In this episode, Tudor speaks with David Barton, an expert in historical and constitutional issues, about American independence and the faith-based founding of the country. They discuss the importance of religion and morality in the early years of America, the attacks on the Christian foundation of the nation, and the need to teach patriotism and appreciate the blessings of living in the United States. The Tudor Dixon Podcast is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network. For more visit TudorDixonPodcast.com
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast. I'm Tutor Dixon and
it is great to have you tuning into the podcast today.
I am joined by an expert in historical and constitutional issues,
David Barton. He's the founder of Wall Builders, a published
author and speaker on America's forgotten foundation. As we lead
up to celebrating the fourth of July America's Independence, I
(00:22):
wanted to talk to David Barton about everything American independence.
Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Great to be with you, Tutor. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I'm really excited about this because our girls have been
studying American history in school this year, and it's just
been so fun to watch them learn this through a
Christian lens, because they go to a Christian school, and
they've learned a lot about the true founding of the
country and the faith based founding of the country, which
(00:50):
I think is lost in a lot of schools. In fact,
I know some of our congressmen were talking about or
I mean actually some of our local representatives here in Michigan.
We're talking about aout wanting to make sure people knew
the faith foundation of the country, and there's a lot
of people fighting back on that right now. Just because
it's something that people don't like to acknowledge. But it
(01:11):
is really part of our history, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I think it's not only part of our history. I
think it is probably the fundamental part of our history.
And this is fourth of July. But if I can
take George Washington, who was not part of the declaration whatever,
but in his final farewell address after forty five years,
he leaves the country. He's leaving public office, but it
(01:33):
gives about a dozen warnings to Americans. And his farewell
address was so significant that you'll find that in so
many states it was required by state law that you
take a ritten exam on that farewell address once a
year for your first eight years of school. I mean,
this is a big deal. And the longest section he
has in that farewell address, he talks about religion and morality.
(01:54):
He calls him the indispensabul supports of political prosperity. He
even went so far as to say that he would
not let anyone claim the name patriot if they attempted
to remove religion morality from public life. So there's your
epitome of a patriot. He's the guy who led all
the patriots he's the leader of all the military forces.
As guys. I had patriots at Valley Forge, I had
(02:16):
them throughout the war. But I'm not going to let
you call yourself a patriot if you try to remove
religion morality. And that tells you how important it was
to him as commander in chief, and that's how important
it should be throughout history. And it was for the
first century and a half two centuries. Since about the
nineteen sixties, it's gone the other direction. We're told, oh, no,
these guys are a bunch of atheists agnostics in distin.
(02:37):
You know, it was a secular nation. That's what made
us great. Man. When you go back to the actual
original documents and you study the stories of the people
who actually signed the declaration were there, you find it
overwhelmingly they were not only faith people, they were super
strong faith people. And that's part of the good story
that's just gotten away from us.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
They were. And I think that people want that worry
to get away from us because it's almost easier to
ignore the fact that there is a Christian foundation here
in the country. And if we look today at what's
going on, I mean, we've seen a lot of talk
of Satanism. I mean even in one of our local
counties here in Michigan, they've launched a I don't even
(03:19):
know what you call it a They call it a
church to Satan. I can't even use those words. So
we're seeing that, we're seeing that in a lot of
these new logos for Pride. We've seen a lot of
indications that, well, Satan loves you and Jesus. I saw
somebody wearing a shirt the other day that said not
today Jesus. Like the shirts that say not today Satan.
(03:42):
I mean, what would our founding fathers think of that?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
That is such a sad part of who we are
and what's happened to us. In addition, let me kind
of throw some background out. We own one hundred and
sixty thousand islands for American history, thanks for Columbus all
the way through the Bible that landed on the moon
of the Paul fourteen. So within that framework, we have
thousands and thousands and thousands of the handwritten documents of
(04:07):
those who signed the Declaration, those who signed the Constitution, etc.
And their faith is so super strong and it's really
evident in their writings. But I also deal with a
lot of states and ask in a lot of states
to help with their history standards and their social studies
standards and reveal those standards, and so governor's, state legislators, etc.
(04:28):
And then on top of that, we've been involved in
thirteen cases of the US Supreme Court, most of which
deal with religious liberty in some way. We were in
one last year, we already and won again this year.
And what has happened is I look at it from
history standpoint. When I look at history standards, I usually
don't look necessarily at just what they say. I look
at what they don't say, because I've learned that when
(04:51):
you stop talking about something, and if you stop talking
about for twenty thirty years, you can introduce a completely
new narrative in the situation, and nobody knows to stop
it because they didn't know what it was. So if
I was to stop talking about Abraham Lincoln for thirty years,
we didn't do them at all. I could come back
thirty years from now, say, you know, Abraham Lincoln dropped
a nuclear weapon on Thailand in World War seventeen, and
(05:14):
nobody would know any different because they don't even know
whose dude is. And that's pretty much what's happened with
our faith. We have so much going on now with
faith because we think, well, it was a secular nation,
secular founding for others, so they weren't strong on Christianity,
and that's just not true. So when you look at
where we are now and again going back to the Court,
(05:34):
between nineteen seventy one and twenty nineteen, the Court issued
seventy three hundred rulings removing some type of religious expression
from public affairs. So we have so thoroughly and aggressively
secularized the nation. We've taken it away from where it
should be. And the good news is in the last
(05:55):
four years, we generally win a religious celebrity case at
the Supreme Court every five day eight years. In the
last four years we won eleven cases in the Supreme Court,
and the Supreme Court has rolled back those seventy three
hundred bad decisions to say they were all wrongly decided
and they're trying to move us back to the direction
it used to be. But now we have a very
secular minded nation and it's hard to move back toward
(06:18):
religious expressions. So we're fighting things like the Church of Satan,
as you mentioned, very hard thing to even say or acknowledge.
We're fighting all sorts of things that would never have
been churches in any reasonable period of time in American
history that are being recognized as such now, and that's
because we've taken our own history out. We've been trying
to commit suicide for a number of years and thankfully
(06:40):
if the Lord hadn't let us do that, and hopefully
we're turning it around. But nonetheless, it's a really tough
discussion to have now, and that would never have been
conceivable in the founder's minds, not under anything that they
plan designed or intended. And that's just you know, here
we are fighting in battle we shouldn't have to fight,
but we're fighting it because we've lost our own knowledge
(07:01):
of who are people.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
We speak to a lot of political consultants regularly and
look out at what's on the horizon. And a few
months ago we had a few guys who were saying,
it's really interesting because Satanism is that what we're seeing.
It just keeps popping up. That's what the next thing
is that we'll be fighting because they're trying to they're
trying to see what the next culture war would be.
(07:24):
And as you know, there's been wars culture wars all
across the United States. When it comes to a lot
of these things like transgender in elementary schools, books that
pornography books and elementary schools, Satanism is like a whole
new level. I mean, I would have thought it would
have taken a while to get there, but it seems
like this has all gone pretty quickly from I would
(07:47):
say the beginning of Donald Trump's presidency to now. There's
been a massive push for some of this. I mean,
really evil evil toward our children.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Been and I hate to see this. It's been in
some ways, it's kind of self inflicted. And I don't
mean that in a bad sense. I mean that in
the sense that as we look at polling, and we
do a lot of polling work, we've seen that, for example,
those that profess Christianity have the percentage of those who
professor Christianity has dropped twenty points in the last twenty years.
So we've created a vacuum where that we're taking more
(08:22):
and more traditional faith out. We're removing that, which leads
to much open more open space for things to come
in to fill that. And we see that particularly as
we do polling with younger generations, they're more and more
secular minded. And then we saw polling even last year
where the seventy seven percent of professing Christians self censor.
They don't want to talk about their faith for fear
(08:43):
of being attacked because it's just unpopular with academics and
with so many mainstream kind of institutions. And so having
gone silent, you have a generation that's being raised without
much knowledge of faith at all, and they're open for
spiritual things, that's for sure. See that in Poland and
Satanism is something that is very appealing. So we see
(09:03):
a lot of young people particularly move in that direction
because there's almost like no free market competition. The other side.
We've kind of gone silent on this, which is not
a healthy thing for us to do.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
And so then I say this a lot. At the
beginning of my race for governor, I met one of
the first people I met with I simply in the conversation,
she was asking me, well, how did you make this decision?
And at one point in the conversation, I said, my
husband and I prayed about it, and that was really
all I said that was faith based in the conversation,
(09:36):
and at the end, when I was finished talking, she
looked at me and she said, you will never win
over the millennials if you speak like that. For my
best advice to you, and I can't support you because
of this, but my best advice to you is change
what you say about faith. And I said, what do
you mean and she said, you just sat in front
(09:57):
of me and said that your husband and you prayed
about this. And I said yeah. And she said, if
you talk about Christianity in front of this younger generation,
no one will vote for you. And I mean that
was kind of a consistent theme was as I went
across and these were these were conservatives, supposedly you know,
they were saying, shut your mouth, don't bring up religion.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah, that's that's a growing rise Matra out there. But
we're actually finding that disproved by Poland. We've seen that
right now. The younger generation will respond to faith, but
it has to be on a one on one discussion
with people. They're the first generation one hundred and twenty
years of Poland that we've seen there's actually open to
(10:40):
mentoring and they don't care what generation is, as long
as you're sincere and we'll talk with them and we'll
sit down with them and spend time with them. They're
open to faith and they just need that one on
one kind of relationship. And so it.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Really, really so how do we do that? Because I
feel like that's I mean, that's another thing that we've
been talking about is as we've seen what's happened in
election size, and we've seen what's happened with conservatives, it
seems like that foundation has been lost over the years,
in that groundwork that is not political whatsoever. I would
say that that basis that should be a part of
(11:13):
family life has dwindled and deteriorated and in many cases
is no longer there. So and because you don't have
it in schools, I mean, they've fought very hard to
make sure that you're being tested on reading, in math.
History in some cases doesn't even exist in some public schools,
and if it does, it's very high level breezing through things.
(11:34):
So how if they don't have that history, if they
aren't getting that at home? I mean, the other side
has been very good at keeping that faith story away
from people in the United States. So if they don't
have that, how do we start to win back this war?
How do we start to reach out to people because
I know, I mean, we've got a lot of listeners
out there and they're saying, how did this happen? But
(11:55):
really you are making a good point. It had happened
with us who said, I don't want to rock the boat,
so I'm not going to say anything.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
We've gone silent on it. And I see this very
much as self inflicted wound. But I'm also seeing across
the country where this is changing, and it's changing even
in faith communities. There's a particular church I'm thinking of
in Texas about twenty five thousand, and they are largely
gen Z and millennial and they are not squishy at all.
They're very strong, but they there's been people take the
(12:23):
time to explain and get the apologetics of faith, and
I think a lot of times we've not taken the
time to actually been sincere about it. We have more
sound bites on faith, and we have more sound bites
on Christ or whatever, and there's some more serious discussions.
And this is an interesting thing that we've seen in
particularly with the gen Z, some with the millennials, but
(12:45):
they want more than sound bites. They react to sound bites.
We see that unfortunately politically other things. But if you
get pass sound bites, they really respond well. And so
we're seeing that there's starting to be some churches that
are taking that on, a lot of individuals are taking
that on. We're seeing a lot of faith groups really
kind of increase now that are focused on youth and
(13:06):
doing some good thing. But we've gotten ourselves really behind
the curve on this and we're fighting an uphill battle.
And I think the other thing, and you mentioned schools,
we're not teaching it. One of the things we deal with, Tutor.
We have a network of about one thousand state legislators,
So we have legislators we deal with all fifty states
on state legislation, everything from ESG to UCC to faith issues, etc.
(13:30):
And I'm struck by the fact that, for example, Minnesota
last year passed their new history standards and from the
next ten years in Minnesota they have said they will
not teach the American Revolution, or the Civil War, or
World War One, or World War two, or the Holocaust.
They've said that that has to go out of all
of their texts and all their curriculum for the next
ten years. So we deliberately are cutting people off from
(13:52):
heritage and history, which means individuals have to take more
responsibil to step up. But we're also seeing a lot
of good things start to happen media wise with some
of the programs they are popping up. They're doing really
well in history. So I think we're kind of behind
the curve, but I do see really good things happening.
But it's going to take every single individual. I go
(14:14):
back to song Assalmon eight thirteen, where the scripture says,
people listen to you so speak. We just got to
test with people on our own networks. And the thing
out point to is, look how well we're doing winning
school boards at local elections where you get just in
the community. Those aren't nationally publicized. We're cleaning house across
the nation in a great way with school boards. Nobody
(14:35):
knows about it, but we're really seeing good things. And
that's the same way we'll get those kids back as
we have to do a community by community. Just forget
the national status, just work on those that are around
you and dedicate yourself to really making a difference, and
you can.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
a Tutor Dixon podcast. Well, I got us off track
from fourth of July. So, but I think that was
kind of an important lead up to the story of
the Fourth because I don't think that a lot of
people understand that this wasn't just a bunch of guys
that got into a room one day and said, let's
(15:10):
sign this declaration of independence and move on. I'm fortunate
that my daughter, my daughter was in eighth grade last
year and we just went on the DC trip and
then we went through all of the history and they
got to see but they also went to Gettysburg and
saw where the Civil War was fought, and so they
saw what it was to fight there, but they didn't
(15:32):
hear a whole lot about the very beginnings. So I
think that's something that we know when we see some
of these when you go to some of these old
sites of war and you go, gosh, can you imagine
now our eighteen year old And often when they tell
you these stories, it's like, well, some of these kids
were sixteen, some of these kids were thirteen, and it's
(15:54):
just shocking to think that they were willing to do
anything for freedom. And there was a reason because they
understood what tyranny was. And so there's a lot of
faith that goes into deciding to form your own country
and declare your independence. So if you could just walk
us through a little bit about how did that start?
How do you bring all these people together that really
(16:16):
they had ownership over their states and it was a
coming together of people and minds to decide how the
best possible government could be formed.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yeah, it is such a cool thing to look back
at that, And I think one of the great examples
of seeing how this worked was old man John Adams.
Forty two years after he signed the Declaration of Independence,
a young man came to him said, I'm writing a
history book on the United States. I wasn't there. I
love what America has become. We all love the liberties
we have, but you were there. Tell me how this happened.
(16:47):
And he asked him, He said, where did you get
your ideas? Because these are ideas that weren't in other
countries at the time. And it's striking that John Adams
himself said that, well, we got these ideas from the
reverend doctors Amuel Cooper, the reverend doctor Jonathan Mayhew, the
Reverend George Whitfield, the Reverend Charles He starts listing all
these pastors and with those hundred and sixty thousand documents
(17:09):
we have, we have so many sermons from that founding era,
but it is striking to see how faith was so
intimately involved. Even as you look at the early stages
as we lead up to the American independence. You know,
the first battle is Lexington, the second battle's Concord, The
third battles Road to Boston. The fourth battles Bunker Hill.
And the Battle of Lexington was when the Reverend Jonas
(17:31):
Clark took sixty seventy three guys out of his church
and went out and faced the seven hundred British. The
second battle was when Reverend William Emerson took four hundred
guys out of his church and went out and faced
the British. The third battle, the Road to Boston, was
forty five hundred Americans facing seven hundred British. But the
Americans were led by the Reverend Benjamin Boss, the reverend
Paston Phillips. And when you get to Bunker Hills, Reverend
(17:52):
Joseph Willard who grabbed two companies out of his church
and said, okay, guys, let's go join the other churches
across town. We're finding for our freedom. So there's a
very strong on faith element all the way through. But
I think that a lot of what we missed today
the way we teach history today, it's no longer biographical.
We used to teach the stories about history, and as
you look in the Bible, you know, nobody knows what
(18:13):
your David killed Goliath because the date wasn't important. Was
important was the story. You got the story of David
and Goliath. And that's really kind of what we've moved
away from an American history since progressives took it in
the nineteen twenties. We've gotten into dates, names, and places,
and we don't no longer tell the stories. Who knows
the story of an eight year old John Quincy Adams
(18:34):
grabbing his musket and going out with the Massachusetts minute
Men in the early stages of the war. You know,
nobody knows about an eight year old kid doing that.
And those are the stories that are so cool and
so much a part of what happens. Even the fifty
six guys who signed the declaration, I was a Duke
University law school and put that picture that side us up.
(18:55):
I said, who can you call by name? And they
could only get two guys by name out of fifty six,
and they all have phenomenal stories, and we just have
to reacquaint ourselves with how blessed we've been as a nation,
how terrific our history is, who these great heroes were,
and the fourth of July is we a really good
time to do that. Go back and look at them.
Look up three guys you've never heard of to sign
(19:16):
the declaration. Read their stories, Read about their family, read
about their faith, read about their sacrifice. You know, ten
of these guys who signed the declaration never lived to
see the freedom they wanted us to have. Seventeen of
them lost everything they own, three have lost their kids.
It's tragic stories and it's victorious stories, but their stories.
And I think that's what we really have to get
(19:36):
back to, is storytelling.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Well. In George Washington's story alone, I think a lot
of people think of the President of the United States
like they think of the President of the United States now,
But this was really I mean, he sacrificed, he left
his home for I think what he didn't see his
wife for eight years when they were at war, and
then comes home and they said, well, we need you
to serve again, and we need you to go to
(19:59):
be the president. And he was the one that said,
I'm not going to do it forever. We don't. Well,
they wanted him to be a king, didn't they.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
They would have taken him as a king. And he
was going to retire after one term and we were
looking at a war with France, and so he stayed
on for one more term, but he retired after two
and he set the example, and that was a voluntary
example that was followed by every president until FDR with
World War Two. And then FDR's vice president, Harry Truman
(20:27):
is the guy who got the Constitutional Amendment passed to say, hey,
Washington didn't too, we should all do it in too
or no more. And so Washington really set that example.
And it's interesting that he is literally considered the father
of his country even while he was still alive. I mean,
he's the only president to be chosen one hundred percent, unanimously,
not a single dissenting vote in the electoral College in
(20:50):
either of his two elections. He really was esteemed in
his day. I calculated recently that was George Washington. More
than forty percent of the nations across the world have
erected some type of a memorial to George Washington. And
to try to find any leader from another nation that's
honored in a nation that's not their own, that's just
(21:10):
pretty unusual. And Washington was one of those guys that
was a global influence and he was loved by Americans.
And man did he sacrificed. As you mentioned, you know,
he kept going back in when he wanted to retire,
he wanted to go back to Mount Vernon, and he
did this at his own expense. He actually late in
life asked Congress reimbursing for some of these expenses, but
he did most of this out of his own pocket.
(21:33):
And we know that during the eight years of the
revolution he wrote so many letters that is estimated he
got no more than three to four hours of sleep
a night, and all the communications he was doing, all
the work he was doing. He just sacrificed everything for
his country. And he was just a great, great leader
to start with. And you can't have a better example
on what we have with George Washington.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon podcast. What's interesting, I think is when
you go to the capital the dome is painted and
George Washington is up there, and he appears to be
almost saintly up there in the dome of the Capitol.
And when they're talking to you about it, they say,
(22:14):
it's funny because he probably wouldn't like that image of himself.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Yeah, that's right. He was a very, very humble guy.
It's interesting that after his part in the French and
Indian War, and he came back and was elected to
the state legislature and he was ready to get down
the business. They opened the legislature with a commendation form
for all he had done in the leadership, and he
was so floored he couldn't even speak. And the Speaker
(22:40):
of the House said, well, mister Washington, He said, your
valor is matched only by your modesty. And that's the
way Washington was. He didn't talk about himself. He didn't
like getting a claim, he didn't like being recognized. He
finally understood late in life that people thought highly of
him and blessed his heart and Mount Vernon, because back
(23:03):
in that day you believe in hospitality. He entertained anyone
that came to his house. And there are times when
forty fifty different strangers show up out of different states
just to say they could spend the night at George
Washington's house. And the latter part of his life, he
was so accommodating, so hospitable, and it would drive us crazy.
He'd have to deal with what he dealt with. But
(23:24):
he was just that kind of a deep character individual,
very pious man, very very astute man in so many areas,
and he's just a great great what I want to say,
he's a great model. That's what I want to say.
He's a great model for us. And it's just unfortunate
that we don't know that much about him today. He's
just again gotten away from us. We just don't teach
(23:45):
Washington much, and when we do, we kind of oversimplify him.
But he's a great biography people should read.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Why is it that we don't do more when we
talk about these folks? I mean, they really he did.
He gave everything, but it was really about the future.
It was about taking care of future generations. Because I
think that he must have known that this was not
going to really be his life for very long. This
was going to be other people's lives. This was setting
(24:12):
a standard for eternity or however long we have here
on earth. And then obviously his faith was very important.
But you're right, he is a model. So why and
so many of these men are models of how to
create greatness, as much greatness as we can see in
(24:33):
this world, and yet we avoid talking about that with
our students, with our young people. It's the ultimate opportunity
and it is the ultimate sacrifice so that others can have.
I mean, you would think that this would be the
best story you can tell because he gave up everything
for others. It was not for him.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
It was not for him, and it was that way
with so many of them. And it's interesting that, you know,
as we kind of look at history from a thirty
thousand with view, because we connected the culture and legislation
and everything else, we have had a steady attack on
the American founding for forty to fifty years, and so
you know, these guys are all a bunch of slave owners.
(25:13):
Wait a minute, time out. We passed by eighteen o
four every northern state had banned slavery. That's the founding
fathers from those states had banned slavery. The first abolition
society started in America was started by Signer of the Declaration,
Benjamin Russia was led by a signer of the Declaration,
Ben Franklin. And you know, we just go through and yes,
there were some pro slavery founding fathers, but the overwhelming
(25:35):
majority were not. And they talked about how this slavery
had been posed on them by Great Britain and the
Declaration of Independence. One of the grievances talked about the
fact that several of our colonies have already passed anti
slavery laws seventeen seventy six, and King George the Third
vetoed our anti slavery laws in Connecticut and the Massachusetts
and in Rhode Island and all these other states. And
(25:57):
we don't do that. We say, oh, no, they're all
a bunch of the all a bunch of racist They're
all a bunch of slaves. Oh they're all a bunch
of atheists and agnostics and deists.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Wait a minute.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Twenty nine of the signers and declaration graduated from Bible
schools and seminaries. How can they all be atheists, agnostics
and DEAs. And you know, the first, the first family
Bible ever done was by a signer of the Declaration,
John Witherspoon, and the first mass produced Bible ever done
was by signer of the Declaration, Benjamin Rush. Benjamin Rush
started the first Bible society in America, the Sunday School Movement,
(26:28):
and you just go through their faith. And so what's
happened is because we know so little of the details,
we have been fed a lot of overview, you know,
Washington or any of the Founding fathers, or they were
all a bunch of immoral or whatever, and we don't
have the specificity. So that's that's where going back to
the stories really becomes very very interesting, very intriguing the
(26:50):
story of Washington and what I recommend for folks because
we can now with books dot Google dot com, all
the public domain books are in now online and you
can search all those public domain books. So you know,
find a founding father that dies like a Benjamin Rush
in eighteen thirteen, looking eighteen fourteen for the biographies that
were done about him, because that's by people who knew them,
(27:12):
people who are around him. When Washington dies in seventeen
ninety nine, lived for biographies done in eighteen hundred, because
the people who wrote them were the people who knew
them and who worked with them, and who fought with them,
et cetera. And you know John Quincy, Adams great President,
dies in eighteen forty eight. Read the biography he's written
in eighteen forty nine by the Mayor of Boston, Josiah Quincy,
(27:32):
and by Seward, who is a great ambasador. It's just
such a different view of history from what we get
today because they didn't have agendas back then. They weren't
trying to create a new nation. They weren't trying to
make it secular or make it crt or whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
And so they were or teach the sixteen nineteen projects.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Sixteen nineteen and by the way, man, is that crazy?
Sixteen nineteen, that's not when slavery came to Virginia. The
first first slavery in Virginia was sixteen fifty three when
a black man, Anthony Johnson, sued own another black man,
John Kaser in the court said he could do it.
Sixteen fifty three is when slavery begins Virginia with a
black man suing to own another black man. Haven't heard that,
(28:13):
but say that's where sixteen nineteen project just gives you
a narrative and doesn't give you details, and when you
go back to historical details, the story is so different.
And so that's what every American can do, is, you know,
dedicate myself to find the truth. It is out there.
It's not that hard to find. I'm not going to
follow the narratives until I've proven it for myself. Go
back and verify everything, and that'll give you a whole
(28:35):
different view of America, which is really wholesome, really really enlightening.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Quite frankly, I think as parents it's so powerful. That's
such a good piece of advice to do that with
your kids. Because when we came back from the trip
to Washington, d C. You always wonder what did they
get out of it? Did they really get enough out
of it? And one of the moms said to I
was chaperoning, and she said, thank you so much. My
son came up to me and he said, Mom, you
would never believe what these young men did to make
(29:02):
sure that we could have the life we have. And
I mean that to me as it brings a tear
to my I'm like, oh my gosh, they got it.
They got to see it, they actually saw it and
lived it, and they learned it. But there's so much.
I mean, they still learned the overview. It was still
you know, we're still rushing through in three days, so
there's still so much to teach our kids. And if
(29:23):
you feel like your kids are being robbed at school,
whether it's a public school or private school, you just
don't think they're getting enough. This is great information. Do
it yourself. And I know everybody goes, gosh, that's so
time consuming, but there's no better time spent than teaching
your kids the value of appreciating what you have and
(29:45):
passing that on. And I think that's the biggest thing
here is to appreciate because right now there's so many
people telling our kids don't appreciate this, feel shame, feel
shame for what this country is. And I think that
is the message going into the fourth of July. This
is a we are fortunate to have this country, or
we are fortunate to have these men who stood up
(30:07):
when no one else would. We could very easily just
be colonies right now, and we are a very special
place in the world because of what these founding fathers
were willing to do and sacrifice for us.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
You know, it's significant. I think Americans, perhaps more than
any of the nation. We take our blessings for granted
because we've had them for so long. There's fifty eight
hundred years of recorded history. In that period of time,
there's been thousands of nations, hundreds of constitutions. Cornell University
Law School said, what's the average length of a constitution
in the history of the world, in the answer of
(30:39):
seventeen years. Well, last September seventeenth, we celebrated two hundred
and thirty five years. We just take our stability for granted.
We just assume that's the way nations are and it's not.
And our four percent of the world's population we produce
literally ninety six percent of the world's inventions. Our four
percent of the world's population, we produced twenty five percent
(31:00):
of the world's gross domestic product. We are so stink
and blessed, and we just don't recognize it because we
hear people criticize in the country all the time, and
they don't point out the good. They point out the
bad and the ugly. And that's deconstruction that really started
the nineteen eighties and history books with Howard Zenn and others.
You're supposed to tell the good, the bad, the ugly,
the Bible does that, but we're not telling the We're
(31:22):
just telling the bad and the ugly. And you know,
fourth of July, this is a real patriotic time, and
I love patriotism. Benjamin Rush, he's a signer of the Declaration.
John Adams said, he's one of the three most notable
founding fathers. John Adams said, it's George Washington, Ben Franklin,
Benjamin Rush, and who knows Benjamin Rush today. But Benjamin
(31:43):
Rush says that a love of your country is both
a social and a religious duty. And it goes back
to if you love something, your family, or whatever it is,
you're going to seek the best for it. You're going
to sacrifice for it. You're going to do every thing
you can to make sure that it's really good. And
(32:04):
the polling we got from two weeks ago shows that
right now, seventy three percent of the older generation's patriotic,
only sixteen percent of the younger generations patriotic. We have
not taught them to love their country. We've taught them
to hate it. And there is no future for the
country if you don't love it, because you'll want to
get rid of it, You'll want something different because it's
not fundamentally good. And so this Fourth of July is
(32:27):
a really good time to go back and teach patriotism,
why it's proper to love America, what there is about America,
to love the wonderful things that have happened no nation
in the world. And this slavery passed a band on
the slave trade faster than America did. I mean, it's
just amazing the things. Here's a good one for CRT folks.
(32:48):
America elected his first black official in sixteen forty one,
Matthias the Seuzd was elected to the Legislature of Maryland
by white community. We had more than a thousand black
officials elected in America by eighteen seventy six. Great Britain
did not elect its first black official till nineteen eighty seven.
Russia did not elect its first black official until twenty ten,
(33:11):
and we have one thousand by eighteen seventy six. And
somehow we're the worst nation in the world. We need
to go back and recover the good things and know that.
Let's study the bad and ugly, absolutely that's truth, but
let's study the good too. And fourth of July is
going to be a good time to rekindle patriotism, go
back and look at the wonderful things our two hundred
and thirty seven years under the same document two hundred
(33:34):
and thirty five are in the same document two hundred
and forty seven under the Declaration of Independence, And these
are big things that we should look at and be
grateful for.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Well, who knew we were going to get homework on
the fourth of July. But I think this is fantastic
because that poll you just put out there that you
said something like seventy percent in the older generation is
patriotic and only sixteen in the younger That means those
of us in that older generation need to be doing
our work with the younger generation, and this is our opportunity.
(34:03):
I love your idea about finding biographies that were written
just a year or two after these folks died and
knowing what it was really like then hearing from the
people that really knew them. I love that. I think
that's a great send off for our listeners today, is
to go out there and find those and share the
good stories from history. Talk about all of history, but
(34:24):
make sure people know why we are the greatest country
in the world and how it happened before I let
you go, David, quickly tell them a little bit about
wall builders wall builders and how they can learn more
about it, because I just think what you guys do
is so amazing, the history, the pieces of history that
you own it and over one hundred thousand pieces.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Yes, ma'am, And it's fun going back to the originals.
For sure. Wall builders dot Com we take the name
of wall builders from the Bible Book of NEAMAI about
rebuilding things that have been torn down, so rebuilding the walls
rusal and back on that story, rebuilding America's constitutional and
more religious foundations. It's kind of our hope, our wish,
and so we produced a lot of products, a lot
(35:06):
of visual things, a lot of written things. We just
did a book, The American Story that goes from Columbus
up through the end of slavery, and it looks at
heroes and the good things and the bad and ugly
about America. But we've got lots of resources the website.
We have thousands of those original documents up where people
can see them, can access them, can use them in
their schools or wherever they go. So we try to
(35:28):
provide resources we hope to have before long all one
hundred and sixty thousand pieces of that history of where
the people can see for themselves what America actually is
and what America actually did. But Wellbuilders dot com is
a good place to go for a lot of resources,
and The American Story is a good book to start with.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Well, thank you so much. I just I love hearing
what you have to say. I always learn something when
I'm talking to you, David Barton. We appreciate having you on.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Thanks Tudor, appreciate all you do. God bless you, Maam.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Thank you, God bless you, and thank you all for
joining us on the Tutor Dixon Podcast. As always, for
this episode and others, go to tutordisonpodcast dot com. You
can subscribe right there or check out the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts, and make
sure you join us the next time on the Tutor
Dixon Podcast. Have a blessed day and happy fourth of July.
Welcome to the Tutor Dixon Podcast. I'm Tutor Dixon and
it is great to have you tuning into the podcast today.
I am joined by an expert in historical and constitutional issues,
David Barton. He's the founder of Wall Builders, a published
author and speaker on America's forgotten foundation. As we lead
up to celebrating the fourth of July America's Independence, I
(00:22):
wanted to talk to David Barton about everything American independence.
Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Great to be with you, Tutor. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I'm really excited about this because our girls have been
studying American history in school this year, and it's just
been so fun to watch them learn this through a
Christian lens, because they go to a Christian school, and
they've learned a lot about the true founding of the
country and the faith based founding of the country, which
(00:50):
I think is lost in a lot of schools. In fact,
I know some of our congressmen were talking about or
I mean actually some of our local representatives here in Michigan.
We're talking about aout wanting to make sure people knew
the faith foundation of the country, and there's a lot
of people fighting back on that right now. Just because
it's something that people don't like to acknowledge. But it
(01:11):
is really part of our history, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
I think it's not only part of our history. I
think it is probably the fundamental part of our history.
And this is fourth of July. But if I can
take George Washington, who was not part of the declaration whatever,
but in his final farewell address after forty five years,
he leaves the country. He's leaving public office, but it
(01:33):
gives about a dozen warnings to Americans. And his farewell
address was so significant that you'll find that in so
many states it was required by state law that you
take a ritten exam on that farewell address once a
year for your first eight years of school. I mean,
this is a big deal. And the longest section he
has in that farewell address, he talks about religion and morality.
(01:54):
He calls him the indispensabul supports of political prosperity. He
even went so far as to say that he would
not let anyone claim the name patriot if they attempted
to remove religion morality from public life. So there's your
epitome of a patriot. He's the guy who led all
the patriots he's the leader of all the military forces.
As guys. I had patriots at Valley Forge, I had
(02:16):
them throughout the war. But I'm not going to let
you call yourself a patriot if you try to remove
religion morality. And that tells you how important it was
to him as commander in chief, and that's how important
it should be throughout history. And it was for the
first century and a half two centuries. Since about the
nineteen sixties, it's gone the other direction. We're told, oh, no,
these guys are a bunch of atheists agnostics in distin.
(02:37):
You know, it was a secular nation. That's what made
us great. Man. When you go back to the actual
original documents and you study the stories of the people
who actually signed the declaration were there, you find it
overwhelmingly they were not only faith people, they were super
strong faith people. And that's part of the good story
that's just gotten away from us.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
They were. And I think that people want that worry
to get away from us because it's almost easier to
ignore the fact that there is a Christian foundation here
in the country. And if we look today at what's
going on, I mean, we've seen a lot of talk
of Satanism. I mean even in one of our local
counties here in Michigan, they've launched a I don't even
(03:19):
know what you call it a They call it a
church to Satan. I can't even use those words. So
we're seeing that, we're seeing that in a lot of
these new logos for Pride. We've seen a lot of
indications that, well, Satan loves you and Jesus. I saw
somebody wearing a shirt the other day that said not
today Jesus. Like the shirts that say not today Satan.
(03:42):
I mean, what would our founding fathers think of that?
Speaker 2 (03:45):
That is such a sad part of who we are
and what's happened to us. In addition, let me kind
of throw some background out. We own one hundred and
sixty thousand islands for American history, thanks for Columbus all
the way through the Bible that landed on the moon
of the Paul fourteen. So within that framework, we have
thousands and thousands and thousands of the handwritten documents of
(04:07):
those who signed the Declaration, those who signed the Constitution, etc.
And their faith is so super strong and it's really
evident in their writings. But I also deal with a
lot of states and ask in a lot of states
to help with their history standards and their social studies
standards and reveal those standards, and so governor's, state legislators, etc.
(04:28):
And then on top of that, we've been involved in
thirteen cases of the US Supreme Court, most of which
deal with religious liberty in some way. We were in
one last year, we already and won again this year.
And what has happened is I look at it from
history standpoint. When I look at history standards, I usually
don't look necessarily at just what they say. I look
at what they don't say, because I've learned that when
(04:51):
you stop talking about something, and if you stop talking
about for twenty thirty years, you can introduce a completely
new narrative in the situation, and nobody knows to stop
it because they didn't know what it was. So if
I was to stop talking about Abraham Lincoln for thirty years,
we didn't do them at all. I could come back
thirty years from now, say, you know, Abraham Lincoln dropped
a nuclear weapon on Thailand in World War seventeen, and
(05:14):
nobody would know any different because they don't even know
whose dude is. And that's pretty much what's happened with
our faith. We have so much going on now with
faith because we think, well, it was a secular nation,
secular founding for others, so they weren't strong on Christianity,
and that's just not true. So when you look at
where we are now and again going back to the Court,
(05:34):
between nineteen seventy one and twenty nineteen, the Court issued
seventy three hundred rulings removing some type of religious expression
from public affairs. So we have so thoroughly and aggressively
secularized the nation. We've taken it away from where it
should be. And the good news is in the last
(05:55):
four years, we generally win a religious celebrity case at
the Supreme Court every five day eight years. In the
last four years we won eleven cases in the Supreme Court,
and the Supreme Court has rolled back those seventy three
hundred bad decisions to say they were all wrongly decided
and they're trying to move us back to the direction
it used to be. But now we have a very
secular minded nation and it's hard to move back toward
(06:18):
religious expressions. So we're fighting things like the Church of Satan,
as you mentioned, very hard thing to even say or acknowledge.
We're fighting all sorts of things that would never have
been churches in any reasonable period of time in American
history that are being recognized as such now, and that's
because we've taken our own history out. We've been trying
to commit suicide for a number of years and thankfully
(06:40):
if the Lord hadn't let us do that, and hopefully
we're turning it around. But nonetheless, it's a really tough
discussion to have now, and that would never have been
conceivable in the founder's minds, not under anything that they
plan designed or intended. And that's just you know, here
we are fighting in battle we shouldn't have to fight,
but we're fighting it because we've lost our own knowledge
(07:01):
of who are people.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
We speak to a lot of political consultants regularly and
look out at what's on the horizon. And a few
months ago we had a few guys who were saying,
it's really interesting because Satanism is that what we're seeing.
It just keeps popping up. That's what the next thing
is that we'll be fighting because they're trying to they're
trying to see what the next culture war would be.
(07:24):
And as you know, there's been wars culture wars all
across the United States. When it comes to a lot
of these things like transgender in elementary schools, books that
pornography books and elementary schools, Satanism is like a whole
new level. I mean, I would have thought it would
have taken a while to get there, but it seems
like this has all gone pretty quickly from I would
(07:47):
say the beginning of Donald Trump's presidency to now. There's
been a massive push for some of this. I mean,
really evil evil toward our children.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Been and I hate to see this. It's been in
some ways, it's kind of self inflicted. And I don't
mean that in a bad sense. I mean that in
the sense that as we look at polling, and we
do a lot of polling work, we've seen that, for example,
those that profess Christianity have the percentage of those who
professor Christianity has dropped twenty points in the last twenty years.
So we've created a vacuum where that we're taking more
(08:22):
and more traditional faith out. We're removing that, which leads
to much open more open space for things to come
in to fill that. And we see that particularly as
we do polling with younger generations, they're more and more
secular minded. And then we saw polling even last year
where the seventy seven percent of professing Christians self censor.
They don't want to talk about their faith for fear
(08:43):
of being attacked because it's just unpopular with academics and
with so many mainstream kind of institutions. And so having
gone silent, you have a generation that's being raised without
much knowledge of faith at all, and they're open for
spiritual things, that's for sure. See that in Poland and
Satanism is something that is very appealing. So we see
(09:03):
a lot of young people particularly move in that direction
because there's almost like no free market competition. The other side.
We've kind of gone silent on this, which is not
a healthy thing for us to do.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
And so then I say this a lot. At the
beginning of my race for governor, I met one of
the first people I met with I simply in the conversation,
she was asking me, well, how did you make this decision?
And at one point in the conversation, I said, my
husband and I prayed about it, and that was really
all I said that was faith based in the conversation,
(09:36):
and at the end, when I was finished talking, she
looked at me and she said, you will never win
over the millennials if you speak like that. For my
best advice to you, and I can't support you because
of this, but my best advice to you is change
what you say about faith. And I said, what do
you mean and she said, you just sat in front
(09:57):
of me and said that your husband and you prayed
about this. And I said yeah. And she said, if
you talk about Christianity in front of this younger generation,
no one will vote for you. And I mean that
was kind of a consistent theme was as I went
across and these were these were conservatives, supposedly you know,
they were saying, shut your mouth, don't bring up religion.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Yeah, that's that's a growing rise Matra out there. But
we're actually finding that disproved by Poland. We've seen that
right now. The younger generation will respond to faith, but
it has to be on a one on one discussion
with people. They're the first generation one hundred and twenty
years of Poland that we've seen there's actually open to
(10:40):
mentoring and they don't care what generation is, as long
as you're sincere and we'll talk with them and we'll
sit down with them and spend time with them. They're
open to faith and they just need that one on
one kind of relationship. And so it.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Really, really so how do we do that? Because I
feel like that's I mean, that's another thing that we've
been talking about is as we've seen what's happened in
election size, and we've seen what's happened with conservatives, it
seems like that foundation has been lost over the years,
in that groundwork that is not political whatsoever. I would
say that that basis that should be a part of
(11:13):
family life has dwindled and deteriorated and in many cases
is no longer there. So and because you don't have
it in schools, I mean, they've fought very hard to
make sure that you're being tested on reading, in math.
History in some cases doesn't even exist in some public schools,
and if it does, it's very high level breezing through things.
(11:34):
So how if they don't have that history, if they
aren't getting that at home? I mean, the other side
has been very good at keeping that faith story away
from people in the United States. So if they don't
have that, how do we start to win back this war?
How do we start to reach out to people because
I know, I mean, we've got a lot of listeners
out there and they're saying, how did this happen? But
(11:55):
really you are making a good point. It had happened
with us who said, I don't want to rock the boat,
so I'm not going to say anything.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
We've gone silent on it. And I see this very
much as self inflicted wound. But I'm also seeing across
the country where this is changing, and it's changing even
in faith communities. There's a particular church I'm thinking of
in Texas about twenty five thousand, and they are largely
gen Z and millennial and they are not squishy at all.
They're very strong, but they there's been people take the
(12:23):
time to explain and get the apologetics of faith, and
I think a lot of times we've not taken the
time to actually been sincere about it. We have more
sound bites on faith, and we have more sound bites
on Christ or whatever, and there's some more serious discussions.
And this is an interesting thing that we've seen in
particularly with the gen Z, some with the millennials, but
(12:45):
they want more than sound bites. They react to sound bites.
We see that unfortunately politically other things. But if you
get pass sound bites, they really respond well. And so
we're seeing that there's starting to be some churches that
are taking that on, a lot of individuals are taking
that on. We're seeing a lot of faith groups really
kind of increase now that are focused on youth and
(13:06):
doing some good thing. But we've gotten ourselves really behind
the curve on this and we're fighting an uphill battle.
And I think the other thing, and you mentioned schools,
we're not teaching it. One of the things we deal with, Tutor.
We have a network of about one thousand state legislators,
So we have legislators we deal with all fifty states
on state legislation, everything from ESG to UCC to faith issues, etc.
(13:30):
And I'm struck by the fact that, for example, Minnesota
last year passed their new history standards and from the
next ten years in Minnesota they have said they will
not teach the American Revolution, or the Civil War, or
World War One, or World War two, or the Holocaust.
They've said that that has to go out of all
of their texts and all their curriculum for the next
ten years. So we deliberately are cutting people off from
(13:52):
heritage and history, which means individuals have to take more
responsibil to step up. But we're also seeing a lot
of good things start to happen media wise with some
of the programs they are popping up. They're doing really
well in history. So I think we're kind of behind
the curve, but I do see really good things happening.
But it's going to take every single individual. I go
(14:14):
back to song Assalmon eight thirteen, where the scripture says,
people listen to you so speak. We just got to
test with people on our own networks. And the thing
out point to is, look how well we're doing winning
school boards at local elections where you get just in
the community. Those aren't nationally publicized. We're cleaning house across
the nation in a great way with school boards. Nobody
(14:35):
knows about it, but we're really seeing good things. And
that's the same way we'll get those kids back as
we have to do a community by community. Just forget
the national status, just work on those that are around
you and dedicate yourself to really making a difference, and
you can.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
a Tutor Dixon podcast. Well, I got us off track
from fourth of July. So, but I think that was
kind of an important lead up to the story of
the Fourth because I don't think that a lot of
people understand that this wasn't just a bunch of guys
that got into a room one day and said, let's
(15:10):
sign this declaration of independence and move on. I'm fortunate
that my daughter, my daughter was in eighth grade last
year and we just went on the DC trip and
then we went through all of the history and they
got to see but they also went to Gettysburg and
saw where the Civil War was fought, and so they
saw what it was to fight there, but they didn't
(15:32):
hear a whole lot about the very beginnings. So I
think that's something that we know when we see some
of these when you go to some of these old
sites of war and you go, gosh, can you imagine
now our eighteen year old And often when they tell
you these stories, it's like, well, some of these kids
were sixteen, some of these kids were thirteen, and it's
(15:54):
just shocking to think that they were willing to do
anything for freedom. And there was a reason because they
understood what tyranny was. And so there's a lot of
faith that goes into deciding to form your own country
and declare your independence. So if you could just walk
us through a little bit about how did that start?
How do you bring all these people together that really
(16:16):
they had ownership over their states and it was a
coming together of people and minds to decide how the
best possible government could be formed.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yeah, it is such a cool thing to look back
at that, And I think one of the great examples
of seeing how this worked was old man John Adams.
Forty two years after he signed the Declaration of Independence,
a young man came to him said, I'm writing a
history book on the United States. I wasn't there. I
love what America has become. We all love the liberties
we have, but you were there. Tell me how this happened.
(16:47):
And he asked him, He said, where did you get
your ideas? Because these are ideas that weren't in other
countries at the time. And it's striking that John Adams
himself said that, well, we got these ideas from the
reverend doctors Amuel Cooper, the reverend doctor Jonathan Mayhew, the
Reverend George Whitfield, the Reverend Charles He starts listing all
these pastors and with those hundred and sixty thousand documents
(17:09):
we have, we have so many sermons from that founding era,
but it is striking to see how faith was so
intimately involved. Even as you look at the early stages
as we lead up to the American independence. You know,
the first battle is Lexington, the second battle's Concord, The
third battles Road to Boston. The fourth battles Bunker Hill.
And the Battle of Lexington was when the Reverend Jonas
(17:31):
Clark took sixty seventy three guys out of his church
and went out and faced the seven hundred British. The
second battle was when Reverend William Emerson took four hundred
guys out of his church and went out and faced
the British. The third battle, the Road to Boston, was
forty five hundred Americans facing seven hundred British. But the
Americans were led by the Reverend Benjamin Boss, the reverend
Paston Phillips. And when you get to Bunker Hills, Reverend
(17:52):
Joseph Willard who grabbed two companies out of his church
and said, okay, guys, let's go join the other churches
across town. We're finding for our freedom. So there's a
very strong on faith element all the way through. But
I think that a lot of what we missed today
the way we teach history today, it's no longer biographical.
We used to teach the stories about history, and as
you look in the Bible, you know, nobody knows what
(18:13):
your David killed Goliath because the date wasn't important. Was
important was the story. You got the story of David
and Goliath. And that's really kind of what we've moved
away from an American history since progressives took it in
the nineteen twenties. We've gotten into dates, names, and places,
and we don't no longer tell the stories. Who knows
the story of an eight year old John Quincy Adams
(18:34):
grabbing his musket and going out with the Massachusetts minute
Men in the early stages of the war. You know,
nobody knows about an eight year old kid doing that.
And those are the stories that are so cool and
so much a part of what happens. Even the fifty
six guys who signed the declaration, I was a Duke
University law school and put that picture that side us up.
(18:55):
I said, who can you call by name? And they
could only get two guys by name out of fifty six,
and they all have phenomenal stories, and we just have
to reacquaint ourselves with how blessed we've been as a nation,
how terrific our history is, who these great heroes were,
and the fourth of July is we a really good
time to do that. Go back and look at them.
Look up three guys you've never heard of to sign
(19:16):
the declaration. Read their stories, Read about their family, read
about their faith, read about their sacrifice. You know, ten
of these guys who signed the declaration never lived to
see the freedom they wanted us to have. Seventeen of
them lost everything they own, three have lost their kids.
It's tragic stories and it's victorious stories, but their stories.
And I think that's what we really have to get
(19:36):
back to, is storytelling.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Well. In George Washington's story alone, I think a lot
of people think of the President of the United States
like they think of the President of the United States now,
But this was really I mean, he sacrificed, he left
his home for I think what he didn't see his
wife for eight years when they were at war, and
then comes home and they said, well, we need you
to serve again, and we need you to go to
(19:59):
be the president. And he was the one that said,
I'm not going to do it forever. We don't. Well,
they wanted him to be a king, didn't they.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
They would have taken him as a king. And he
was going to retire after one term and we were
looking at a war with France, and so he stayed
on for one more term, but he retired after two
and he set the example, and that was a voluntary
example that was followed by every president until FDR with
World War Two. And then FDR's vice president, Harry Truman
(20:27):
is the guy who got the Constitutional Amendment passed to say, hey,
Washington didn't too, we should all do it in too
or no more. And so Washington really set that example.
And it's interesting that he is literally considered the father
of his country even while he was still alive. I mean,
he's the only president to be chosen one hundred percent, unanimously,
not a single dissenting vote in the electoral College in
(20:50):
either of his two elections. He really was esteemed in
his day. I calculated recently that was George Washington. More
than forty percent of the nations across the world have
erected some type of a memorial to George Washington. And
to try to find any leader from another nation that's
honored in a nation that's not their own, that's just
(21:10):
pretty unusual. And Washington was one of those guys that
was a global influence and he was loved by Americans.
And man did he sacrificed. As you mentioned, you know,
he kept going back in when he wanted to retire,
he wanted to go back to Mount Vernon, and he
did this at his own expense. He actually late in
life asked Congress reimbursing for some of these expenses, but
he did most of this out of his own pocket.
(21:33):
And we know that during the eight years of the
revolution he wrote so many letters that is estimated he
got no more than three to four hours of sleep
a night, and all the communications he was doing, all
the work he was doing. He just sacrificed everything for
his country. And he was just a great, great leader
to start with. And you can't have a better example
on what we have with George Washington.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
Let's take a quick commercial break. We'll continue next on
the Tutor Dixon podcast. What's interesting, I think is when
you go to the capital the dome is painted and
George Washington is up there, and he appears to be
almost saintly up there in the dome of the Capitol.
And when they're talking to you about it, they say,
(22:14):
it's funny because he probably wouldn't like that image of himself.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Yeah, that's right. He was a very, very humble guy.
It's interesting that after his part in the French and
Indian War, and he came back and was elected to
the state legislature and he was ready to get down
the business. They opened the legislature with a commendation form
for all he had done in the leadership, and he
was so floored he couldn't even speak. And the Speaker
(22:40):
of the House said, well, mister Washington, He said, your
valor is matched only by your modesty. And that's the
way Washington was. He didn't talk about himself. He didn't
like getting a claim, he didn't like being recognized. He
finally understood late in life that people thought highly of
him and blessed his heart and Mount Vernon, because back
(23:03):
in that day you believe in hospitality. He entertained anyone
that came to his house. And there are times when
forty fifty different strangers show up out of different states
just to say they could spend the night at George
Washington's house. And the latter part of his life, he
was so accommodating, so hospitable, and it would drive us crazy.
He'd have to deal with what he dealt with. But
(23:24):
he was just that kind of a deep character individual,
very pious man, very very astute man in so many areas,
and he's just a great great what I want to say,
he's a great model. That's what I want to say.
He's a great model for us. And it's just unfortunate
that we don't know that much about him today. He's
just again gotten away from us. We just don't teach
(23:45):
Washington much, and when we do, we kind of oversimplify him.
But he's a great biography people should read.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
Why is it that we don't do more when we
talk about these folks? I mean, they really he did.
He gave everything, but it was really about the future.
It was about taking care of future generations. Because I
think that he must have known that this was not
going to really be his life for very long. This
was going to be other people's lives. This was setting
(24:12):
a standard for eternity or however long we have here
on earth. And then obviously his faith was very important.
But you're right, he is a model. So why and
so many of these men are models of how to
create greatness, as much greatness as we can see in
(24:33):
this world, and yet we avoid talking about that with
our students, with our young people. It's the ultimate opportunity
and it is the ultimate sacrifice so that others can have.
I mean, you would think that this would be the
best story you can tell because he gave up everything
for others. It was not for him.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
It was not for him, and it was that way
with so many of them. And it's interesting that, you know,
as we kind of look at history from a thirty
thousand with view, because we connected the culture and legislation
and everything else, we have had a steady attack on
the American founding for forty to fifty years, and so
you know, these guys are all a bunch of slave owners.
(25:13):
Wait a minute, time out. We passed by eighteen o
four every northern state had banned slavery. That's the founding
fathers from those states had banned slavery. The first abolition
society started in America was started by Signer of the Declaration,
Benjamin Russia was led by a signer of the Declaration,
Ben Franklin. And you know, we just go through and yes,
there were some pro slavery founding fathers, but the overwhelming
(25:35):
majority were not. And they talked about how this slavery
had been posed on them by Great Britain and the
Declaration of Independence. One of the grievances talked about the
fact that several of our colonies have already passed anti
slavery laws seventeen seventy six, and King George the Third
vetoed our anti slavery laws in Connecticut and the Massachusetts
and in Rhode Island and all these other states. And
(25:57):
we don't do that. We say, oh, no, they're all
a bunch of the all a bunch of racist They're
all a bunch of slaves. Oh they're all a bunch
of atheists and agnostics and deists.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Wait a minute.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Twenty nine of the signers and declaration graduated from Bible
schools and seminaries. How can they all be atheists, agnostics
and DEAs. And you know, the first, the first family
Bible ever done was by a signer of the Declaration,
John Witherspoon, and the first mass produced Bible ever done
was by signer of the Declaration, Benjamin Rush. Benjamin Rush
started the first Bible society in America, the Sunday School Movement,
(26:28):
and you just go through their faith. And so what's
happened is because we know so little of the details,
we have been fed a lot of overview, you know,
Washington or any of the Founding fathers, or they were
all a bunch of immoral or whatever, and we don't
have the specificity. So that's that's where going back to
the stories really becomes very very interesting, very intriguing the
(26:50):
story of Washington and what I recommend for folks because
we can now with books dot Google dot com, all
the public domain books are in now online and you
can search all those public domain books. So you know,
find a founding father that dies like a Benjamin Rush
in eighteen thirteen, looking eighteen fourteen for the biographies that
were done about him, because that's by people who knew them,
(27:12):
people who are around him. When Washington dies in seventeen
ninety nine, lived for biographies done in eighteen hundred, because
the people who wrote them were the people who knew
them and who worked with them, and who fought with them,
et cetera. And you know John Quincy, Adams great President,
dies in eighteen forty eight. Read the biography he's written
in eighteen forty nine by the Mayor of Boston, Josiah Quincy,
(27:32):
and by Seward, who is a great ambasador. It's just
such a different view of history from what we get
today because they didn't have agendas back then. They weren't
trying to create a new nation. They weren't trying to
make it secular or make it crt or whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
And so they were or teach the sixteen nineteen projects.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Sixteen nineteen and by the way, man, is that crazy?
Sixteen nineteen, that's not when slavery came to Virginia. The
first first slavery in Virginia was sixteen fifty three when
a black man, Anthony Johnson, sued own another black man,
John Kaser in the court said he could do it.
Sixteen fifty three is when slavery begins Virginia with a
black man suing to own another black man. Haven't heard that,
(28:13):
but say that's where sixteen nineteen project just gives you
a narrative and doesn't give you details, and when you
go back to historical details, the story is so different.
And so that's what every American can do, is, you know,
dedicate myself to find the truth. It is out there.
It's not that hard to find. I'm not going to
follow the narratives until I've proven it for myself. Go
back and verify everything, and that'll give you a whole
(28:35):
different view of America, which is really wholesome, really really enlightening.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Quite frankly, I think as parents it's so powerful. That's
such a good piece of advice to do that with
your kids. Because when we came back from the trip
to Washington, d C. You always wonder what did they
get out of it? Did they really get enough out
of it? And one of the moms said to I
was chaperoning, and she said, thank you so much. My
son came up to me and he said, Mom, you
would never believe what these young men did to make
(29:02):
sure that we could have the life we have. And
I mean that to me as it brings a tear
to my I'm like, oh my gosh, they got it.
They got to see it, they actually saw it and
lived it, and they learned it. But there's so much.
I mean, they still learned the overview. It was still
you know, we're still rushing through in three days, so
there's still so much to teach our kids. And if
(29:23):
you feel like your kids are being robbed at school,
whether it's a public school or private school, you just
don't think they're getting enough. This is great information. Do
it yourself. And I know everybody goes, gosh, that's so
time consuming, but there's no better time spent than teaching
your kids the value of appreciating what you have and
(29:45):
passing that on. And I think that's the biggest thing
here is to appreciate because right now there's so many
people telling our kids don't appreciate this, feel shame, feel
shame for what this country is. And I think that
is the message going into the fourth of July. This
is a we are fortunate to have this country, or
we are fortunate to have these men who stood up
(30:07):
when no one else would. We could very easily just
be colonies right now, and we are a very special
place in the world because of what these founding fathers
were willing to do and sacrifice for us.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
You know, it's significant. I think Americans, perhaps more than
any of the nation. We take our blessings for granted
because we've had them for so long. There's fifty eight
hundred years of recorded history. In that period of time,
there's been thousands of nations, hundreds of constitutions. Cornell University
Law School said, what's the average length of a constitution
in the history of the world, in the answer of
(30:39):
seventeen years. Well, last September seventeenth, we celebrated two hundred
and thirty five years. We just take our stability for granted.
We just assume that's the way nations are and it's not.
And our four percent of the world's population we produce
literally ninety six percent of the world's inventions. Our four
percent of the world's population, we produced twenty five percent
(31:00):
of the world's gross domestic product. We are so stink
and blessed, and we just don't recognize it because we
hear people criticize in the country all the time, and
they don't point out the good. They point out the
bad and the ugly. And that's deconstruction that really started
the nineteen eighties and history books with Howard Zenn and others.
You're supposed to tell the good, the bad, the ugly,
the Bible does that, but we're not telling the We're
(31:22):
just telling the bad and the ugly. And you know,
fourth of July, this is a real patriotic time, and
I love patriotism. Benjamin Rush, he's a signer of the Declaration.
John Adams said, he's one of the three most notable
founding fathers. John Adams said, it's George Washington, Ben Franklin,
Benjamin Rush, and who knows Benjamin Rush today. But Benjamin
(31:43):
Rush says that a love of your country is both
a social and a religious duty. And it goes back
to if you love something, your family, or whatever it is,
you're going to seek the best for it. You're going
to sacrifice for it. You're going to do every thing
you can to make sure that it's really good. And
(32:04):
the polling we got from two weeks ago shows that
right now, seventy three percent of the older generation's patriotic,
only sixteen percent of the younger generations patriotic. We have
not taught them to love their country. We've taught them
to hate it. And there is no future for the
country if you don't love it, because you'll want to
get rid of it, You'll want something different because it's
not fundamentally good. And so this Fourth of July is
(32:27):
a really good time to go back and teach patriotism,
why it's proper to love America, what there is about America,
to love the wonderful things that have happened no nation
in the world. And this slavery passed a band on
the slave trade faster than America did. I mean, it's
just amazing the things. Here's a good one for CRT folks.
(32:48):
America elected his first black official in sixteen forty one,
Matthias the Seuzd was elected to the Legislature of Maryland
by white community. We had more than a thousand black
officials elected in America by eighteen seventy six. Great Britain
did not elect its first black official till nineteen eighty seven.
Russia did not elect its first black official until twenty ten,
(33:11):
and we have one thousand by eighteen seventy six. And
somehow we're the worst nation in the world. We need
to go back and recover the good things and know that.
Let's study the bad and ugly, absolutely that's truth, but
let's study the good too. And fourth of July is
going to be a good time to rekindle patriotism, go
back and look at the wonderful things our two hundred
and thirty seven years under the same document two hundred
(33:34):
and thirty five are in the same document two hundred
and forty seven under the Declaration of Independence, And these
are big things that we should look at and be
grateful for.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
Well, who knew we were going to get homework on
the fourth of July. But I think this is fantastic
because that poll you just put out there that you
said something like seventy percent in the older generation is
patriotic and only sixteen in the younger That means those
of us in that older generation need to be doing
our work with the younger generation, and this is our opportunity.
(34:03):
I love your idea about finding biographies that were written
just a year or two after these folks died and
knowing what it was really like then hearing from the
people that really knew them. I love that. I think
that's a great send off for our listeners today, is
to go out there and find those and share the
good stories from history. Talk about all of history, but
(34:24):
make sure people know why we are the greatest country
in the world and how it happened before I let
you go, David, quickly tell them a little bit about
wall builders wall builders and how they can learn more
about it, because I just think what you guys do
is so amazing, the history, the pieces of history that
you own it and over one hundred thousand pieces.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Yes, ma'am, And it's fun going back to the originals.
For sure. Wall builders dot Com we take the name
of wall builders from the Bible Book of NEAMAI about
rebuilding things that have been torn down, so rebuilding the walls
rusal and back on that story, rebuilding America's constitutional and
more religious foundations. It's kind of our hope, our wish,
and so we produced a lot of products, a lot
(35:06):
of visual things, a lot of written things. We just
did a book, The American Story that goes from Columbus
up through the end of slavery, and it looks at
heroes and the good things and the bad and ugly
about America. But we've got lots of resources the website.
We have thousands of those original documents up where people
can see them, can access them, can use them in
their schools or wherever they go. So we try to
(35:28):
provide resources we hope to have before long all one
hundred and sixty thousand pieces of that history of where
the people can see for themselves what America actually is
and what America actually did. But Wellbuilders dot com is
a good place to go for a lot of resources,
and The American Story is a good book to start with.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Well, thank you so much. I just I love hearing
what you have to say. I always learn something when
I'm talking to you, David Barton. We appreciate having you on.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
Thanks Tudor, appreciate all you do. God bless you, Maam.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
Thank you, God bless you, and thank you all for
joining us on the Tutor Dixon Podcast. As always, for
this episode and others, go to tutordisonpodcast dot com. You
can subscribe right there or check out the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts, and make
sure you join us the next time on the Tutor
Dixon Podcast. Have a blessed day and happy fourth of July.
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