Faith, Freedom & the Future of America

So what does it mean to be an American citizen?

What about our founding documents, the Declaration of Independence, the great Constitution of the United States of America? I'm standing next to a man who's lovingly known by thousands as America's Constitution coach. He is Rick Green.

He's written a new book, A Blueprint for Rebuilding Liberty, just in time for America's 250th. Next to me also is my niece, one of our Truth Warrior interns, Christiana. And she's got a question as well.

Rick Green, God bless you, man. You're fired up about this stuff, aren't you? Hey, man, I'm excited. But you know what? I'm going to give you the comic book version, okay? There's a reason that the Superman theme was truth, justice, and the American way. It actually meant something to say that. We've lost that. We've forgotten what the American way is. So what an opportunity we have.

I'm so pumped about this. So this 250th just gets everybody focused on what is it that we're celebrating. So now's our chance to teach truth, justice, and the American way by teaching the Declaration of Independence.

Yeah, it's interesting. There's this huge reconstruction movement that has been, you talk about Marxism, you talk about communism, that's stripping our roots. Kids, you know, teachers are being told, don't teach about the founders, don't teach about, because these guys were evil, horrible slave owners.

And we're not saying they were perfect. And not all of them were, you know, necessarily born again Christians. But there's a roots to our country that's based on what you just said, the truth. And you're trying to reverse that through the Patriot Academy and all these kind of good things in this new book. Yeah, I hate to shock you like this, Stu, but believe it or not, the founding fathers of America, they were human.

Sinners did evil things just like you and just like me, right? But God used them to do something incredible, to create the greatest nation in the history of the world. And so actually in the book, I talk about truth, justice, and the American way is actually truth, justice, and the biblical way. That's what we were founded upon. The truth that would work, they built the foundation of the nation on the principles of truth. So you don't get life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness unless you start with truth. And then of course, the citizens, what we're trying to ignite everybody on right now is the consent of the governed part, that if you want to secure those rights, you have to institute governments. And the people have to be the ones to give those governments their just powers. And if we're not engaged, giving or refusing our consent, the Marxism will take over because government will assume you've consented, tell you how to raise your kids, how to take care of your property, how to run your business, all those things.

So there's a wake up happening right now because there's been too much government involvement. The pain has caused people to say there's got to be a better way. We have the better way.

It's the biblical way and now's our chance to teach it. And somewhere in Texas, there's actually an academy people can go to talk about that. What is that about? And then we got a good question from our warrior intern here.

I'm so excited about this. So we're building a, we've got 178 acre, beautiful campus in Fredericksburg, Texas. We've already built out our legislative hall. We even do gun ranges. So we do handgun defense. So we teach this when we get to the second amendment, we say, okay, now let's go teach you how to properly do that. But the most important part is the legislative process, teaching people how a constitutional republic works, not just having a lecture where you're sitting there listening to somebody, but you're actually filing the bill yourself. You're getting up in front of committee, you're on the house floor, you're really learning how the process works, which makes you better as a citizen when you go back home to be able to talk to your legislator or even just get up in front of your school board and talk about things. So Patriotacademy.com is the place to find out about it. We're actually rebuilding Independence Hall, so you don't have to go to Philadelphia anymore and get shot. You can come down to Fredericksburg, Texas, you know, anyway, we're really excited about what's happening in the 250.

It's just like I said, it's a chance to focus people. I don't think this window of opportunity is going to last that long unless we press the gas. If we really seize this moment, I think God's going to give us the ability to build a foundation that will last for generations. I love it. I'm Stu Everson. This is Truth Talk and this is Rick Green. He's America's Constitution coach, author of this amazing new book, A Blueprint for Rebuilding Liberty, just in time for America's 250th. This man loves his country. He loves his God.

We're going to get into the Creator here in a second. But making her debut on Truth Talk, my awesome, uber-talented niece, Christiana Deny, tell everyone where you go to school, what year you are in college, and then drop this hot potato question on Brother Green, will you? I'm Christiana Deny.

I go to Palm Beach Atlantic University, majoring in marketing and psychology. And my question is, is the separation of the church and the Constitution? You've probably never heard that, have you, brother? No, and I want to ask you how old you are first. 19. 19.

Smart enough to ask that question. Absolutely not in the United States Constitution, nor in the Declaration. And in schools, it's always funny. I go to law school sometimes and I'll teach and they'll be like, no, no, no, it's in the Constitution.

I'll say, well, please show me. Oh, it's in the First Amendment. You open up the First Amendment. No, it's Congress shall make no law respecting establishment religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. And in fact, not only does it not say separation of church and state, that nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof is the part we've forgotten. We're prohibiting the free exercise all over the place. At least we were until the Kennedy case. That changes everything. So, you know, it's one of those things that for so long it was quoted by the Supreme Court, quoted by almost 7,000 cases.

So people think it's in the Constitution, but it's not. But Christian, I'll give you an example. So you've probably never driven away from your church going, what a great sermon on how to be a good husband, good father, good mother, good wife. I wish I could use it at home, but there's separation of home and church. Probably never thought that, right? Of course not.

That's silly. Why do we buy into this idea that somehow the word of God does not apply to everything in our life? As my friend Paul Blair in here always says, what part of your life is the Lord not Lord over? And so it's God's word applies to everything, business, politics, you name it. And this separation of church and state has allowed us to get into this mindset of putting God in a box. And so, you know, it's not that we're saying you have to be a Christian to be in government or to influence government, but certainly Christians should not be excluded from that.

And what's the biggest challenge or pitfall? Young people that, you know, Christiana's age will face as they go to college. A lot of Marxism from the classrooms, you know, they've done surveys.

Now, she goes to a solid Christian school. But what do you see happening here? And what is the biggest battle you're facing as you have now over 30,000 of these constitutional coaches you're teaching at the Patriot Academy that are, you know, make it make, you know, taking all this back, but what do you see is the biggest battle line right now? It's moral relativism of thought. In other words, you know, 30 years ago, I was fighting textbooks in Texas that said communism, socialism and capitalism are three equal ways to form a society.

So they're basically saying any value system works, any government system works instead of recognizing, no, there's inputs that produce good outputs, and there's inputs that produce bad outputs. And if you do socialism and communism, you get 100 million deaths last century, you do capitalism, and you do freedom, and you do individual liberty, and you do limited government, you do those things, and you get prosperity, and you get all the all the good stuff, but you got to put the right inputs in, I get to work with a lot of 16 to 25 year olds, so we do these legislative simulations and state capitals all over the country. And I'll tell you, I'm more encouraged than ever, these young people right now, just like you, Christiana, are not just curious, and not just interested, they're passionate, they want to make a difference. And they're coming in with an intellectual depth that I haven't seen in the 30 years that I've been doing this, they are hungry. And and they're talented. They're, I'm just I'm so encouraged. Now, I always say the Navy Seals of civics, I really mean that. I mean, these are the tip of the spear leaders. And so I would say to all your listeners out there, you may be thinking all we always kind of make fun of the next generation and say, you know, they're they're lazy, or they're whatever, I'm telling you, there is hope God is raising up a remnant in this next generation.

It's incredible. And they're overcoming a lot of the things that you're talking about the challenges there, no doubt about it, the masses are being taught Marxism. But if we train the leaders, they will win over their generation. Okay, now, Christiana, do you have any more questions for this? This young man, I want you to think about that. I'm going to come right back to you. Just call me a young man. I just want I want that on the record.

You can't be part of Academy. Hey, you've got all kinds of energy. Rick Green.

He's the author of this amazing book, blueprint for rebuilding liberty. Rick, I want to ask you this, and you think about a good closing question, Christiana. What do you say to a lot of young people, even kids that I've kind of had been in my youth group, I love these kids, you know, I'm not mad at them or anything. But they're out there kind of like, into the woke movement and, you know, against anything that, you know, really on honestly, you know, pro communistic, you know, open our gates, let out, let all the immigrants in and, and of course, so maybe some good ones need to come in.

But you know, like, they're, they're, you know, they're, they're going left. What do you say to those that are embracing the communism? And can you give a quick history lesson and a quick challenge to provoke their thinking a little bit to say, Hey, guys, hold on a second.

First thing I'd say to them is be curious. And I would ask them, if you were wrong, wouldn't you want to know, I we teach everybody at Patriot Academy, when you enter a debate or a discussion, you I go into those conferences, like if I sat down with you, Stu, and we were going to debate theology, or we were going to debate politics, or whatever, I'd go in with the attitude, if I'm wrong, I want to know I want civil discourse, I want to be sharpened, right, I want to, I want to Patrick Henry gave this great, you know, give me liberty, give me death speech. But at the beginning, he said, according to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. Only in this way can we arrive at the truth. In other words, what he was saying was, we need to be able to sharpen each other. And so I would say to those young people, be curious, don't think you've got a lock on it all, and be willing to go into these conversations and study and say, Okay, where might I be wrong?

And let me get better at this. And when you really look at the history, communism and socialism has never ever, ever worked. It's always failed, it's always destroyed a country.

But you've got to study the history to know that. And too often, the socialist will tell us, oh, but this time, we're going to do it right. You know, this, we just never had enough of it, we didn't do it.

Well, you know, I don't care to have that experiment on my children and grandchildren, I'd rather use the formula that's actually worked limited government, individual liberties, free enterprise, timeless truce, we call it the lift principles, or just ask an Albanian or ask a Romanian or ask someone that's been in the communist block. And they're like, Oh, my soul, you know, we they know better. But these young people don't now let's talk to the other extreme. And those people that have moved here. They're screaming at us right now. They're warning us. They're going, I fled that.

And now we're adopting it in the United States. Those people that came from tyranny are the best champions for liberty. Okay, Christiana, you got a question for this man. Where did you start with like your thought process or when you want to write a book or you know, how did this all come out to play in your life? I started looking for good mentors, honestly, I got I got hungry. And I just started my diet of information became who's doing what I what I'm interested in doing. And so I started finding good speakers and good authors. And then I started going to them and saying, would you would could I learn from you? So one of those guys was Zig Ziglar.

I mean, greatest, you know, probably give your four year but he did and he best platform speaker of maybe ever in history. And so you can find people like that. And the cool thing is, you might think some of those people are unapproachable, or they're too busy or that I'm telling you, us old folks, we want to pour into the next generation, we're looking for people to mentor. So I would say to any young person out there that's hungry and wants to learn, or is trying to figure out how to get started, find somebody that's doing what you want to do or that you think you might want to do and go to them and say, Hey, would you, you know, let me take you to lunch once a week or once a month or whatever and be willing to mentor me. I think that's a critical piece of of discipleship that we've missed for a long time. Usually people, they wish someone told them that when they were growing up, and so they want to be that help that next generation, you know? Exactly. Ah, let's do it. That's called passing the torch, man. Let's do a better job of that.

We kind of failed in that in the last generation. Yeah, I tell older funny does like me who are like, I said, Hey, put a Bible verse on Instagram. Oh, I'm not on Instagram.

That's terrible. I would never know how to do that. Silly, hand your phone to your niece to your kid. Say, open me an account and put a Bible verse up there every day. And watch how God can use that.

There's a billion people on Instagram, you know, they're not saying jumping, you know, but but, you know, be prayerful, you know, if it's going to be some of lock. Yeah, but for Pete sake, uses a teaching moment with the younger people in your life. Rick Green, I didn't mean to take that rabbit trail, but you can't you guys both kind of set me on there. Here's a question. Talk to the other extreme real quick. We got to go.

We're out of time. The people that are, you know, so right wing, even Christians that conflate being conservative and being pro Trump with being Christian, because there's a lot of folks that voted that way, that aren't going to be in heaven when they die, because they've never received Jesus. So you know, this, this right wing movement can take on you know, when someone sees their pastor endorsing a candidate and up there at the White House, they think, well, everyone's a Christian, but not necessarily we talked about the importance of Christ and his supremacy overall.

I mean, that's really the what I see as the window of opportunity. The reason I like using the Declaration of Independence is because it opens the door for us to say there is a creator, the creator is the source of our freedom, without that the system falls apart. And so even a guy like Ben Franklin could see that these people that are following Christ, I may not believe he didn't until late in life, some say that he did, but he didn't believe during those days that Jesus was the Son of God. But he looked at the fruit of those who were following Jesus and said, man, they made good citizens, they made good neighbors. And in fact, for those who might be questioning whether or not that should be taught in the in the public square, when you want to have a neighbor that believes stealing is wrong, that murder is wrong, that is raising their children to honor their father and mother. I mean, that's the kind of neighborhood you want to live in.

And you want to you want to live in a place where they treat their neighbors the way they want to be treated. Those are all the teachings of Christ. And that's the thing that we've got to have. And, and look, if we don't have spiritual revival, all of this stuff, we're talking about all the political revival, all of these things, it's for naught, it's gonna fall apart. And that's why the libertarians that try to keep God out of the equation, but they want liberty, they're figuring out you can't have liberty, unless you have it in law, unless you follow the laws of nature, nature's God.

So anyway, more than you want to know. But I mean, that is that is the key. If we don't get back to that, the rest of it will fall apart. So your party may be in the Senate, your party may have won the house, your party may be elected in the White House. But if you don't have Jesus Christ ruling in the home of your heart, you're doomed.

Yeah. So don't gain the whole political proper political views and lose your own soul. And that swings both ways. You know, sadly, hell will be full of people who are are donkeys and elephants.

But that's why we're here to lead them to Jesus. And you're using the founding documents, you're using those roots, you know, just like Franklin used to love to go hear George Whitfield preach. He couldn't get enough of that guy. And you're trying to be a modern day George Whitfield in the public square. We're just honored to have you on Rick Green, everyone get this book blueprint for rebuilding liberty. And I got a copy here. I might even get you to sign one for my knees.

Would you do that? Okay, absolutely. And hey, one of the thing we're doing this thing called Patriot Institute now. So students 18 to 25 can come spend a year with us, they'll get that political training. But more importantly, the nights around the fire, they'll meet Jesus, I'm telling you, and they'll learn how to be good disciples, and they'll make great friends. And and we've got lots of great weddings that have come out of our Patriot Academy. So 41 weddings so far. So come meet that really perfect person website, best way to reach out to you. I know you're on social too. But what's the best way to reach out to you for people listening to connect with you?

Rick green, academy.com Patriot academy.com. And let me get your favorite Bible verse. I'd love to I'd love to ask this of guests. I don't want to put you on the spot which one you which one do you like to hang your hat on Joshua one and nine have not I commanded you be strong and have a good courage. Be not afraid either be thou dismayed for the Lord that God is with you with us wherever that go a summit up like this be dangerous. God's with us.