Transcript

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>> Ryan Walters: Of faith being able to live out. Their faith, live out their convictions no.

>> Ryan Walters: Matter where they are. We quit.

>> Rick Green: Sacred honor is the courage to speak. Truth to live out your free speech.

>> Brother Don Wildmon: We also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character and character. This is At the Core on American Family Radio.

Rick Green: We tend to focus on one negative and miss all the positives

>> Rick Green: Welcome to At the Core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green. I'm Rick Green, America's Constitution coach. Thanks for joining me today. I got a lot of great guests coming up today. Tony Perkins will be with us. Going to be talking about some of the Supreme Court decisions and what that means culturally. Just kind of the trend that's happening right now. Ryan Walters from Oklahoma, the superintendent of education there, who has just done an absolutely amazing job leading with, I mean, the kind of courage that we want to see at the state level. And then of course, there's all kinds of headlines to talk about as well. In fact, I've just been amazed at some of the things that have happened in the last few days. I was watching the. I don't know if you caught this or not, but the, the, president had his cabinet meeting. You know, he's been, of course, you know, broadcasting these total transparency in this, in this administration. And it was, it was unbelievable to me to listen to the victories and the good things that this administration is doing now. I get it. All the headlines right now are because of Pam Bondi's comments on the Epstein thing. And everybody's totally focused on that. I understand, I'm frustrated about that part too. But we tend to zero in on the one negative and miss all the positives. I mean, I just want to rattle off a few of these for you. And the one that really jumped out at me and that I thought was just one of the best summaries of how big of a shift we have right now in these two administrations. The previous administration, which we call it the Biden administration, it really should be called the auto Pin administration. But, you look at what Lee Zeldin is doing over at epa and how, as he pointed out in, the Cabinet meeting that the Green New Deal got a sledgehammer. I mean, in the one big beautiful bill. And again, we've aired our complaints about the big beautiful bill and all that stuff. But the way that they are now able to stop the grift, or at least as much as possible, I mean, billions of dollars that were being thrown at these NGOs that were not. But Biden and friends and family and Democrat operatives and Obama, friends and family. I mean, Stacey Abrams went from $100 to the very next year, $2 billion being given to this NGO that she, you know, started up just to be a grift, and a salary of 800,000 for the CEO and hundreds of thousands for 15 or 20 different people. Anyway, Zeldin goes through all of that and talks about how that they're stopping those things. That is a huge victory. F. That's the kind of thing that Elon Musk went to D.C. to do with Doge. So some of the stuff that he got frustrated wasn't getting done. The apparatus is there to start getting that done. It just didn't happen in the bill specifically, but, the levers of power were given to these folks to make these decisions, like Lee Zeldin and get it done. Anyway, that was a big one. And then you had the whole, just the breakdown on the tariffs and the fact that that's already brought in 100 billion, likely to bring in 300 billion by the end of the year. You had the, all the money coming in from all over the world to be invested into America. You had the, wisdom on how to deal with that. With regard to China buying up land, which is not an investment that we want to happen in our country. And Brooke, Rollins talking about how to stop that. You had the BRICS tariff announced. I mean, I'm rattling all these off. We don't have time to go into each of them, but I just. I was amazed at how many victories had taken place. And of course, I really enjoyed Kristi Noem's briefing on the floods. As you know, if you're a regular listener to this program, I'm right in the middle of that. It happened all around our campus and at Patriot Academy. And the thing that Christie pointed out or Secretary Noem pointed out is that the way they're going about this is the right way. They're not coming in with the federal government and taking over. They're offering help and they're doing block grants, but they're not. Which I'm not even sure I'm, for any federal money being spent in these situations. This should all be state and local. But I get it, I get it. They're. They're helping, but they're not coming in and micromanaging. They're not kicking out the local guys and saying, all the feds have shown up.

>> Rick Green: Now we're in control.

>> Rick Green: They're doing this the right way. FEMA is the disaster most of the time, or at least the secondary. Secondary disaster always has been. And so I love how Trump has remade that, redone that whole system. And, Secretary Noem was just reporting on that. So it was just a lot of great stuff. Really, really impressive.

Rick Green interviews Tony Perkins, head of Family Research Council

All right, let's get to our first interview of the day. Tony Perkins, Family Research Council, fantastic organization. Tony's done an amazing job with them. they do a lot of cool grassroots stuff, a lot of important lobbying in Washington, D.C. and then Tony's just a great teacher himself, has a new course out God in Government. So we're going to catch up with Tony, talk about some of these supreme, court decisions and, and, how that impact and what opportunities there are in the culture. Tony, God bless you, man. Thanks for coming on.

>> Tony Perkins: Thanks, Rick. Always good to be with you.

Rick Green: Supreme Court case could be turning point in culture war

>> Rick Green: Well, you were talking about this, Supreme Court case that, is not just a victory in the culture war to give parents back, you know, authority on some of this crazy stuff and stop, mutilating children. But, but really that it's a sign for potentially a turning point in the culture, for coming back to truth and getting out of some of this deception.

>> Tony Perkins: It is. And it m. There's. It's a good story on many fronts, Rick, because what, what it represents is a turning. Because if you go back, you know, and I, I tie all this back, and this is what I think folks fail to connect the dots, too. At least the left does not want us to connect these dots, is that this all began with the redefinition of marriage. And so the onslaught of whether it was men and women's sports or invasion, of privacy in spaces like changing rooms and bathrooms and showers, or the radical indoctrination of our children in our schools over this transgender stuff. And redefinition of human sexuality goes back to the redefinition of marriage by the court. And back in, 20, 18 or so, we. We saw this coming. So we began to work with some other allied organizations to. To draw kind of a red line where we felt like we could bring enough of the society together where they would be bold enough to take a stand against the cancel culture. And it was over the transgender, experimental drugs and surgeries for minors, because, as you pointed out, kids are being. This mutilation that's taking place of our kids, all, you know, experimental. We don't know how the. What's going to happen with the use of these drugs. They're not made for this type of stuff. So we began in Arkansas. Arkansas. Representative Lundstrom became the first Robin Lundstrom. And, then from there, we ended up with a total of 27 states. The last one there, obviously, in Tennessee, where that court case, they prevailed in that case, saying that the states have a right to protect children. But as you pointed out, Rick, I think it's much bigger than just this particular case. It shows what can happen when people are willing to say, the emperor has no clothes, and not shrink back out of fear of the cancel culture. So it's a culmination of many things, but in part, it's brave parents that showed up to school board meetings, that questioned these policies, ran for school board meetings. But the encouraging thing, I think, Rick, is that we can keep this momentum going as we have the opportunity to repair the spiritual foundations of our nation and use this as a teaching moment of how did we get here?

>> Rick Green: Yeah, it really opens the door for a lot of people that we might not have been able to have that conversation with them 10 years ago, but they're kind of the Joe Rogans of the world that are saying, this is crazy. We have gone way too far. And they're beginning to ask, what is truth? What is, you know, what are there actually moral absolutes after all? And are there things that shouldn't, you know, that don't change over time and that shouldn't be perverted, in this way. And so it's got a whole other crowd willing to pay attention. So the opportunity for that u turn you're talking about, it just seems to be staring us in the face. How do we take advantage of It. What's the best way to really lean into this?

>> Tony Perkins: Well, number one, I think we have to, we have to go back to the fact that there is objective truth, there is transcendent truth, and the idea. And again, I think the teaching moment is what I just did a moment ago. Taking this back. How did we get here? Well, it started with the redefinition of marriage. Now we can go beyond that, back to no fault divorce and how we began to redefine God's institution of marriage. But the further we get away from the revealed truth in God's word and the moral law of God, which is written on the hearts of men, the further we get away from that. That's how we get into this crazy stuff. So this is a, this could be a rest stop or it could be a U turn m. Yeah.

>> Rick Green: And that depends on how we respond to it. Right. And it depends on the, on the church stepping up and, and, and seizing the moment.

>> Tony Perkins: Exactly. And that's kind of what I think the Trump administration has given us as well. I mean, this is all kind of one thing. Either the, the Trump administration and the good policies we see coming out of this administration is a rest stop from radicalism, or it's a U turn back to moral truth and to repairing the spiritual foundations of our nation for future generations.

>> Rick Green: Have you been surprised by how blatantly strong the gospel message out of the White House has been? I mean the Easter message was death, burial, resurrection. Solid stuff. the faith highlights, or the highlight on faith moments in as, ah, we do the 250th over the next year. You know, they, they've been willing to, we've given them all kinds of dates of faith stuff happening. They're highlighting it. I mean, I've never seen this much of an embrace of truth and, and, and telling those stories. There's been such a rejection of it over the last few years. Maybe it's just the contrast and standing out to me. But what are your thoughts? You've been right in the middle of it right there in D.C. so.

>> Tony Perkins: Well, Rick, that's a really good point is that, you know, a, a puddle looks like a pond when you've been in the desert.

>> Rick Green: That's right.

>> Tony Perkins: You know, but not to take away from what we're seeing. It is encouraging. But what we have to make sure is that it is not a mirage or it's not passing, but that there is staying power to this. And how do we do that? Well, number one, I think we have to realize the Role of the church. The role of the church is to be a prophetic voice. I really appreciate a statement. It was actually in a sermon that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Preached. It was called A Knock at Midnight. And he said, you know, we need to really. I'm going to paraphrase it a bit, but he said the church should not be. It's not the master or the servant of the state. It is the critic. It is the m. Moral conscience of the state. If we ever lose our prophetic zeal, we'll become nothing more than a irrelevant, social club. And, and so the church has to be not what I would call in the current terms of never Trumpers. I mean, that's useless. This administration is doing a lot of things right and we need to be there to applaud them and to praise them and to encourage them, but we also have to correct them when they're wrong. I mean, I think you look at, there's some things happening that are not, for instance, I'd be one that's front and center is the Biden era policy regarding the abortion pill, which, comprises 63% of all abortions in the United States. That could be changed in a heartbeat by this administration changing the FDA policy. They've not done that. They could. but one thing, the president is fearful of the abortion issue because of the 2020 midterm election and the 2022 midterm elections. So, good things, but we've got to lay the moral foundation while the, while the policies of this administration is giving us the opportunity to do that.

>> Rick Green: It's, it's really interesting you say that. I was just in California speaking at a church out there I've been to 15 years in a row. And, and that was our conversation at lunch afterwards because this church, it was so cool. This church had had like three different American flags, you know, around the church. And I said, you guys aren't running from these people that say, if you have the flag now, you're worshiping America instead of God. You're tripling down and showing them we're worshiping God first. And we're thankful for America because we have that freedom to worship.

Paul writes in Ephesians that we're to speak the truth in love

But that's where our conversation led, was if we do this right, we don't put Trump on a pedestal. We don't put an administration or America on a pedestal. We're salt and light no matter what.

>> Rick Green: And we, and we, you know, like. You said, we encourage and are thankful when they get it right, but we cannot be afraid to be salt and light when they get it wrong, you know, and that's.

>> Tony Perkins: That's a challenge. Not just in our relationship with government. It's just a general challenge we have as believers to know that speaking truth is actually one of the greatest expressions of love that is possible. And so by speaking. And now, of course, it goes back to the heart motive, you know, as Paul writes in Ephesians 4, that we're to speak the truth in love. Now, are we criticizing an administration, and it could be any administration. Are we doing it because we want to make them look bad, or are we speaking that truth because we want them to be successful? And it should be the latter, no matter who's in the office. Because we've been called to pray for those in authority so that we might live peaceable lives. And so we want them to succeed in doing what is right, so that we might live lives that are peaceful and, in an environment where we can share the gospel and do the work of the kingdom.

>> Rick Green: Oh, good, brother. You would love my pastor, Jimmy Pruitt, because he, always says we speak the truth in love, but we speak the truth because of love.

People have been asking us who they can donate to for flood relief

>> Rick Green: All right, gotta interrupt our interview with Tony Perkins for just a quick break. And by the way, encourage you today to go to patriotacademy.com if you would like to help with the flood situation in, my area. It's right here in our backyard. People have been asking us who they can donate to, where they can help. We're still figuring all that out. And so. So I'm really hesitant to direct people to other organizations. But if you donate@patriotacademy.com 100% of that.

>> Rick Green: We'Re going to redirect it to the. People that are making the most difference. You can do that today@patriotcademy.com we'll be right back on F. Core.

>> Rick Green: At the

>> Jeff Chamblee: Core podcasts are available at afr.net now back to At the Core on American Family Radio.

Tony Perkins speaks about speaking the truth because of love

>> Rick Green: We're back here on at the Corps with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green. Thanks for staying with us. Tony Perkins, our, first guest today. We've been talking about, you know, speaking the truth. As my pastor Jimmy Pruitt says, speaking the truth because of love. So if it's. If we're speaking the truth because of love. And I just embraced that when he said it. I was like, that explains what you just described. The heart part of why we're being salt and light. It's not just to, you know, put the salt in so it burns. It's actually have the chemical reaction of preserving the culture. So good. Tony, thank you for everything FRC is doing best. way for people to get your gun, government course to, to, to to get signed up and get their church involved in what you're doing. FRC.org just go to the website.

>> Tony Perkins: Hey, go to FRC.org or the best way is to go to the Stand Firm app, then go to the app store, download our Stand Firm app and all of our resources right there, on the Stand Firm app.

>> Rick Green: Look at you guys getting all, you know, technologically savvy and cutting edge.

>> Tony Perkins: We want to make those smartphones even smarter. We want to make them sanctified.

>> Rick Green: That's great. Tony Perkins Family Research Council.

>> Rick Green: Appreciate you man.

Braeden Sorbo wrote a book aimed at young men about manhood

Next up is Braden Sorbo. We're talking manhood here. Really, really good opportunity to help encourage the next generation of young men to be godly men. Braden, thanks for coming on today, man.

>> Braeden Sorbo: Hey, thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.

>> Rick Green: Well, we appreciate it very much and the message is so incredibly timely. of course I work with a lot of young men from around the country through Patriot Academy and I see the need that is out there and I'm so thankful for guys like Victor Marks and John Lovell and Braden Sorbo. So talk to us about the book.

>> Braeden Sorbo: Oh man, Victor Marks is such a great friend. You bring him up. He endorsed it actually. So it's a perfect segue too. So the book is a, it's a guide, it is a handbook for men in America today. And in a different sense it is a tool for women as a checklist, useful for discernment for finding yourself the right people to surround by, you know, we, we in the world. You become your closest circle of friends. And so the book aims to give people a foundation to build off of in which they can find like minded individuals to grow with, not detract from. And so the book itself is a tool for everybody but primarily young men in living in a world that tells them that they are inherently expendable, useless and valueless and instead offers the alternative that every individual has an intrinsic value and that men, when they actualize that ah, value can grow, can surpass what they thought were their limits and can become leaders in their communities, in their culture and in their country.

>> Rick Green: Such a wealth of wisdom in what you already said, man, you're only, what are you, 25 now? I can't remember.

>> Braeden Sorbo: 23.

>> Rick Green: 23. 23 years old. and you're just spewing wisdom Right now, I think that's a gift from God and, so needed for your generation. Anyway, man, I got to get you down here to Patriot Academy, hanging out with some of our guys. Y' all would hit it off big time. what do you. I mean, here you are, you've been raised by Hercules. You got a mom that's even tougher than Hercules and amazing. what do you say to those young men out there that didn't have the role models you had? Like, what's the best way for them to find godly masculinity that they can look up to and learn from?

>> Braeden Sorbo: Oh, man, I love this because there are plenty of those situations, and I write about it in the book. I talk about the fatherlessness epidemic and how when fathers are out of the household, children are prone to become drug addicts. They're more likely to commit crimes. They're more likely to have depression, anxiety, ocd, some sort of mental disorder. They're more likely to end up in jail. They're more likely to commit suicide or murder. Like, the statistics are astronomically higher. The chances of these terrible things happening when the fathers are not present. And so, yeah, what do we do when your dad isn't willing to step up to the plate, when he's not there and he's not capable and he's not able to? And even in some senses, what do you do when your dad is physically present but spiritually and mentally absent? Like, he's there, but he's just watching TV on the couch, he's not engaged, you're not growing, you're not learning. And, what I love to tell people is, one, they have a father in heaven who still loves them, who is present. But two, you can find role models in society. And what I love to say is look back throughout the history of the church. This is why I love the idea of people having patron saints. Someone who went through similar struggles to you, someone who lived a life, dedicated to the Lord, someone who has everything documented that you can look to for inspiration. You can look to that person and see God working through them and go, well, if he worked through them, he can work through me the same and even more so. And so I love people. Because the thing is, you know, you talk to people, and even if they aren't necessarily religious, they go, well, God, you know, what about him? We can't see him, we can't feel him, we can't touch Him. So it's like, okay, what about it? But you have these saints on earth who were Fully human. And yet look at all of the amazing things they did, whether that be contributions to science, contributions to the church and Christianity, or contributions to just their community and a couple people around them. It made enough of an impact that they were recognized for. And we can look at them m and go, well, man, that's the bar, right? That's the bar for us. Paul says, imitate me as I imitate Christ. He doesn't say, just imitate. Imitate Christ, which obviously is the benchmark for success. But no one's going to be Christ. No one's going to be perfect. And even Paul recognized that. He said, try to imitate me as best as you can, and you will get closer to Christ. And so for people who are struggling with, well, I don't have a dad. I don't have, you know, a good role model in my life. Look through the history of the church. There were people who were willing to die for the truth, who set a good example. So even though you might not have one in your real life close to you currently, you have thousands of years of it, 2000 years to look through.

>> Rick Green: That is so good.

>> Rick Green: Braeden. I had never thought about that, Paul saying that and how much more encouragement that gives to. Because obviously, we're flawed human beings, and even the people that we model are going to be flawed human beings. And I love the transparency of so many of these people. Like a victor that just say, hey, here's my flaws, but here's how I got over it, and here's what, Christ did through me. that should give so much hope to people that are listening right now. Because I think, too, and maybe you. Address this in the book as well, the tearing down of our heroes, the deconstruction of basically make it where all the American founders were. Evil, awful men, no matter. And it's all the bad and the ugly.

>> Rick Green: Nobody talks about the good anymore. So we tear down those heroes, even our comic book heroes. I mean, all of it. what you just said helps to get over that and to recognize, that even here on earth, we do have good people that we can model and follow. But I think there's been a concentrated effort to just tear it all down. And that way, you don't have a godly man to look up to. And it even allows for the gender fluidity and all of those things. So that's been a concentrated effort of Marxism that's worked well.

You mentioned surrounding yourself and the people that you're around. What can people do in their own communities

You mentioned surrounding yourself and the people that you're around. what about that?

>> Rick Green: What can people do in their own communities. What should they look for in the qualities? And I want to talk specifically to the guys and then we'll talk to the gals, but specifically the guys. What do they look for in the qualities of the friends that they look for that would also be searching for this kind of godly masculinity?

>> Braeden Sorbo: Yeah, well that's. Man, that's such a great question.

The left attacks masculinity and strength, which is why they write articles

I want to touch on what you said just a minute ago with Marxism and also tying communism, because obviously there are different facets to all of these ideologies that we have in the world today. And we have to realize that as much as Marxism has played a role in the destruction of our western world, Communism, this collective idealism where nobody is special is like a crabs in a bucket mentality, is sort of what led us here. Which brings us to tearing down the historical figures, making even superheroes become worthless and obsolete. And so it is really interesting to watch this decay. But when it comes to fighting it, for young men who are looking for something, looking for community, the best thing that they can do is get physical. Because here's the thing, and this is a controversial take that people are slowly waking up to. When you are not physically demanding, when your physical prowess is low, you become agreeable subconsciously because you are afraid to speak your mind for the fear of confrontation. So if you are not physically able to defend yourself, you are more likely to become agreeable. Which is why the left attacks masculinity and strength, which is why they write articles saying that if you work out you're a white supremacist or a right wing Nazi or everything under the sun. Because if you can think for yourself, you will realize that collectivism is a terrible mentality and it leads to destruction. But if you. This is why so many young women have been engulfed by this leftist idea of abortion and that women's rights are under attack and that trans men can be, or trans women are actually women and they should belong in women's sports instead of men's sports. Because these women physically can't stand up to the 6 foot 4, 230 pound swimmer who just beat them at the freestyle. That doesn't happen because they know that these people subconsciously, they know that they're crazy and will attack them if provoked. We've seen it time and time again. And so in an effort of self preservation, you become complacent and agreeable. So young men need to start working out. You don't have to deadlift a thousand pounds, but get active, take up Boxing, take up running, even something like that, go for walks, get your body moving. Because your physical health has a direct impact on your mental and spiritual clarity. And then next, that is go away.

>> Rick Green: Before you do next, I gotta just confirm what you just said, the exclamation point on it. Because I watched that in my own boys when they started doing, jiu jitsu. I've watched it with thousands of young men that have come through our program and done. And, not just young men, older men too, that have done our handgun defense course. Just being able to defend themselves, to watch the intellectual growth that they had as a result of that. You just explained it. I've never been able to explain it. You just explained what's happening. They're more willing to stand up intellectually just because of the physical ability to defend themselves. And I don't. I don't think. I know they don't. They're not making that connection. I don't think I ever made that connection. So. Good, go ahead. You had a second one.

>> Braeden Sorbo: Yeah. Well, the next one is finding people who have that same mentality as well as Christian mentality. Because here's the thing, right? We can look at the figures of today's world, like the Andrew Tate, and say, well, what they're doing is wrong, but the world has made morality subjective. And so by what standard are we holding these men to? So we need to find Christian men in society and uplift them, make them the standard. Because when we live in a subjective world, nothing is inherently good or bad. And so there are plenty of leftists who would say that what Andrew Tate is doing is terrible, but they also believe in abortion. There is no objective morality that they hold themselves to. So in a non Christian world, what he is doing is perfectly acceptable. And that is an unchecked tenant of masculinity. Because God tells Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, be fruitful, multiply and exert dominion over the world. And so dominion, unchecked without the system of Christianity to keep it balanced, becomes oppression, Right? That's what we see with the story of Gideon and the 300 men. He goes off and he listens to God at first, and then he does his own thing and he takes over an entire village because they refused to feed his troops. So he slaughters them all, and then he goes and he has 70 sons. That technically is masculinity. Go, conquer, be the strongest, have a bunch of kids, because your offspring is your legacy. What is the moral of the story of Gideon, though he doesn't end up with 70 sons. Abimelech kills 68 of them and the last one runs away. So this unchecked non Christian masculinity turns into 68 funerals and a, murderous son. And so young men need to adhere to a moral standard, which is objective truth, which is Christianity. And so finding other young men who have that same standard to keep you in check is absolutely crucial. Proverbs 6. 7 says, as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. And so we have to be strong physically, be strong spiritually, and lastly, be strong mentally.

>> Rick Green: Ah. so good, man.

Braeden Sorbo: I think there's a revival of the Promise Keepers movement

All right, Bradensorbo.com is where folks can go to learn all about your podcasts your, all the other things. What about booking you to speak? Because I know you're doing a lot more traveling now and speaking.

>> Braeden Sorbo: They can go to bradensorbo.com I have a form there, or Sorbo Studios and reach out to the connection page there.

>> Rick Green: Excellent. And the book itself, you want them to go into your website, Amazon. Where are you sending folks?

>> Braeden Sorbo: Go to sorbo studios.com and if they use my last name, Sorbo, I'll give them 20% off.

>> Rick Green: There you go. What a deal. Braden. God bless you, man. So proud of you. Love what you're doing. What an incredible blessing, man. I mean, that's the kind of leaders we need. You know, I'm spoiled because I get to work with young men like Braden, all throughout the year because of the Patriot Academy program and all the young leaders that we have trained over the years that are now serving in the White House or in Congress or writing books or doing movies or whatever it might be. And it's just, I think most people don't realize that God is raising up a remnant. I mean, you listen to this young man, you listen to the wisdom that's coming through. You look at the topic that's being tackled, recognizing the need that's in the culture, recognizing that these, you know, these, these young men have been crying out for truth about manhood, and they've been looking for answers. And unfortunately, the church had not. Not done its job in that, in that realm for the most part. And so then you had these posers stepping in, like Andrew Tate and others that brought in absolute lies about what manhood is, with, with some kernels of truth. So they would say some things that made sense in terms of, you know, being courageous or being a leader or, you know, going for it, seizing the day, those kind of things. But then they would wrap it in these just humanistic ideas or even now Tate's pushing them. You know, Islam and, it just became a poison and a cancer of fake manhood that, was being poured into the minds of these young people. And so, thankfully, that's beginning to turn. I think we're getting essentially, a revival of the Promise Keepers movement. For those of you that are my age or older, you remember, Promise Keepers really stepped up to help wake up the church and start getting men to do their job, to be courageous, to. To be leaders, to, to not, you know, just sit on the sidelines. And, and there were so many great authors and speakers back then that helped with that movement. Some of the ones that really impacted me, Steve Farrar and Stu Weber and, Ed Cole and all these guys, just a. Just a huge impact on, on my life. Fact, I. I gave out Stu Weber's book Tender Warrior to all the guys in my wedding. that would have been 94. So, just incredible movement back then. And now you've got guys like John Lovell with Warrior Poets Society doing very, very similar. Victor Marx with all things possible. just some great examples like that. Of course, everything we're doing at Patriot Academy to raise up the next generation and certainly to teach these young people these things. And then Braden Sorbo coming along, one of those young men, teaching the same thing to his generation. I think this is something to be hopeful about. I think it's something you should celebrate today and realize that, yes, there's a sickness and a cancer and a, And a problem in the culture, but look at what God's doing to cure that and to bring the medicine that we need, which is biblical answers. We know that. We know the Bible is the answer to everything. We know that it's the instruction manual for life and that God gave us the answer to any problem that we're facing. It's just that too often we neglect or despise the precepts contained in the Bible. And Noah Webster warned us, when we neglect or despise the precepts contained in the Bible, that's when we get all the miseries and evils and in the culture. His, his quote about that. We use it in biblical citizenship and our new course, Rebuilding Liberty. But his whole point is that if you don't want, you know, crime and slavery and all of these bad things in the culture, then you got to do the right inputs. If you do the right inputs, if you put good stuff in, you get good stuff out. If you put trash in, you're going to get trash out. And I would argue that it is trash to put into the culture and into the minds of the next generation, that you get to do anything you want with no boundaries whatsoever. There is no God, there is no truth. Do whatever feels good. And then to add on top of that, oh, but if you're a man and you try to step up and lead or you try to be the man that you've been called to be, well, now that's toxic, toxic, masculine. All of those things are poison. All of those things are trash. And they produce trash in the culture. No doubt about it. And it's all because we neglected and despised the precepts contained in the Bible. Now when we come back to those precepts, when we teach biblical masculinity, when we teach biblical, biblical femininity, when we do these things, then we get a good culture because we're putting good stuff in, we get good stuff out. We get strong families, we get strong husbands, strong, mothers, strong, strong, marriages. We, get strong, children coming out of that. I mean, you get the right outputs if you put in the right inputs. And of course, that's what At the Core is all about, is bringing those core issues to light that will produce a good culture. All right, we gotta take a quick break. We'll be right back. One more interview today and you're gonna love it. Ryan Walters of Oklahoma, stay with us. You're listening to At the Core with Walker Wildmon.

>> Jeff Chamblee: At the Core podcasts are available@afr.net now back to At the Core on American Family Radio.

Rick Green: Ryan Walters of Oklahoma is revolutionizing education

>> Rick Green: Welcome back At the Core with Walker Wildmon and Rick Green. Thanks for staying with me today. Our final guest of the day is Ryan Walters of Oklahoma, Superintendent of Education up there, who has done just an amazing job, a bold leader doing the things we always talk about need to be done. He's actually doing it.

>> Rick Green: Ryan, you're a busy man. You are revolutionizing education right there in. The state of Oklahoma. And we're hoping people will listen today and push for the same thing to be done in their state. Thanks for some time today.

>> Ryan Walters: Hey, look, Rick, I appreciate it. I'm obviously a huge fan of yours, your good friend, and you know, we're trying all we can here in Oklahoma to take an education system that was run by teachers unions, radical leftists, bureaucracy, and turn it on its head and put it back in the charge of the parents, the parents, where God gave kids to parents, not to government, not to bureaucracy, not to teachers unions. And so we have really upset the apple cart here in Oklahoma. And look, I frankly think we've got a roadmap here for other states to follow.

>> Rick Green: Well, let's start with the Bible curriculum, because this one other states have noticed what you're doing there and even pass legislation in several states to go this direction. We've got, you know, efforts for time release and all that. But I mean, you've, you said, look, this should be taught as a history book, as a literature book. There's no reason to not have the Bible in schools. Talk about that one for a little.

>> Ryan Walters: Bit, you know, and thank you for that. And everything you just said is our position and it shouldn't be controversial. And a matter of fact, it wasn't controversial until we had a Supreme court in the 1960s say, we want to take the Bible out of school, we want to take prayer out of school. That was a radical position. So don't let the left gaslight all the conservatives out there to believing that somehow thinking that the most read book in American history, the most cited book in American history, the book that influenced not only government, obviously, but influenced our society. You can't hardly go a few blocks without noticing the impact that the church, the Bible has had in America and how absurd of a position we've allowed the leftists to take hold of, which is we should keep it out of schools. How do you learn American history without the Bible? How do you learn about literature and what books influence society without the Bible? And that's what I always told people. Oh, you want to take the Bible off? Okay, so if the Bible, the number one most influential, most read book in American history, doesn't meet the standard of what kids should be reading out of and understanding what book is going to meet that criteria. I mean, you just look at the absurdity of the position. But here's the reality. The left has done this intentionally because they don't want kids to know about the, the influence, Christianity and the Bible had in American history. They want our kids to believe that every founding father is this radical atheist, this secularist that hated religion. That's absurd. Right? So what we're doing is putting the Bible back in every classroom, putting the Bible back in our standards so that kids can understand the historical context, the role that it played throughout American history. Because again, if we're going to be this great country again, if we're going to continue to make America great again, we first have to understand what made America great in the place.

>> Rick Green: First.

>> Ryan Walters: First place. He had to study our history. And of Course, it would be absolutely malfeasance to not include the Bible in American history.

>> Rick Green: Man, I think you just gave the best summary on that that I've heard. I mean, that's. Yeah, we got. We got to get every state to do the exact same thing. What is the opposition? Where do they try to block you on this? Because, I mean, you have the authority to. To have this implemented in the school. So what are they trying to do to try to prevent you from doing that?

>> Ryan Walters: Great question. So let me walk you through kind of the opposition and what you'll face. Number one, you know, they do this whole. That's Christian nationalism. You're trying to force kids to be Christian. I go, guys, we're not forcing anyone, any religion on anyone. What we're doing is we're going back through American history. I once, I had a CNN host, Rick, we got into it, and she was like, well, I mean, I said, look, Thomas Jefferson said, we're endowed by our creator with certain alienable rights. Do you not think it's important for kids to understand? What did he mean by that, number one? Number two, how would the public at large have understood it? Right? Like, Americans reading that. What would they have thought. Thought at the time? How do you not. How do you teach that without understanding the Great Awakening, how people viewed our creator, God? What was the beliefs of the time? And I had a host say, well, how do you know he wasn't talking about, like, a Hindu God? And I sat there, Rick, and I was like, there is literally no one in the 18th century that was like, you know, Jefferson might be talking about Vishnu, you know, of the Hindu religion. Like, no, everyone knew exactly what he was talking about. But that shows you how ahistorical they are. So, number one, they try to push this. You're pushing religion. What we're doing is we're pushing an accurate view of American history so our kids can make decisions that will continue to make this a great country. And the second thing they've done is they've tried every way to tie this up in court. So I've been facing, multiple lawsuits on this. There's still one before our state Supreme Court. We just won a lawsuit on, the standards process. Again, we had the teachers union. I mean, they sued us every step of the way, and we feel very confident about every lawsuit. But you know, what happens with these lawsuits? You see with President Trump, it's Lawfare. What they want to do is they want to tie you up in court. They want to waste a ton of Money. They want to slow everything down to a crawl. And they hope to find one liberal judge who says, actually we will stop this from being implemented. Actually, we will rule, with these radicals. And right now we've been very successful. We've been able to move forward, but that's really kind of the stage that we have entered into is a lot of the legal aspect of it.

You are giving instruction to Oklahoma schools on how to deal with Israeli, Iran conflicts

>> Rick Green: Okay, Ryan, I want to ask you about a specific one that's happening right now. you are even giving instruction to the schools on how to deal with the, you know, Israeli, Iran conflict. This is interesting to me, the fact that you're able to deploy that quickly, real time information, to help with the education system to prevent the WOKE stuff from coming in, but also just to help teachers deal with the hot topics so that students aren't seeing school as this sterile. You know, it's all old stuff, but it's actually, education's real and it's real time. I love this. This is a totally new approach. What, what caused you to do that?

>> Ryan Walters: Well, number one, Rick, thank you for that. You know, I'm a history teacher. That's what I did for 10 years before stepping into this role. And you know, one of the things I always thought is, you know, how do you expect kids to understand history and understand that it actually, historical knowledge actually helps them develop ideas about visions for the future, things like that. If you avoid, you know, any of the touchy subjects, like, you've got to be able to dive in here and you got to be able to be driven by facts. Now I will tell you, the leftists are all about that. You know, they want to dive in and they want to tell you that Israelis are terrorists and that they stole the land and all this type of nonsense. So what we came in is, we said is, listen. We are going to actually have very specific facts in the standards that says, listen, when you teach about these conflicts, you're going to teach them in their historical context, you're going to teach them with historical relevancy and you're going to stick to the facts. We're not going to allow some teachers union, left wing activist to walk in the classroom and tell somebody and sound like AOC or something. They're not going to walk into a classroom and push that ideology on kids. And unfortunately, we've seen the rampant antisemitism in higher ed. So we know teachers may be coming to our state, they may be coming in the classroom, leaving Harvard or leaving some school that taught them that the Jews are terrible. That Jews, this anti Semitism. So we are going to make sure that they have the resources, the training and the direct guidance of how you will cover this subject. And we wanted that to be crystal clear. So we were able to deploy this. We have sent the memo out to the districts as well. Good, positive feedback. And look, the teachers unions don't like this because they want to propagate to kids, they want to lie to kids, they want to convince kids America and Israel are terrible places. We're the bad guys. We're not going to allow it here in Oklahoma. And frankly, every state should be doing this. You've got to protect our kids against this WOKE ideology. You're seeing it, you're hearing it, you're watching the teachers union, you know, marching with the no Kings protest, or watching them make all these comments against Israel, against any of our allies. We've got to stand firm and make sure the classroom isn't turning into a left wing indoctrination mill.

>> Rick Green: Bro, that is exactly the opposite of what I too often see. I mean, even here, where I'm living now, in Fredericksburg, Texas, we had a teacher that just simply showed the inauguration. I mean, she's literally just like you're saying, real time, this is what's going. On in the world. and got completely reprimanded for it as, as if by highlighting who's actually in office, somehow, you know, she was wrong for sharing that with the kids. So you're, you're doing the exact opposite of what the left wants done.

Ryan Walters says Oklahoma is working to provide a better teacher workforce

How hard is it for you right now as you look at the landscape of education in your state? This is somewhat off topic of what we planned for today, but you gotta be thinking about it. how hard is it to find teachers that aren't woke and educators and superintendents like, what, what are we doing to, to get back upstream and start providing a better teacher workforce that's not, you know, been, indoctrinated by these leftists.

>> Ryan Walters: Rick, I think that's, that's a very important question. And I want to say how we've tackled it, how we've solved it here. The first thing we did is we wanted to send a clear message to everyone. The teachers unions aren't in control anymore. Parents are. And we want great teachers. that's what we want. We want teachers. We're not going to allow indoctrination both from the teachers and your bosses. Your administrators are not going to force you to teach CRT like we had a district here. Your administrators are not Going to force you to teach gender dysphoria like we uncovered. We're not going to allow that. You're going to be able to teach math, okay? Not all the other nonsense. And by the way, if you do all the other nonsense, we're going to remove you from the classroom. So we sent a very clear message to every teacher in the state and every teacher who's thinking about teaching. This is what it's going to look like in Oklahoma. So that was huge. We had a lot of teachers that signed up who wanted to come in and teach because they saw what that vision was, number one. Number two, we also brought discipline back to the classroom. We said, listen, we're not going to do this, like, liberal woke nonsense of every. Everybody's a victim. It doesn't matter if they cuss you out or throw a stapler at you. Ms. Susie, you know, it's, it's really, you know, they're having a hard day, so just take it. No, no. We said if they're unruly kids and they're disrupting the classroom, get them out. Okay? We are going to allow discipline back in the classroom because kids should be able to learn. Boy, that got a lot of excitement around. Especially your old school teachers, your traditional value, your conservative teachers.

>> Rick Green: Yeah. Made them want to come back. Right? I mean, because so many of them left because of this crazy idea we're going to let a kid, even we were letting kids assault teachers and then putting them back into that same classroom with that teacher across this country. Insane.

>> Ryan Walters: Like, the first email I got from Joe Biden was, he was worried about how many kids we were disciplining in our schools, and he thought it was too. And I was just like, I sent him an email back and was basically like, pound sand. Who cares? Like, what are you talking about? We're going to have discipline in the classroom. Like, what a weird. You know, but they're just obsessed with that, right? They just have this, woke worldview that doesn't allow them to see reality. Listen, so we told our teachers, and by the way, if your administrators don't support you, we have, we passed a teacher's bill of Rights and we said, you email me and you tell me we'll investigate it. Your principals have to have your back. You're there to teach. They need to be helping create a culture, of discipline. And again, I'll say this, Rick. You look at society today, you look at how many young people go and burn down buildings, throw Molotov cocktails when they're upset about something. Hey, look, I think that starts from when you're 4 and 5 years old. You're in a classroom where they go, hey, you're not really responsible. You know, you cussed me out today, you hit me today. You're not. That's, that's baloney. We've got to drive that point home. If no, actually you're responsible for your own behavior. We've done it here in Oklahoma. Then the third thing we did, Rick, is we also said, hey, we're unapologetic. We want merit pay for teachers. We pay teachers on merit pay here. If you're great, hey, look, I'll pay you six figures. Hey, if you're one of the best science teachers in the state, I want you to make more money. And you know what? If you're not doing as good a job, I don't want you to make as much money. So what that has done too is we've been able to partner merit pay and signing bonuses for the top 1% of teachers in the country to say, come to Oklahoma. We will recognize that we will put you in the ability to teach well with the discipline and the anti woke standards we have in place. But also, like, you do a great job, we want to pay you more. This is going to be based on merit. And because of all that, we've had record levels of teacher recruitment. We've recruited hundreds of teachers every year through these specific programs. And they've come in and just been rock stars.

>> Rick Green: That is, I've said for 30 years, man. We treat these teachers like assembly line workers. And the best teacher gets paid the same as the worst teacher because of the teacher unions. Right? That's how they negotiate these contracts. The fact that you've been able to disrupt that, I mean, that's, that's incredible. I didn't even know that you had done that. I was just curious about that topic. And I'm sorry for sidetracking us there because I know we had a lot of other things we were going to get to at least.

People are trying to stop Oklahoma from opening a religious charter school

Can I ask you about, this charter school. It's a religious charter school. People are trying to stop that. What's the status of that and why are people against it?

>> Ryan Walters: Well, unfortunately, they have stopped it momentarily. the U.S. supreme Court gave us a 4, 4 ruling, which means it goes down to the previous decision. Amy Coney Barrett recused herself, which we're really disappointed in, but that left us with a 4, 4 tie. so right now the school is not open. It's really unfortunate. And look, just to be frank, it's really unfortunate. Our own attorney general in the state was the one fighting us in court. So our own Republican Attorney general, Gettner Drummond, sided with the Satanists, the atheists, the teachers unions, against the Catholic Church, against the Christian parents, against the parents across the state, who said, hey, look, this sounds like a great option to me. We know that this. Catholic schools have been very successful in the past, so we want to check out this opportunity. So that's where we are now. Look, we're not giving up. There's several options that we're going to continue to pursue. We hope to get a court case back up. We, hope to rejuvenate this. But we are going to continue to fight here in Oklahoma for our education system to, number one, have school choice, and number two, to protect your religious liberty. We're not going to tell a school you can't open because your founders are Catholic, because they are Christian. That's ultimately what happened here. The court said they met every criteria. There was no issue with their application. There's no issue with what they want to teach. They meet every, every iota of the law, but because they are Catholic, we're not going to let them. That's absurd to me. That's anthem.

>> Rick Green: I mean, that sounds like complete discrimination to me. I mean, complete religious discrimination.

>> Ryan Walters: Kavanaugh said in the. In the. In the hearing, he said that there's no other way to explain it other than blatant discrimination. There's. There's no other explanation. You're not even claiming it was for something else? Well, or technically. No, no. They are saying because of your. You did. You met every bit of the criteria, but because you're Catholic, you can't do it. So I think.

>> Rick Green: How'd they get forwarded? Did Roberts go with him? Of course.

>> Ryan Walters: So, unfortunately, I can speculate, but they won't release it because they. Because it was. Oh, they don't.

>> Rick Green: They haven't even said who the 44 is. Wow. Man. Oh, bro, we got to do this again.

>> Rick Green: This is exactly the type of leadership that we've been asking for in all of our states. I, mean, we're getting it at the federal level to some extent. I mean, obviously, Donald Trump doing everything he can and just taking a. I mean, a buzzsaw to the federal overreach. There's, doing the altering and abolishing that we talk about in our Rebuilding Liberty course, which, if you haven't taken that yet, you need to get in our national class we're doing Monday nights together. Go to patriotacademy.com it's not too late to sign up. We'll be doing week three next Monday and you're welcome to join in at that point, it's free. And then get ready to host the class in your home or at your church or somewhere in your community. We need thousands and thousands of coaches to do this at the, at the local level or host, if you will. anyway, the point is we teach in there out of the Declaration of Independence, where Jefferson said, when any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it. Well, that's exactly what Ryan's doing in Oklahoma. It's exactly what Donald Trump is doing at the federal level, altering our government back to where it needs to be, abolishing those parts of our government that shouldn't even have been there in the first place. But certainly if they're not working, get rid of them. that's what's happening. And so to have bold leaders at both the federal level and the state level gives us the opportunity to take advantage of this window that's been open to us to restore liberty, to rebuild liberty, to really reset the table to a system that works well and that means everything from education to literally the elections and how they work. I mean, all of these pieces of the puzzle. There's so much you can be working on. And by the way, in rebuilding Liberty, we give you 12 options of things that you can do a 12 step or recovery program, but you only got to do one of them. So make sure that you get involved in that class. Go to patriotacademy.com today. Once again, if you want to help with the flood victims in the, Hill country there you can donate at Patriot Academy. 100% of that is going to put, you know, gas in the, in the, chainsaws and diesel and the skid steers and all the stuff that we're doing to help clean up and, and everything else. I really appreciate you listening today. You've been listening to at the cor.

>> Jeff Chamblee: The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio.