that kind of enforcement does to religious liberty and free speech, and why a seven-figure settlement matters as restitution and as a deterrent for future abuse.

Finally, we zoom out to culture. Disney quietly moves away from “Hello, Friends” and back to “Ladies And Gentlemen,” and a former employee describes a real internal retreat from DEI dominance. We also share why it’s encouraging to see more pastors engaging public life with courage, clarity, and the full counsel of Scripture. If you care about constitutional rights, pro-life news, Christian leadership, and where the culture may be turning, this one’s for you.

Subscribe for more Good News Friday, share this with a friend, and leave a review. What story gave you the most hope, and what should we cover next?

Transcript

Rick Green [00:00:07] This is the intersection of faith and culture. It's the WallBuilders Show and it's Friday. So we got a lot of good news to share with you today. If you're new to WallBuilders, we call it Good News Friday. If you've been listening for a while, it's probably your favorite day of the week to listen to WallBuilders, David Barton and Tim Barton been collecting good news stories all week. I'm Rick Green and we're going to rapid fire some good news at you. David Barton's starting first, David, go for it, man. 

David Barton [00:00:30] Well, I'm going to start with something that happened earlier this week. I think a lot of people know about the referendum that was held in Virginia. It barely passed less than plus or minus one on that. But Virginia voters appear, and by the way, the turnout was really high in that Virginia election. It was as high as it was in the presidential election. So, both sides really turned out their voters and that's really good. High voter engagements always healthy for the nation. Even if they get the wrong result. So, I'm thrilled with a high voter turnout that was as high as it wasn't a presidential, and this is an off-year election and a ballot election that doesn't have other state senators and reps and congressmen on it. 

Tim Barton [00:01:10] With Dad, I think too, it's worth pointing out, we're even more excited when the high voter turnout, when it's American citizens that are legally voting in elections. Yeah, that's right. You know, that there's oftentimes questions surrounding some of the processes in Democrat controlled territories, especially when there's mail-in ballots and especially when there's late night drop-offs of mail- in ballots. So just a caveat, it's great there were so many numbers, but kind of like, you know, with the Biden presidency, I'm a bit skeptical that how many votes he got he actually got, but not to digress. It's great when the American people who have registered to vote partake in that constitutional action. 

David Barton [00:01:54] And if we make the assumption, as we have for several years, that most of the voting fraud occurs on one side and most of the illegals vote on one side, the fact that enough conservatives turned out in Virginia to make this thing, plus or minus one point, if there was illegals voting on the other side, then kudos to those who really showed up and voted well on this. Now here's where the story gets interesting. The day after the election, a judge in Virginia set the election aside. And Tim and I were in D.C. this week, and Tim and I back on Monday, the day before the election, we're in a meeting about this election. And in that meeting, as they were looking at this election and what was gonna happen. And so we were told that the judge is going to rule on whether the election language was good the day after the election. We're going, wait a minute. Why wouldn't you rule before the elections that the language was good? Because the language is really terrible. It says we want to use a fair way of redrawing lines. And the redrawing, this is the bottom line of what it is. Texas, earlier the year, did redistricting and they picked up some Republican districts and other states did so as well. And Virginia said, well, we can give us more Democrat districts. So, they have 11 congressional seats in Virginia. Right now, six of them are Democrat and five of them a Republican. Under the new lines that they drew, 10 would be Democrat and one would be Republican. And so, in their ballot initiative, they said, we just want to make fair lines in Virginia, fair for who? Fair for the Democrats, maybe. Not fair for the Republicans and so we just said this is ridiculous that you use the word fair in a ballot initiative because it's fair for which side? And surely a judge wouldn't let that go through. And so, I was just really mystified hearing on Monday that the judge was going to rule the day after the election and lo and behold the judge did rule after the election but there was more to the story than what I knew at that point in time. So, it turns out the judge who ruled after the elections is the judge that ruled before the election. And before the election he told the Democrats that this ballot initiative is illegal. You can't do it because it violates two things that state law requires. It requires that if you have a referendum like this it has to occur that the referendum has to be established before the general election, not after it. So, the general election was in November, Democrats took control in January and they passed this ballot in February. Well, that's not before a general election. You've done it after. And the second thing that had has to happen is you have to publish the amendment three months before the election occurs. Well, Democrats did this in January and they had the election in April. That's not three months. Before it occurred. And so, the judge that I told you that this was illegal, you went ahead with the election anyway. I'm telling you again, what you did is illegal. So that's the rest of the story on what happened in Virginia. And so, it's now gone to the state Supreme court and boy, if the state Supreme Court. Rules that this was a legal election man. They have just ignored two They would be as bad as a Kansas supreme court if they did that only Kansas I think Kansas has an 89 record of being overturned by the U.S Supreme Court the Kansas. Supreme Court is a state that does not elect its judges. They're appointed by the state bar back in 1958 Kansas came up with a new way of doing it and no longer do the citizens elected judges So if Virginia were to say hey, we want you to ignore the state law. We're going to declare this election good because we think the legal language affair, man, you've got a Supreme Court just as goofy as what the Kansas Supreme Court has been, but that's my good news is that what just happened in Virginia, I don't think is going to stand. Certainly, the judge that did this twice doesn't think it should stand. We'll see what the Supreme Court does and whether they actually uphold the state law or whether they become activists that start picking winners and losers. So, good news from Virginia from my standpoint. 

Rick Green [00:05:49] Yeah. And it's going to be real important to watch that one over the next few weeks. I bet there's all kinds of appeals. It's going, it's gonna see all kinds of challenges, but the fuse is short because the elections, you know, just a few months away and they've got to, they've gotta know what lines people are you running in the candidates need to know the voters need to do and of course the election judges and all the preparation that has to be done going to very, very interesting to watch. All right, Tim, what's your first piece of good news today? 

Tim Barton [00:06:15] All right guys. Well, this is one that is good news because there is some restitution There's some veneration for someone that was targeted by the Biden administration The article headline says; "Pro-Life Hero Mark Houck Celebrates Winning Seven-Figure Settlement Against Biden" DOJ. The background of the story is mark is a Catholic. He got seven kids and he and his son, part of a pro-Life group; it's 40 Days for Life Institute of Law and Justice. They are the ones that represented mark but mark was outside of a planned parent clinic he and his son and they were praying and i think they were holding signs too but they were just praying for what was going on planned parenthood had hired someone to be an escort quote-unquote to be able to bring in women who wanted to get an abortion without having to be harassed by someone asking if they could pray for them. And I say that a little tongue in cheek, how ridiculous that is, but this escort came out and started berating Mark and his son. And so, Mark and a son scooted further down the sidewalk to get a further away from the entrance and the escort began following them, yelling them. And he got up in the son's face and at that point, Mark stepped forward and pushed them back. Well, then when Mark pushed him back, he was charged ultimately the, the Biden DOJ, the U S Department of Justice, they alleged that he assaulted this man because charging him under, I'm trying to read with article says; charging them under intentionally injuring, intimidating, or interfering with, or attempting to injure, intimidate or interfere with a person who provides or assist in the provision of abortions to federal charges. So, all of this, when the guy starts screaming and cussing at his son and he pushes them back and then they say, oh, all right, well, you touched us. So now you're going to jail. And that's basically what happened. The FBI raided his home and like, he knew charges were coming, but instead of somebody saying, hey, will you please come down, you know, potential to the courthouse, come down. He, he wasn't resisting. He, they weren't being violent or crazy, but one of the things we saw a lot from the Biden DOJ, and this was certainly true with some of the people like the praying grandma from the January 6th scenario, someone that was just there praying and not being violent. And when the FBI showed up and they were told to use these flash bangs or like they wanted to make it as intimidating as possible. To really just kind of punish the people that have been part of anything against what the Biden Department of Justice wanted. That that's essentially what they were doing and so they went to Mark's house, FBI does this early morning raid, it's very traumatic for the family, for all of the kids. They put him in handcuffs, they take him to jail etc. etc. Well, the good news is that he did just win a million-dollar lawsuit the bad news is it took him four years to get it. But this is one of the things that even the article highlights. What a difference in administration makes. When you have an administration that wants to punish people for doing something that is constitutionally legal in every understanding you can stand on a public sidewalk and you can pray and that's not considered interfering with somebody, especially when you're not blocking the entrance, it's that they were not on the sidewalk right in front of the door and using their body as a shield. That's not what they were doing. And yet that's what the Biden DOJ essentially charged and targeted them with. And then with assault, because when somebody comes up and cusses in front your kid and you push that person back and tell them to stop and leave your kid alone, and now you've assaulted somebody, just how crazy. And again, the article highlights the difference an administration makes when you have one administration that wants to punish people for trying to protect innocent life and defend their children from being cussed out by crazy people and you then have the Trump administration in contrast to the Biden administration who's actually working to bring restitution and justice to some of these scenarios. Overall, just really good news. 

David Barton [00:10:23] And Tim, the other thing I find so fascinating is I was looking, um, when this article came out, I was look at some of the Biden stats that the Justice Department has just released. And they were looking at during the time that Biden was president, they had this, they're protecting and Mark Houck was prosecuted under the FACE Act, freedom of access to clinics entrances. And so, they said, he was blocking the access. He was intimidating people by praying, even though he moved down the street. And as you point out, that flashbang at night in front of the seven kids, the handcuffed daddy, everything was wrong about that. But they pointed out, the Justice Department just pointed out that the Biden administration on average was getting 24 months in jail for those who were praying outside abortion clinics. Now, during the Biden Administration, there were hundreds of documented instances of fire bombings, of pro-life pregnancy centers, and clinics, and violence, and attacks. And on average, they were giving the violent people 12 months in jail, but they were giving the praying people 24 months in jail. And that's how twisted it was in the Biden administration that just simply praying is considered so abominable to them that they double the time that they gave for violent protesters who actually were burning down churches, burning down abortion clinics, et cetera, crazy stuff out of the Biden Administration. Good thing it's being rectified now. Great to hear that that Houck got that 1.1-million-dollar settlement. That's great 

Rick Green [00:11:55] Yeah, and the great thing about the dollar figure is the deterrent, right? It will hopefully help to prevent this from happening in the future for sure. Hey, let's take a quick break, guys. We got more good news when we return. You're listening to The WallBuilders Show. 

Rick Green [00:13:14] Welcome back to The WallBuilders Show. Thanks for staying with us. Good News Friday of the day and David's got the next piece of good news. 

David Barton [00:13:20] This one actually goes back to the glory days of Disney before Disney woke DEI, did all their crazy stuff when they had really high market value and share and they were really a very popular institution. They had some different practices than what we see. 

Tim Barton [00:13:36] Dad out of curiosity when you say back to the glory days of Disney what movie do you think of when you think about the glory days of Disney? Is it like....

David Barton [00:13:49] Everybody knows. 

Tim Barton [00:13:50] The Computer war Tennis Shoes? Is this like a Bambi? Like what is the glory days of Disney? 

David Barton [00:13:56] Oh man, it's so easy Tim. It's all the Dean Jones movies; it's Snowball Express and all. Well actually, The Glory Days of Disney, I think kinda go up through a lot of their animated stuff, even the stuff that that were in 2000, thereabouts, they were still some really high-hitting movies. 

Tim Barton [00:14:15] Well, cause I was ready to sing the Davy- Crocket theme song. 

David Barton [00:14:16] There you go. 

Tim Barton [00:14:17] That's one of the most glorious times of Disney there was. It's super funny when they do the Davy Crockett's King of the Wild Frontier movie and it takes him really to the end because of the Alamo. After it was done there's been many people write about this, but Disney said that was one of biggest mistakes he ever made. Was killing Davy Crockett so early, he said, man, we should have made so many movies and stories. And then he came back, you know, with the River Pirates and whatever else. He did a few others, but man, I could sing that song right now and it would just make me happy on the inside. 

David Barton [00:14:51] I went back, look, over the years before all the streaming we got now we would buy VHSs so we can watch the Disney movies and show them, you know Tim, you grew up seeing them and then we bought the DVDs etc. So I was just curious we have such a big collection I wondered how many were out there and so I spent about a day literally going through searching the web for every Disney movie I could find that was produced. And I don't know how many there are, but I know that on single space paper, I had 12 pages of single space paper with one title of each movie per line. So, it's got to be over 600 there abouts. And I, you know, we, we probably got 150 or there about so glory days. Disney did really well with, with basic box office and, and the general public up through the 2000s and, and probably even a little 2004, five and six, maybe. 

Tim Barton [00:15:49] One, Dad, two, it's, I mean, it was worth pointing out. They were doing some things in the eighties and nineties that there were already things you were seeing being like, well, that's not quite right. With some of the cartoons, there were people slipping stuff in there, but it wasn't as egregious and upfront. Where back then, you still had to kind of wonder, did they do that on purpose? Was that somebody strategically slipping something in there? As opposed to over the last couple of decades when you don't have to wonder at all. It is aggressive. It is in your face. It is promoting things that are very much contrary to traditional values. And I do say as a caveat because growing up in some of the homeschool world we did, there were people in the eighties and nineties who were already like, oh, you can't watch that movie. It's not good. And we didn't watch all the Disney movies. We that there's, there's a lot of things we weren't allowed to watch, but It definitely has changed over the last couple of decades. Which I'm guessing the good news means that maybe it's going a different direction 

David Barton [00:16:46] Well, yeah, what happens is when you look at Disney, how successful they were in the market and how much of the market share they had on entertainment, children's entertainment, and so much else. What you find and what we've known even up through this year is the Disney institution, the Disney franchise, they tend to, particularly at Disney World, Disneyland, they test every line that they use publicly. They test it, they retest it, they do all these marketing things and test groups and others. And so, when you hear announcements, they have crafted that in a very particular way. It's not just a random announcement. And so, when you walk into Disney and you get the Disney greetings and the characters talk to you and you got the PA announcements and everything, for the last several years, as you walk in, the cast members talk to the crowd and say friend, and they talk about being friends and it's good to have all here. And for years they said, ladies and gentlemen, and they would say, yes, sir. And no ma'am. And they would identify genders and they've gotten away from that in the last few years. And that was tested. And lo and behold, without any fanfare, people have now noticed that Disney has gone back to using genders. Welcome ladies and gentleman. Yes, ma'ams, no sir. And they point out that that never happens by accident. Disney tests everything. And so they've seen a real change in, in the way that they're presenting themselves in their parks. And that's because we know they, they took a massive hit, you know, people like us wouldn't go to Disney or Disneyland anymore, Disney World. And they took massive hit. But they're making some adjustments and there's actually some other good adjustments still coming. 

Tim Barton [00:18:36] Well, Dad, too, I would think that some of those adjustments, when they're calling you friend, because you don't want to misgender somebody, I would that that probably was not something that was as thoroughly tested. I think, and this is just me suspicion. I'm not reading the article you are, but I would speculate that that was something they were promoting an agenda. And then when there was backlash, that's when they started testing and they realized, oh, people don't like this at all. Because some of the they rolled out with and when you even mention like how many movies they've done that's not including all of the Disney Channel specials and whatever we're talking like the more cinematic things, but where they've gone once you had the Disney channel and have done a lot of the made-for-tv and so much of what they have been promoting on that has not been family-friendly with traditional values in mind. And so, for many of us that have grown up in a Christian home or want to continue or maybe have a Christian home for our family, it's been very problematic. And again, I think it has been problematic because they've been promoting propaganda, promoting ideology and worldview that's contrary to the Bible. And the backlash I think is what has brought them back to that testing, which is what led them to go back to saying, "welcome to the park, ladies and gentlemen', and all of the language they would use. But now it's going back to referencing that we are male and female. Having been in DC most of the week, there's still some places where there's a lot of wokeism left and, and I had my wife and girls with me for a little bit and there was a few places we went and I looked and I'm like, sometimes you were seeing men wearing women's clothes and dresses and, you know, we would just do the eye roll and we would kind of redirect our kids, hopefully they're not seeing it. But there's every now and then you see somebody and you're like, well, I'm not even sure, how to properly identify this person. Because of the way they presented themselves. And it's worth noting, the Bible is very clear God is not a God of confusion or chaos. He is a God order. It is the world and culture around us that has derailed that. That's where Disney went. But Dad, really good news. And I don't know if you have more in that article, but the fact that Disney finally tested and realized, oh, that's not what these people want. 

David Barton [00:20:52] Yeah, they, they changed their language in 2021 and they specifically instructed their employees to say, hello friends, hello everyone, and not use any gender. And so now, and I've known they've been testing stuff. I've been told that Disney is one of the most aggressive at testing every clause and every phrase, at least in the 2000s. So, I don't know if they were doing it back in the old days, but under Bob Iger and others and Iger's now in his second run is CEO. But what happened is Disney has gone through a real downturn and, and people going to the park and people buying their videos. They've had several flops at the theater and they're changing things now. And Bob Iger, they brought him back in with all the downturn. They got rid of the super woke guys and Iger's back in and he's back to more traditional kind of marketing where they'd been, not that he's conservative, but he was, he was a good market analyst. And so what's recently happened is, Disney has laid off 1,000 employees. You know, AI and all the other stuff, but they're downsized and less income. There's a thousand employees that were laid off. And one of the employees just did kind of an online interview. He wouldn't talk about everything, but, but a guy named Josh Dawes, he was a software engineer for 12 and a half years at Disney and did this, this kind of, an interview on X people asking questions he would answer. And some of the people started asking him about this Disney push for DEI and all, all the stuff. And he said that he believes Disney's on the tail end of that and they've been moving away from it. He said it peaked in 2020 and they'd been on a steady decline since. He says it's much better internally now. He says the vibe shift is real. And he said it's really changed a whole lot since Trump has been elected president. That the whole company internally has moved further and further away from that. And so, he said he was Christian. They said, well, are there many Christians there? And he said, well, not as many as I'd like to see, but a whole lot more than you would think. And so, they said, so with that, how did all this woke stuff get in? And he says it was a very small and very vocal minority of the company that kind of took it over and just went crazy. He said most of the employees were not there. A lot the Christians definitely were not there and a whole lot of people just didn't want there but that's what that was what was pushed on them. So, I found that interesting. Apparently that vocal minority that is kind of pushed out of the company now with Iger being back. And I hope that does mean a real genuine shift for Disney not just market-wise but philosophical wise but it was fun to see that that interview from the inside and this guy who had worked there 12 and a half years just kind of giving his reflection when he saw it change and start to change and what's happening. So, I hope that means good things for Disney. I hope we can get back to where we can enjoy them and support them, but man they've driven us away for the last several years, that's for sure. 

Rick Green [00:23:45] Yeah, it's such a good indication of the culture too, because we know ideologically how crazy they were and we've seen the videos of executives talking about how they wanted to groom kids and all this crazy stuff. So, the culture just put so much pressure on them. They had to go the other way. That's a very, very good sign. Well, Tim, take us home, man. Final piece of good news for the day. 

Tim Barton [00:24:05] Well, I want to highlight some things that have happened this week in regard to pastors. We obviously had our pastors briefing up in Washington, D.C. This week, which I do want to high light a couple things. But then yesterday I was at Turning Point Faith. They did a big faith event, three-day event in Dallas. I got to speak at it yesterday morning. A lot of friends of the show, yes, we've had on many times we're there, but one of the cool things that I'm seeing is there are more and more pastors that are waking up to recognize the need for their leadership in very real ways, which is just very encouraging to me. When we were on our pastor briefing up in DC, our friend, Congressman Mary Miller, hosted for us and she's so gracious. She's incredible, a great, godly woman. Speaker Mike Johnson came and hung out with us for a while. We got to connect with him. The next day we had Senator Josh Hawley and we heard from Ted Cruz and at the Josh Brecheen, Congressman Loudermilk, we just had so many friends that came by and were encouraging the pastors for their role. And what was great is in the room, there were many pastors who were already fully committed doing it. There were pastors who maybe even doubled down on some of that, that were inspired, but the reason I'm bringing it up is because. The last, really all this week, the last many days, I've been in rooms full of pastors. And as we've been talking about a great awakening and revival in America, if the church doesn't figure out her role and start doing what God's called her to do and leading in some of these ways, it's not a great indication for the future of the nation. Recognizing that our nation was built by people that knew their Bible, that were often led as the most influential voice in many areas in the founding were the pastors. And we've been in need of that, it's been missing, but having so many pastors, seeing so many this week that are really starting to get it and walking forward in courage and boldness, it is so encouraging. So, I would say my last piece of good news from this week are all of the pastors that we've been able to connect with all throughout this week who are really starting to step forward in courage in boldness to teach the full counsel of the Word of God. Not just that Jesus loves you, which He does, but that you need to live like Jesus and apply His word in every area of your life and the culture, and that's encouraging to me. 

Rick Green [00:26:25] Great encouragement going into the weekend. Everybody have a fantastic weekend and join us here on The Wall Builders Show next week. If you missed any shows this week they're at our website right now wallbuilders.show, wallbuilders.show easiest place to always get the program. And then wallbuilders.com for everything else. God bless you! Have a great weekend! You've been listening to The WallBuilders Show