“No matter what happens in American politically… our job is to serve God and serve our fellow man, regardless of those outer circumstances.”
Rick Green
Yvette Hampton recently sat down for a thought-provoking conversation with “America’s Constitution Coach” Rick Green, which challenges common misconceptions surrounding Christians’ role in society, advocating for active engagement in the civic process, from the local level to the federal level. With thought-provoking insights and a passion for preserving liberty, Rick’s words resonate deeply, offering hope and inspiration for families who want to preserve our republic.
A Critical Misunderstanding:
One of the key mistakes that many citizens believe is that that Christians should stay out of fights in the political and cultural arenas. Rick firmly believes that this mindset is flawed, emphasizing that Christians should be willing to fight, engage, and even stand in protest when necessary. He draws from Jesus’ own example, recalling the powerful image of Him fashioning a whip and driving the money changers out of the temple.
Rick expands on this idea, stating, “I don’t advocate violence, but I do advocate for civil disobedience, at times, and saying no to the government when it infringes on our God-given rights. It’s a way to actively participate in the political process and protect our liberties.”
“We are at war in our culture, intellectually at war for the heart and soul of our children and for the heart and soul of the future of the country. And if we’re not willing to scratch and claw and show up and protest and show up and march and show up and testify and do those kind of things, the other side is going to run over us.”
Rick Green
Empowering Change through Political Involvement:
Rick urges christians to be actively involved in political processes strating at the local level, as this grants individuals a say in selecting party leaders who ultimately shape state and federal legislation. He encourages engagement through avenues such as becoming a precinct delegate or volunteering for political candidates. Green believes that through participation in the political process, Christians fulfill their responsibilities as citizens and can positively influence the nation’s direction.
“It is our duty as citizens to engage in the political process,” Green says. “God has provided all the necessary knowledge through His Word. It’s up to us to act on it and affect change.”
Dissecting the “Salt and Light” Argument:
Another common misconception is that Christian parents shouldn’t abandon the public schools, thus removing the positive influence of their children on their peers. Rick believes that sacrificing your children’s spiritual and academic education in public schools as a means to be “salt and light” to your neighbors is a losing strategy. He states, “It’s foolish to believe that children can adequately stand up against teachers promoting secularism and harmful ideologies. We should not sacrifice our children’s education for the sake of being ‘nice’ to our neighbors.”
Green challenges the assumption that removing children from public schools relinquishes the opportunity to evangelize in those environments. He compares the importance of defending a child’s education to the concept of self-defense, stating, “Just as we physically defend our family, we should also defend our children’s education. It’s about being wise, not simplistic.” By protecting and properly training our children while they are young we greatly improve their ability to mature into godly adults and faithful witnesses who can be effective evangelists.
“Everybody, every citizen of the United States should see behind the curtain, peek behind the curtain and see inside the belly of the beast and see how a constitutional republic actually works.”
Rick Green
A Vibrant Hope for the Future:
Throughout the interview, Rick continuously emphasized the importance of hope, community, and actively shaping the future through civic engagement. He recognizes that the homeschool movement plays a pivotal role in safeguarding liberty. A homeschool graduate himself, he stated, “I am inspired by families like yours, who not only homeschool their children but also share their knowledge, inspiring others. You are a force multiplier in our efforts to save the country and protect the Constitution.”
His message revolves around the idea of building a hopeful future where liberty is preseved. While acknowledging the challenges we currently face, Rick encourages action, urging individuals to work today, to ensure a brighter tomorrow for future generations. He reminds us that hope is indeed alive when we passionately contribute to our communities and embrace the responsibility that comes with citizenship. Join the conversation and be inspired to make a profound impact for liberty and the preservation of God-given rights.
Rick Green is a former Texas State Representative, national speaker, author, and radio host. He travels the nation speaking for David Barton’s WallBuilders organization and Rick and David co-host the national daily radio program, WallBuilders Live! He is the author and executive producer of Constitution Alive! and the founder and president of Patriot Academy, which trains young leaders in founding principles as they participate in mock legislative sessions, held in state capitols across the nation. He and his wife, Kara, have four kids.
More from Rick Green:
Watch Rick’s session from the 2020 Homegrown Generation Family Expo, “Teaching the Constitution.”
❤️ ❤️ ❤️ Are you in need of a fresh vision for your homeschool? Join us for 4 days of Homeschool Encouragement at the Homegrown Generation Family Expo. Registration includes instant access to all of the sessions from the 2023 and 2020 conferences. Visit the show notes from any recent episode of the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast for a coupon code to save 25% on registration!
Recommended Resources:
Biblical Citizenship In Modern America
Constitution Alive: A Citizen’s Guide to the Constitution
📚📖 Ready to start homeschooling? Download your free Homeschool Survival Kit today!
🍿Stream Schoolhouse Rocked: The Homeschool Revolution for FREE today!
The American Story – Tim Barton on the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast
Education, Culture, and Truth: Preparing Kids for Battle – Tim Barton, Part 1
Training Up a Courageous Generation – Tim Barton, Part 2
Taking Action: Educating for the Culture War – Tim Barton, Part 3
Discussion Questions:
- How do you interpret Rick’s view on Christians engaging in protests and civil disobedience? Do you agree or disagree with his stance? Why?
- In what ways do you think being involved in local political parties can influence state legislation? How can individuals effectively engage in this process?
- Rick emphasizes the importance of participating in the political process as part of citizenship. Do you believe this is a responsibility of all citizens? Why or why not?
- The idea of being “salt and light” is discussed in relation to homeschooling. How do you interpret this concept? Do you think it applies to the education choices parents make for their children?
- Rick believes that homeschooling can play a determining role in America’s future. What are your thoughts on this? Do you believe homeschooling has the potential to significantly impact society?
- Rick argues that neglecting the precepts of the Bible leads to negative consequences in society. Do you agree with this view? How do you see the Bible’s precepts influencing society?
- Rick emphasizes the importance of understanding the legislative process and being informed before voting for legislators. Do you believe this level of understanding is necessary for effective citizenship? Why or why not?
Read the full transcript here:
Yvette Hampton:
Hey, everyone, this is Yvette Hampton. Welcome back to the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast. This week, we have another replay from the Homegrown Generation Family Expo. This one is the session I did with Rick Green. And if you guys missed it, oh, man, this was one of the best sessions that we did that week. Well, they were all really good, but this one was really good because it was called Hope is Alive. And in this episode, Rick is talking about practical ways to restore families. The church and our is just if you’ve not listened to Rick, he is one of those people who is so energetic and just exudes the love of Jesus, and he has so much hope, and he passes that hope on to us.
Yvette Hampton:
And we need that hope in the world in which we’re living. So I know you’re going to be encouraged by it. If you listened to this already through the Homegrown Generation Family Expo, I know you’re going to enjoy listening to it once again, because that was several months ago, so be encouraged by it once again. If you missed the Homegrown Generation Family Expo, it was our online conference that we did back in April, and you still can have full access to that conference. Just go to Homegrowngeneration.com, and for $15, you can sign up and have access to the entire conference as well as the conference we did back in 2020. And the one that we did in 2020 had an incredible lineup of speakers as well. So homegrowngeneration.com now. Enjoy this message from Rick Green.
Yvette Hampton:
Every time I think of what’s going on in the world around us, it can get so overwhelming. And I feel like, for myself, over the past three years, it’s gotten even more overwhelming with COVID and just the election and all that’s happened. And it’s so easy to despair. And when I think of bringing hope, if anyone can do that, it is you. And you always bring it from a biblical perspective. And so, Rick, introduce yourself and your family to us and your ministry and tell us what it is that you do.
Well, thanks for the invite. I’d go anywhere with the Hamptons, whether that’s Georgia or Oklahoma or wherever else in the country. So always good to be with you. I love you guys and all that you’re doing. I tend to be optimistic by nature. And so for me, looking at, like you’re saying the last few years and just the chaos and the destruction of the culture, you cannot deny that as you look around, the American culture is crumbling. I mean, that’s just the truth. That’s where we are.
Rick Green:
But even in the midst of that, we can look at that. And this is what the world doesn’t understand. We can look at that. We can even look at the evil that in the country. Right. A lot of the stuff that’s happening to children and the things that they’re doing, you can even look at that evil. And you can be righteously angry while at the same time having joy. Now, that seems weird, like crazy psychopathic to some people, but to us, as believers, we have to be that way.
Rick Green:
We’re commanded to be that way. We’re told in James, count it all joy when you experience various trials. Why? Because God’s using those trials to make you perfect and complete, lacking nothing. He’s using it to create perseverance in you. And so even as the country is facing real challenges, in fact, I was going to jokingly start off by saying, it’s all over. Forget it. Grab your guns. Can food, go hide out at the ranch.
Rick Green:
I mean, that’s how some people do it, right? That’s how they feel about what’s going on. They depress everybody. They can light up the room by leaving. That’s not how we want to be, and in fact, that’s not how we should be. We’re facing very difficult times, and we have a choice. We can be like the ten spies that came back with a negative report from the Promised Land and said, the giants are too big, the cities are too fortified, we can’t possibly win. Bible tells us they depressed an entire generation that had to then die in the wilderness. What a horrible result.
Rick Green:
But there were two other guys. We all know. We remember their names. We couldn’t name any of the other ten, but we know Joshua and Caleb, because Joshua and Caleb came back and said, yeah, it’s going to be hard. Yeah. Huge giants, fortified cities. It’s going to be very difficult. But God’s given us the land.
Rick Green:
Let’s go take the land. And that’s our approach. I think that’s the attitude we should have and I will have. Even if we don’t win. I can’t promise everybody we’re going to save America. We’re going to prevent the left from taking over. What I can promise you is that if we do our duty, god will take care of the results, whatever they may be, and he knows the plans he has for us. We love that Jeremiah verse.
Rick Green:
We all have it on a pillow or a coffee mug or something around our house. But we forget they were marching off to 70 years of captivity when he told them that. And he said, build your houses, marry your wives, plant your gardens, all of those things. So no matter what happens in American politically, and, you know, I’ve devoted my life to influencing that realm, that’s our mission field, is how the community is formed. But no matter what happens there, we can be joyful in knowing that God’s still in control and that our job is to serve Him and serve our fellow man, regardless of those outer circumstances. What makes our role so fun and exciting, what makes the homeschool movement so important right now, is that we don’t just get to live and exist in this. We get to be the deciding factor, I think, on whether America falls into Tyranny or comes back to liberty. We’re teetering between the two.
Rick Green:
What a wonderful time to be alive. We don’t live in pale and timid times, as you know. It’s not pale pastels. We have bold colors. We can paint in bold colors, and we can have a huge impact on what’s happening. So that’s a really long intro, really long answer to your question. But we’re blessed, man. I just think we’re still the most blessed nation in the history of the world.
Rick Green:
We still have all the best foundations that any nation has ever had. It’s just that we’ve neglected tending the garden. We haven’t taken care of what God gave us, and I think people are waking up to that. I think all the bad that’s happened has created a window of opportunity where more people are paying attention than ever before. And more people are here. My Lord. Send me. I don’t want my kids to live in Tyranny.
Rick Green:
Tell me what to do. And so let’s take advantage of that opportunity.
Yvette Hampton:
Amen. And you homeschooled all of your kids?
Rick Green:
Yeah, I was home schooled myself. I forget to always start with that. I was home schooled back when you didn’t answer the front door. We hid under the bed when somebody knocked on the door. I can remember watching my pastor, I was probably eleven years old, watching my pastor on the news being threatened because he was being threatened with jail because so many out of the church were homeschooling and just crazy, crazy stuff, right. And then when we had our kids, our first kid is named Trey. And when he was about five years old, my wife, who was not homeschool, she did public and private school, and I actually did all three. I spent a few years in private school, and I ended up coming back to home school, finished all of my education at like 15.
Rick Green:
And so then I went to the local public high school so that I could play baseball and do debate, and I had to do high school again. So it was like anyway, it was crazy. But my wife did mostly private school and public school. And so when we had Trey and it was time for him to supposedly be handed off to the educators down the street, the Lord just really spoke to her and said, it’s not time for you to let go of your son. It’s time for you to lean in. This is where you get to do even more. So she’s the one that made the initial decision that, hey, I believe we need to do this. Of course I loved it.
Rick Green:
I was already a champion for homeschooling in the Texas legislature at the time. We have so loved our chance to homeschool. We’ve gotten to take our kids all over the country. They’ve been in almost every state, been to almost every baseball park, battlefield museum homeschooling gives you so much freedom, let alone the time you get with them. So for us, it’s been absolutely outstanding. And I’m thrilled that homeschooling, depending on the study you look at, doubling, tripling, wonderful, wonderful to see that happen in American.
Yvette Hampton:
Yeah, it is amazing because you are on the front lines of this battle. And let me just back up really quickly, rick, you know this, but I’ll tell our audience, you hold such a special place in our family specifically for our decision to homeschool. Because almost 13 years ago, if you can believe, we went to our very first homeschool convention. It was when Brooklyn was four and we had said we’d never homeschool. We didn’t understand it. We believed all the misconceptions, all the negative stereotypes, and we said, we will never do this. And by God’s grace, some friends invited us to a homeschool convention in Los Angeles, which is where we lived at the time. And Rick was the keynote speaker that year.
Yvette Hampton:
And I don’t remember if it was Trey or Reagan who was up on stage with you. So 13 years ago, I don’t know, they were about probably Reagan, because I think he was about ten.
Rick Green:
He would have been ten then. Yeah.
Yvette Hampton:
And he went up on stage and he was reciting things and that was cool. But more importantly than that was you as the keynote speaker. And just the truth that you spoke from that stage just moved us in an incredible way. And we came out of that convention completely changed. It was literally like the scales fell from our eyes and we said, this is what we’re going to do. We’re not going to just try it for a year. This is our family and we’re scared to death and we have no idea what we’re doing. And we were in it, but we trusted that the Lord was going to get us through it.
Yvette Hampton:
Now here we are, twelve years later, still doing this, and by God’s grace, he used you to really impact us. And I know he’s used you to impact so many people, not just in homeschooling, but in our nation as well. And so I want to talk about our nation, talk about our freedom.
Rick Green:
If I could interrupt you just for a second because I want to say listen, the coolest thing about that is how much now you are inspiring so many families to homeschool and not just inspiring them, but equipping them. The things that you all are doing as a family is your true force multiplier. So when I’m out there talking about saving the country and the Constitution and all that, I’m always using that word force multiplier and encouraging people, or that phrase and encouraging people to do that. You guys are actually doing that. I mean, you are such a good example of not just being blessed by the freedom that we have and being able to homeschool, but then turning around and using that and multiplying it just like in the parable, the talent. So well done, man. I’m so thankful for what you all are doing.
Yvette Hampton:
Thank you for saying that. It is truly all by the grace of God. And you know that it’s not easy, but Kit is fun because we’re doing what the Lord’s called us to do, and so it is truly a blessing.
Rick Green:
You’re like Eric Lidell. You know, the Olympian that said, when I run, I feel God’s pleasure. You’re running? Where God? In the lane. God wants you. And I love it. I love it.
Yvette Hampton:
Yeah. And everybody has a lane. It’s not that your lane has to be that’s right. Homeschool leadership. We talked about this in one of our sessions today. It could be changing diapers and speaking the truth of God’s word into the ears of your babies.
Rick Green:
Amen.
Yvette Hampton:
It can be anything, however God chooses to use you. It’s just, for whatever reason, I’ve often asked why he’s chosen us to do this. And it is truly a privilege to serve Him in whatever aspect he has opened up for. Yeah. It’s exciting to do his work. We are on a battlefield that is fierce every day. When you open up the news, when you read posts on Facebook, when you just see what’s going on around us. Anyone who doesn’t think that we’re in a battle, their head is buried in the sand on purpose.
Yvette Hampton:
They are purposely ignoring what’s going on around us. But anyone who’s looking around is going, you know that there’s just something not right. Something not right about our culture, something not right about the sin in the world that is being celebrated. And so our job as parents is to equip our kids to fight for Team Jesus. We keep talking about know, Jesus is the team captain. We’re on his team and we need to be fighting on this team. But we have to be equipped in order to be able to do that. And we have to have the hope of knowing that our team is going to win.
Yvette Hampton:
And so the good news is we know how it ends, right? We’ve read Revelation. We know how this fight ends. But, Rick, how do we get there? And let’s talk specifically about us as a culture and as a nation. How do we equip our kids to fight this fight on this battlefield? How do we give them hope and how do we ourselves have hope to be able to fight this?
Rick Green:
Yeah. The first thing I’d say is exactly just to repeat a little bit of what you just said. We face a fierce battle. We cannot be naive or Pollyanna about what’s happening in the country. There are evil. There are forces of evil that want your children. It’s that bad. They want to destroy your family.
Rick Green:
They want to destroy our country. And they are winning. They are winning the culture war. At least they have been I believe we’ve stopped them in their tracks and I think we have a chance to push them back. But they have been winning for a while and these are people that want to I mean, let’s be blunt, mutilate your kids, change your kids value system. They want to steal your children for the enemy and they are doing it to families all over the nation. And they now hold this is the bad part. They hold the levers on virtually every power switch in the country.
Rick Green:
In other words, they control the institutions of America. They control education completely other than homeschooling. They control government at virtually every level, state and federal, definitely within the agencies and kind of what we would call the swamp. It’s the nebulous bureaucracies where these are unelected people but they can harass you at any moment, right? They control that. They control entertainment. They control journalism. They control the media. And I don’t say that to depress anybody at all.
Rick Green:
Eyes wide open. This is where we are. This is what we face. These are the giants in the land that we are facing. And so then we look at that and we have a choice. We can either put our head in the sand like you said and just say, well, I don’t even want to think about it. I’m just going to look inside only my four walls and not look outside. The problem is they won’t leave you alone.
Rick Green:
They will come within your four walls. And so we can no longer be proverbs 20 712 says the wise person foresees danger and takes precaution. The simpleton or the fool walks blindly on and suffers the consequences. In many ways, we as the church have been the simpleton. We have walked and enjoyed the blessings of liberty. We’ve been able to just do whatever we wanted, enjoy our freedom, worship as we choose. Nobody challenged any of that. And so we got kind of spoiled about it and we didn’t have to fight for it.
Rick Green:
Very few people in this country have had to fight for the liberty that we enjoy today. And so by being the simpleton, now we’re suffering the consequences. The culture is crumbling, as we said, around us. So now we have a chance to become the wise person and take precaution. And the number one precaution, the number one responsibility we all have is for our own kids and our own family. And that’s why getting your kid out of a system that’s poisoning them and trying to literally steal them from you and into a system where everything you believe can be reinforced and your kid is given the best chance possible for success in life, for joy in life, for a relationship with the Lord, all of those things. That’s why I’m such an advocate for. And not only we homeschool our four kids all the way through, but why I want as many people as possible to do the exact same thing.
Rick Green:
So we’re very passionate about that. So that’s number one. But you have to go beyond that because otherwise you won’t have the freedom to even do that. And some of our viewers today are probably in states where they have far less freedoms than you have in Oklahoma and I have in Texas with regard to homeschooling their kids. And they have to deal with a lot more hoops or regulations or whatever. And trust me, anybody watching today, in any state in the United States at any time, any state legislature could come after you, and they could try to outlaw or could outlaw homeschooling or create all kinds of hurdles. The federal government could try to do it. I mean, we’re at a time where you have to be vigilant and be involved to prevent that stuff from happening.
Rick Green:
Thankfully, in almost every state, we have really good homeschool associations that are constantly watching those bills, constantly involved in getting people elected to the legislature so that there’s champions in the legislature watching those bills and preventing that kind of thing from happening. So we cannot I guess it’s a really long answer to your question, is that we must, eyes wide open, look at the challenge, realize it’s there, we cannot ignore it. We cannot sit on the sideline. We absolutely should not get depressed and give up and say, well, that’s too big. I can’t change it or it’s going to take too long. Have to have a generational view. It’s not going to change overnight. I think I say this all the time.
Rick Green:
I think we’re in for it’s going to get even worse before it gets better because it’s garbage in, garbage out. We’re living with the consequences of those bad decisions for decades and decades. And so what do we do now? We start putting the good stuff in so that five years from now, ten years from now, 20 years from now, maybe even when you and I are dead and gone, our kids can enjoy the benefit, right? And like you said in Revelation, we know who wins, but we don’t know when they win. We don’t know when Jesus is coming back. Every generation thought he was coming back and their know. And so it’d be much easier for me to get on here tonight or today and say, you know what, hope is alive because Jesus is going to come back and take us all to heaven. So everybody just go hide in your basement and don’t worry, the Lord’s going to take that’d be a whole lot easier, right? Or he’s coming back next year. And how many times has some evangelists claimed they knew exactly when Jesus was coming back? Nobody knows.
Rick Green:
Jesus said no man knows today. So it may be 100 years, it may be two weeks from now. It may be another thousand years. All I know is he told me to occupy until he returns. He told us to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and Caesar in our nation is us. We are looking at Caesar right now. And so he’s given us everything we need in a free society to influence the culture around us in a positive way. But if the salt stays in the shaker, the culture rots, the meat rots.
Rick Green:
If the salt’s not there, the meat spoils. If the salt’s there, not only is the meat preserved, but it tastes better. It brings out the best flavor, and not just for the Christians, but everybody in the community. That’s the beauty of Christian influence in a culture. The Muslim benefits, the atheist benefits, everybody that lives in that society benefits. If we’re being true, salt and light and so on one hand, it’s bad and we need to recognize that. On the other hand, we have what we need to fight. We have what we need to invest in our freedom and our liberty and our family.
Rick Green:
Whether or not what the outcome is going to be that we don’t get to know, right? Duty is ours. Results are God’s. But I see a lot of good results already happening. I think this window we’re in where more people are paying attention than ever before is a beautiful time to be alive. And a lot of the people that are doing your conference are first time homeschoolers, first time maybe even really around crazy faith people like us, right? They’re going, well, what is this joy these people have? Something’s wrong with them. Well, that’s the joy of the Lord. And that’s the other thing, is just knowing that our hope. When we say hope is alive, we don’t have hope in a presidential candidate, we don’t have hope in a political party.
Rick Green:
Our hope is in whose we are, not where we are. And the fact that we know his principles don’t change. That’s why I can confidently go talk to a group of legislators and say, here’s a policy that if you pass this, it’s going to be good for the neighborhood, good for the culture, good for the society, because it’s proven to us throughout history. Our hope is in the fact that his principles work the laws of nature, and nature is God, as they said in the Declaration of Independence. It’s a proven set of not just freedom principles, but biblical freedom principles that produce incredible results. And so we can have hope in knowing God’s still in charge. His principles haven’t changed. And if we’ll implement them, we can get some good results, right?
Yvette Hampton:
And he gives us all that we need to know through his word. It’s not a secret. He hasn’t hidden it from us. I want to back up really quickly because you were talking about being salt, being salt and light, right? And as you know, that’s one of the arguments that so many people use. I know recently there was someone on, I want to say, Jen Wilkins surname, something like that, from gospel Coalition, and she was talking about how people need to have their kids in the public school because they need to be they need to love their neighbors. I don’t think she went down the salt and light road, but she said we need to love our neighbors. And so people will pull that into the reasoning for not homeschooling. We have to have our kids in the public schools because they have to be salt and light and we need to love our neighbors.
Yvette Hampton:
Speak on that for a minute. Why don’t we put our kids in public school to be salt and light there?
Rick Green:
Yeah, well, first of all, to your point about all the answers being in the Bible, I just want to make sure we emphasize that the number one thing you can do to save freedom, to save our country, is being God’s word. Because without the truth, we lose. And 9% of Christians are in God’s word every day, so that means 91% aren’t. So we’ve got a lot of work to do there for all of us. All of us. I need to do more. I need to be there more. That’s where the answers are.
Rick Green:
And man, I could give you a million Founding Father’s quotes on that and why the Bible itself creates a good society. And when we neglect the precepts of the Bible, we get crime and slavery and war and all those things. When we follow the precepts of the Bible, we get a whole lot less of all of those things. So I just wanted to the most important thing, if anybody takes away from this, if they want to have hope and enjoy freedom, be in God’s word, everything else will flow out of that. But yeah, I heard this and I thought, when did we decide that sacrificing our kids, sending a ten year old into the lion’s den to defend the culture of the society or to be the salt and light made any sense? Or an eight year old. Frankly, even a 15 year old these days, with what’s going on in our high schools in America, of course, we’re supposed to be salt and light and we’re supposed to go out into the world and witness and share and be in that arena in the world, but out of the world. All that good stuff. That’s culturally and as a family.
Rick Green:
That does not mean sending off your eight or ten year old and hoping that they can stand up against a 40 year old teacher that is trying to convert them to a completely secular mindset and to evil ideas about sexuality and everything else. I heard about this and I thought, how simplistic, how foolish can somebody be to put a guilt trip on Christians to think that they’re supposed to sacrifice their children on the altar of being nice to the neighbor. I was greatly offended in that. And I shouldn’t say that because I didn’t listen to the whole podcast, but I have heard this for years and years and years. I’m not supposed to pull my kids out because then who else would? Evangelize at the school. And I’m thinking we do a lot of self defense training, as you know, and teach people how to physically defend your family as well. And not only in this culture, but in any culture, you’re going to have crime. And that’s, again, not being the simpleton, being the wise person.
Rick Green:
And one of our things that we teach is, I’m not going to let my house burn down to save yours. In other words, you put the mask on yourself first before you try to save the children. I hate even thinking about put the mask on. You know how much of an anti masker I am. But the oxygen mask, let me be clear on the airplane before you go to the next person. And it’s the same thing here. We’re to raise our warriors, our family. And some people watching their kid at 18 might be ready to go off to a university and be ready to defend the faith.
Rick Green:
But honestly, these days, I got one kid that did secular university so far. And first he did Liberty, did his undergrad. You know, Trey, he did his undergrad at 17 years old. He had his bachelor’s in economics, but then he did a Master’s at Texas A and M. First borns are like this a lot. I mean, I had no concern with nobody was going to influence him. He was going to influence them. But that’s rare.
Rick Green:
That’s really rare. And I think parents have to be ultra careful about those college decisions because this was a master’s degree, it was very different. He’s only there a couple of hours and he was totally different situation, but mostly in an undergraduate degree. You’re talking about sending them there for four or five years where it’s not just the professors that are so usually arrogant and woke and condescending and all that. It’s the atmosphere, it’s all of those things. And you’re asking your kid to stand against that. I think that’s a rare scenario where a kid is ready for that kind of thing. And that’s why I’m not a big fan of college anyway.
Rick Green:
There’s only a few degrees that I think are worth going and getting.
Yvette Hampton:
But anyway, just had this conversation with Israel Wayne earlier today, and he said the exact same thing.
Rick Green:
So if you guys we’re usually on the same page.
Yvette Hampton:
I’m sure there are some parents who are shaking their heads going, what are you talking about? Our kids shouldn’t go to college. It’s a new day, people. If you haven’t figured that out yet, and let me tell you, we have a 17 year old and we’re starting to figure out pray through what the Lord has for her after high school. And I won’t say it’s scary, but you have to be so intentional about helping. Guide your kids to what the next step is because it can make or break them. Don’t think that just because you’ve had them in church or because you’ve homeschooled them or anything that they’re strong enough. They’re still being influenced by the culture around them.
Rick Green:
Depending on the polling that you look at, it’s around 80% that walk away from the right. Do you really want to play Russian roulette with your kids value system and world with their souls and their souls? Exactly. I’ve been saying this for a while. Defund the left by defunding the universities. They are at the heart of the destruction of the country. Most of it has come from the universities, and we’ve paid for it. We’ve given our tax dollars and for most families, our money. So that either when we went and got our degree or when our kids went and got their degree.
Rick Green:
So of my four, I think that’s it. I don’t think the next three are going to do aby college degree at all. They may do an online degree with liberty or something like that, but you said it, it’s a new world. It doesn’t have the value. I mean, that piece of paper on the wall does not have the value that it used to have. I tell you, for our kids, all three of my younger kids have done a one year gap program with a great church up in Hot Springs, Arkansas. And that did far more for them than four years on a college campus would have ever done. Life skills, camaraderie, community service, really being servant leaders and having the chance to serve in that church, just phenomenal.
Rick Green:
And we’re going to create our program. Patriot Academy’s campus in Fredericksburg will be a one year program. I think that’s going to become the model. I think these kind of programs are going to crop up all over the nation. And even some Christian colleges I think, eventually will figure out. We need to offer programs like that where you’re not committed to four years on that campus for a degree that two thirds of college graduates do not use the degree that they paid $100,000 or however much it is. So I think colleges will eventually figure this out, too. So I think the market is going to start going in the right direction, but guess what? We’re the consumers, so we get to push it in the right direction.
Yvette Hampton:
Parents right.
Rick Green:
Don’t waste your money on Charlie Kirk’s book. What is it? College scam or whatever it’s called. He’s right on. It’s an absolute scam anyway.
Yvette Hampton:
Okay, sorry. And not only are they often not going to use the degrees that they’ve paid all the money for, but they now have $100,000 or $200,000 in debt that they’re trying to pay off.
Rick Green:
One of the things culturally that are problems that that creates they wait to get married. They’re trying to get that paid off, or they’re trying to do this and then if they’re in their late 20s, early 30s, before they get so they’re putting off life, I’m like, hey, get married, start life. Go do the life together. I’m big on that. I’m thinking about buying Patriotsonly.com and pushing for more marriages in the homeschool community. I’m kidding on that part. But seriously, it’s like 100,000 in debt, and you’re going to start your life with that for a degree you didn’t even need. What if you spent three years being an apprentice? If you want to go into the movie business, go spend time with Garrett Yvette and carry around camera equipment and watch how it’s done, and then you get to go.
Rick Green:
I mean, that to me is way more valuable than going and getting an AV degree or whatever they call the these days, audiovisual television. I forget what they call the oh, yeah. You know what I mean? It’s like, go do it. Instead of studying about how to do it, actually do it. That’s how. If I was a lawyer, I’m a lawyer, but if I was a lawyer in the founding era, I wouldn’t have spent three years on a college campus listening to some professor. I would have gone and been sitting next to a lawyer reading law books and going to court with them and learning how to be a good lawyer. That’s really way more valuable.
Yvette Hampton:
Let’s talk about some very practical ways that we can help our kids to learn how to become freedom fighters. I was telling you before we came on Live that my oldest last week, she spent a week at the Capitol Building here in Oklahoma, and she served alongside of one of our senators who is a Christian homeschool graduate, which is so cool. And she got to really see the inner workings of how our government works and how our state government works. And it was really a neat opportunity for her. And it was so interesting when she came home and she was talking about just all the amazing things that she learned. And while she was there, there was a protest. There was a bill that was being considered and voted on, and it was for transitioning kids, for transgender, allowing kids to transition. And so they had a group of people who were there at the Capitol that the kids got to see them who were there, and the were marching around, and they were screaming, and she said there was no violence, but they were rightfully there fighting for their side.
Yvette Hampton:
And I see this happening over and over again where the left and the woke are fighting. I mean, they’re pouring millions and millions of dollars. They have people on the front lines who are fighting for this battle. And then you’ve got the Christians, many who are fighting and wanting to fight, but we’re like, we don’t know how. We don’t know where to go. We don’t know what to do. So give us some very practical ways that we as homeschool parents. You’re talking to the typical homeschool mom who’s got maybe elementary, middle school, and high school kid at home maybe doesn’t know very much at all about politics or about culture and what’s going on.
Yvette Hampton:
She knows that there’s something wrong. How do we as just your average homeschool parent get involved and engage in this?
Rick Green:
Know, first of all, I want to say that what your daughter experienced, everyone should experience. Everybody, every citizen of the United States should see behind the curtain, peek behind the curtain and see inside the belly of the beast and see how a constitutional republic actually works. If we’re going to vote for people to go make laws for us, we should know how that process works, first of all. Second of all, it’ll make you better at talking to your legislator if you’ve done that. And that’s part of what we’re doing with the campus is we’re creating this patriot experience where you come in, bring the whole family for a week, you do a gun class if you want to do self defense. You do a constitution class in Independence Hall. But you actually serve as a legislator for a couple of days, and you get the chance to be the person trying to pass a bill and understand that process. I just think we’ve lost that.
Rick Green:
We don’t understand civics. We don’t teach civics. We’ve got to get better at that. And I think hands on is the best way to do it. So we’re going to be doing more and more to make that possible. To your point about how the left is, and I say it this way, they’ve been in the trenches, scratching and chasing for decades, right? They’ve been at this for 80 years, trying to shift America into this socialist utopia. If I could pick on use your shirt a little bit. So they’ve been willing to fight while we’ve been playing tiddly winks or just like we said, enjoying the blessings of liberty, but not in the fight, not paying attention.
Rick Green:
Part of the problem is there’s unfortunately popular sort of narrative in the Christian community that we shouldn’t do those things right, that we’re just supposed to be nice, romans 13, obey whatever the government says, all of that stuff. And there’s really a mentality that to fight back is wrong. Somehow we’re supposed to turn the other cheek in every situation, and that even includes with all of these cultural things. And I’ve never understood that. I mean, if you’re a follower of Christ, you can’t pick and choose the things that Christ did and say, this was Christlike and this wasn’t. And so when people say, what would Jesus do? I’d say in some of these cases, jesus would fashion the whip himself as he did and chase some folks off, right? And I’m not advocating violence, but I am advocating being willing to fight, willing to engage, willing to stand in protest, right? Being willing sometimes to do civil disobedience, to actually say no to the government. You’re not going to close my church or no, you’re not going to take my child and force a vaccination on them or whatever that line in the sand is for you. There’s a time to say no.
Rick Green:
In fact, the Founding Fathers were famous for saying disobedience to tyrants is obedience to God. We’ve lost that fighting spirit, I think, and we’ve kind of become snowflakes, honestly, as a nation and very much as the church. The church has become very neutered, almost like we think that being good and holy means sitting around petting lambs all the time. That’s somehow going to make us more Christlike and man. I don’t know how you can think like that and read the Bible. I mean, you read the Bible and you get a totally different perspective on how to serve God and how to be in the fight. And so I think that has to be discussed. We have to have the right mindset, a combat mindset that we’re in a culture war.
Rick Green:
I mean, let’s be honest. We are at war in our culture, intellectually at war for the heart and soul of our children and for the heart and soul of the future of the country. And if we’re not willing to scratch and claw and show up and protest and show up and march and show up and testify and do those kind of things, the other side is going to run over us. And for those that think, that’s not Christ like, again, you need to read the Bible more because I can give you a lot of examples of him speaking to the leadership in sometimes what we would call even almost sarcastic or undercutting ways and using some name calling almost that today we would say, that’s not Christ. Like. Wait a minute, christ himself did it? John the Baptist did know Paul uses the law when he’s being beaten, right? He calls out the law, said, Wait a minute, I’m a Roman citizen. You can’t do this to me. And so using the system and using the constitutional republican process is something that we must do.
Rick Green:
It’s not even just a right, it’s a responsibility. We are when we do this nicey thing, which there’s nowhere as nice a Christian attribute, right? Kindness, yes. But sometimes kindness can be tough love, right?
Yvette Hampton:
Sure.
Rick Green:
But niceness, no. But when we use this niceness thing as an excuse to not engage, I believe we are the wicked and slothful servant. I believe we’re the servant in the parable of the talents that took the talent. In this case, it’s freedom and it’s liberty and its citizenship. And we buried it out of either fear because we were afraid we didn’t know what to do or whatever, or laziness. Some people say that the servant that buried the talent did so because he says later, I knew what kind of master you were. And so not only did he know the master was a hard taskmaster, he knew the master would reward him with more work. So he was lazy and didn’t want more work.
Rick Green:
Well, I think a lot of Christians don’t engage because they don’t want more freedom. They don’t want to lead. So we cannot do that. We got to be the other two servants that said, okay, yes, I’m going to make the most of this opportunity that I’ve been given. Now, you asked me for specifics. There’s a lot of things that folks can do, but number one, we must be educated. We have to know truth in order to defend truth, in order to spread truth. And so that’s why what you’re doing right here is so important.
Rick Green:
That’s why people homeschooling is so important, because they can get actual truth instead of the lies. In fact, that’s how you repel the lie. If you don’t know truth, you’re not even going to know the lie. The deception is going to seep in as Thessalonian says, and then you’re going to act on the lie. And then you’re going to have to live with the consequences of the lie. That all begins with, they rejected the truth. And that’s the petri dish where bad government grows. That’s the petri dish.
Rick Green:
Where tyranny actually expands is civic ignorance, biblical ignorance and civic ignorance. So number one, we got to study. We got to know shameless self promotion. Here, take a Patriot Academy class. Have some fun in one of our Constitution or biblical citizenship classes. They’re not boring. You won’t sleep in them. Become a coach and be the catalyst for educating people in your circle.
Rick Green:
And that will lead to the next step, which is citizen activism, because it’ll give you community. You won’t be on your own. You’ll have other people in your class that are excited about showing up at whatever it is, the legislature or the school board meeting. I know we’re all homeschoolers, but 80% of the kids are still in the burning building. And so we need to be trying to influence those schools as well as best we can and at least get the junk out as best we can. And we’re citizens. We’re paying for it. We’re electing those school board members.
Rick Green:
So a lot of that activity comes out of hosting a Constitution class because of the excitement when people learn things they didn’t know before, they realize there’s hope. There’s a way to save this. The principles of liberty are still alive and well, but we’ve got to fight for them. So I do encourage everyone, take one of those classes, get people in your living room or your church, and then move into action from there.
Yvette Hampton:
There’s a lot of things while you’re on that point, how can people find those classes?
Rick Green:
Patriotacademy.com. Okay, patriotacademy.com. And then click one of the biblical citizenship. That’s our big one right now, man.
Yvette Hampton:
It’s awesome. It’s a DVD set it is incredible.
Rick Green:
There’s Kirk Cameron does the monument in there. David Barton. Tim Barton. Rabbi Daniel Appen. Congressman Barry louder. McGerry. Mcboring. I mean, there’s a ton of people in there, and they make it fun, and we give you action steps.
Rick Green:
It’s not just all. It’s here’s how you now make a difference in your neighborhood, in your community. And so there’s a lot of things that we can do, and I may do that. I usually give ten. Here’s ten easy things you can be a part of and do. Just pick one, pick two, pick three. You don’t have to do all ten. But even stuff like running for precinct delegate for your whichever party you want to be a part of, you can be part of the Communist or the Republicans, whichever one you choose.
Rick Green:
But parties are just vehicles. They’re not the church. They’re not perfect. They’re sinful, just like we are. But you do need to use the system. The partisan system is how our system works. And people say George Washington was against parties. He was actually against partisanship.
Rick Green:
That prevented you from even being able to engage in debate and have civil discourse. The party system itself is just a vehicle. So being a precinct delegate and actually going and maybe being a precinct chair or a delegate to your county convention or your state convention allows you to be in the driver’s seat for choosing who the leaders of that party are going to be, which then influences what the legislation in your state is going to be. And so I’m really encouraging people to get involved in a party at the local level, because that’s just part of citizenship. It’s just part of how our system works out. There lots of things you can do, and honestly, some people are going to be great at going out and volunteering for a candidate, putting out signs, standing my best. When I ran for the legislature 25 years ago, it was homeschoolers everywhere, man. I mean, all of our polling places were a bunch of kids out there holding signs and all that kind of stuff.
Rick Green:
There’s a lot of you out there that can do that. Some of you, you won’t have time for that, but you’ve been blessed more financially, so you can write a check to that candidate, so you can donate. You can go volunteer time. There’s so much you can do to influence doing what your daughter did is huge. Every homeschool kid out there. Teen Pack is an opportunity to go and spend time at the Capitol. Our Patriot Academy leadership Congress is a chance, when you get a little older, 16 to 25 to go spend time at the Capitol. There’s homeschool days for most homeschool associations.
Rick Green:
Just a one day deal that you can go almost every state in the country has that. So those are all great ways to just get a little taste of it. Dip your toe in the pool and go, okay, this is what it’s like. This is that world. And then let’s all agree there is nothing. If I ask the question this way, what part of your life should the Lord not be lord over? And the answer should be none. And that means the way we treat our neighbor and how we form our societies, what our governorship looks like, what our legislature looks like, what our church looks like, what our business looks like. The Bible speaks to all of it.
Rick Green:
And we’re supposed to be the ones that make disciples of all nations, make disciples of all people. We should be out there teaching people how to obey those commands. So anyway, I’m rambling. Go ahead. I’m sorry.
Yvette Hampton:
No, that’s such good stuff. You talk about the state organizations and for those of you maybe you are new to Homeschooling and you’re not familiar with what a state homeschool organization is, if you go to the website is Homeschoolfreedom.com. And that website has all of the state organizations. And of the 50 states, I think about 45 or 46 of the states have a state homeschool organization. And those organizations are the ones who are really on the front lines of legislation. They’re watching those bills that are coming through and trying to pass. Whether it’s for Homeschool freedom or whether it’s people trying to take away that freedom, they’re watching very closely. And so find out who your state organization is and it’s super easy.
Yvette Hampton:
Just go to that website Homeschoolfreedom.com. Like where I live, we live in Oklahoma and so ours is called Homeschool, Oklahoma. And it’s an amazing group of people who really just keep their eyes open and know what’s going on in our specific state. And so you need to know what’s going on. And if you can’t give financially, if you can’t be out there because you’ve got a bunch of little kids at home and you’re trying to just figure out how to juggle homeschooling, we’ve talked today about simplifying your homeschooling. If that’s too much, then pray. Commit to praying. Pray for our leaders.
Yvette Hampton:
Pray for all of those who are in some type of leadership over us, that God would just get a hold of their hearts and that he would move in a mighty way. And he is moving. Even if we can’t see Kit, god is on his throne. He is not sitting up in heaven going, man, I didn’t see this coming. This is a real bummer. What am I going to do now? This is all part of his perfect plan. And part of his perfect plan is for you. And like you said this, Rick, it is for each one of us to be here right now on this earth on purpose, for a purpose.
Yvette Hampton:
And we all have a purpose in this life. We’ve been talking about this for the past two days. Live on purpose. And that doesn’t mean you have to go run for governor. But find some way. And even if that means you getting your kids together and saying, kids, we are going to pray for the leaders in our nation and help your kids to understand the importance of doing that.
Rick Green:
This is the way I present it to everybody is the ten things I’m going to rattle off real fast. It’s all lives, fortune, sacred honor. So your life is your time. Your fortune is your money, and your sacred honor is your reputation. Are you willing to stand up for truth? Not on the list of ten are two things that everybody has to do. You don’t get a choice on these. On the ten, it’s like you pick one of these, but the two you cannot choose from. Pray and seek God’s will and be in God’s word.
Rick Green:
We already talked about that, so I won’t spend much more time on it. But I will read you this quote by Noah Webster. All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from there. Despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible. That’s the one I was saying earlier. Got to be in the Bible. Okay, here’s the ten things. Number one, become a coach, host a constitution class.
Rick Green:
Everybody out there can do that. Number two, make at least one call a day of encouragement to somebody. Pick up the phone and call your legislator and say, thank you for doing the right thing. We love to call them when they do wrong and chew them out. Call, encourage the. Call a school board member that’s doing good. Call your mentor, call your parents, call whoever, and just give some encouragement. It’ll create hope in your life.
Rick Green:
I promise you those calls are fun. You’ll be glad when you get off, and they will be so blessed by doing it. So make that call of encouragement. Attend a local government meeting of any kind. It can be water district, it can be school board, whatever. Just attend the meeting and start watching how the system works. Meet with your legislator. Every state representative most likely will meet with you.
Rick Green:
If you’re their constituent at some point, it may take you a little while to get the meeting. If you have to write a letter to the editor to let everybody know they wouldn’t give you a meeting, they’ll give you a meeting after that, I promise. Anyway, go meet with them and just let them know, hey, pushing you on a particular bill. I just wanted to know you, and that way then when you do need to push them on a particular bill, or go ahead and take a bill and say, hey, here’s a home school bill that’s coming up, or here’s a tax bill, I just wanted you to know my position on that. So it’d be a great experience to go meet with them. All right. Fifth, volunteer for a candidate in some way, shape, or form 6th. Find a young person you can mentor.
Rick Green:
Now, we’re all here homeschoolers. You got your own kids you’re worrying about, but also look in the neighborhood for other people. Those six are all life. That’s your time. Here’s the two fortune ones. Donate to a candidate or cause. Redirect the funds that have been going to the left. Stop buying from liberal woke companies and start buying from those who are supporting our causes.
Rick Green:
Those are great ways to donate to a cause. And then sponsor a student to attend Patriot Academy is a great financial way. So that’s seven and eight. Okay, last two. Let’s see if I can find this. Last two are share your election picks. Now, I know this is where we get into sacred honor, right? Because I’m asking you to get on social media and say, hey, I’m going to vote right now. Here’s the school board candidates.
Rick Green:
I’m voting for the city council or the mayor or whatever. Most people have no idea who to vote for. So when you post yours, a lot of people will take that and go vote for those people because they trust you. And now you’ve multiplied your vote. And then last thing, I already said it earlier, run for precinct chair or delegate. So that’s ten things. Everybody out there can do at least one of those. Most of you could do two or three of those things.
Rick Green:
Some of you could do all ten. I rattled it off. You’ll have to go back and watch the recording. Let’s do Q and A. Yeah.
Yvette Hampton:
Let me say really quickly, you talked about encouraging our leaders and those around us when COVID hit three years ago. I can’t believe it’s been almost exactly three years since everything started to shut down. But several months into that, we were living in Georgia at the time and in a little town right outside of Savannah, Georgia. And Savannah was really locked down. Our smaller town that we were in, our mayor was great. She never enforced mask wearing. She never enforced shutdowns of any churches or anything. And she just more kind of stood on the grounds of like, you do what is best for you and your family.
Yvette Hampton:
And so one day I just thought, I really appreciate that. She has just been kind of hands off on this and allowed us to make the decision that’s best for us. And so I just sent a message out to several other homeschool families and said, hey, how about if we make some cookies with our kids and let’s just take them to our city hall. And so I called ahead of time and the said, yes, that would be fine. And I don’t know, I think we had five or six families, and the kids drew pictures for the mayor, and we baked a bunch of cookies for her to take in. And she was so blessed by that because she said, we don’t get this people don’t encourage us this way. And exactly what you said, she said, all we ever hear is the complaints. We only ever hear what people don’t want and what we’re doing wrong.
Yvette Hampton:
And she was so beyond blessed by that. And it’s small things like that that baking. I mean, you’re doing math and Home EC and all the other things, right? Take that Home EC class with your kids. Eat the cookie dough because that’s the only real reason to make chocolate chip cookies. And the take the baked ones that are not as good as the cookie dough and take those to someone. Take them to your city hall, take them to your state legislators if you’re close enough to them and be a blessing to those people because they need that and they need to know that you’re praying for them.
Rick Green:
I love that. That’s so true. And the you have a relationship with them too. So then if they do do something that’s going the wrong way, it’s a whole lot better. When you call and say, hey, would you think this through again? Would you consider this angle? I just want you to know what my perspective is on it is so much better than I can’t believe you did that. And that’s the first time they ever heard from you.
Yvette Hampton:
Right.
Rick Green:
And I’m telling you, especially the good guys and gals, they almost never hear from us because they’re voting, right. I don’t have to worry about them. I’m worried about these squishy ones over here. The good guys need our encouragement because they’re getting beat up like crazy. If you take biblical stands right now in the political world, you get called every name in the book. It’s vitriol, it’s nasty. And so that prayer or that call for just 30 seconds saying God, leaving a message on their voicemail, god bless you, thank you for what you’re doing. Our family is praying for you.
Rick Green:
I’m telling you, that will get a warrior through the battle.
Yvette Hampton:
It’s huge. Yeah, they’re people too. That’s the thing we have to understand is they’re just people. They have the same hurts, the same emotions, the same struggles that everyone else on the planet has. They’re just people and they need encouragement. Yeah, that’s powerful. I want to go back to something that you said early in this conversation. You were talking about Caesar and you said, we are Caesar.
Yvette Hampton:
Explain what you mean by so.
Rick Green:
You know, if we lived in the Roman Empire, in Jesus’s day, render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s. Would the obey the laws that you’ve been given as long as they don’t violate God’s laws and pay your taxes to Caesar, do your duty as a citizen is essentially what he was saying. The difference here is that we the people are ultimately in charge. Our government answers to us instead of the other way around. And so if we’re going to render unto. Caesar? What is Caesar’s? How do we do Caesar? Well, how do we as citizens do this job of being responsible for our government? If government answers to us, ultimately those who are in elected office get there because we ask them, we hire them, we give them that job through our votes, and then we give or refuse our consent. In the declaration it talks about, the only just form of government comes from consent of the governed. And that means that we have to be willing to stand up and give consent or refuse consent.
Rick Green:
But almost a give and take always involved communicating with those legislators and city council members, letting them know what is acceptable, what’s not. It’s not just an election. And then they go do whatever it was they talked about on the campaign trail. We need to stay involved in sharpening their countenance throughout that process because nobody’s a genius that already knows everything about every issue when they go in. I mean, when I went in to the legislature, I had 5000 bills crossed my desk in 140 days. I didn’t have a clue on like 90% of them. Right. It was issues I knew nothing about.
Rick Green:
And so if you had a relationship with me and you were calling or even if you did and you were a constituent, you came in to see me, that was going to influence me in some way because I knew nothing about that issue, and you’re educating me on that. And so being Caesar today means letting your voice be heard, making sure that you’re voting, making sure that you do in fact influence the direction that the laws go because they answer to us, not the other way around. And we have every right to take power back from them if they’re doing a bad job or give more power to them. So if we want to expand government to do more things in our lives, we have every right to do that. We can do that if the majority of the community wants to do that. If we think government’s doing too much in our lives, which what I would argue for, then we can clip their wings and we can say, you know what? We never gave you permission for that, or we’re taking the permission back. And that’s how a constitutional republic works. If we’re engaged in the process as the citizens who are ultimately caesar here.
Yvette Hampton:
Yeah. Love it. How did you come to love history and patriot? Were you just born this way? Did your parents were they patriots? I mean, how did you get to be so passionate about this?
Rick Green:
My dad was definitely a patriot and instilled a love of America in me, for sure. My mom and dad both. My mom, man, she taught me when I was being homeschool. She did. Zig. Ziglar’s. I can course, when I was a kid, I still remember that I’m an American. I can because I’m an I mean, cheesy stuff like that, right? Was taught to me at a young age.
Rick Green:
So both my mom and dad, yeah, patriotic. But honestly, David Barton more than anything, because even with a love of America being taught to me, I still hated history. I still hated government. I still hated those classes were boring to me. I slept through that stuff because it’s taught in a very boring way. It was memorize these dates and names and maps and regurgitate it to me on a mean I hate that kind of teaching. And so David Barton, somebody gives me this cassette tape in the olden days. Those that are old enough on here will remember these, but somebody gives me a cassette tape of David Barton, it’s like he starts telling the story through the eyes of the person in history as they experienced it.
Rick Green:
So instead know Paul Revere went to know Sam Adams and John Hancock to get out of Jonas Clark’s house and get out of Lexington because the British were coming. It was, imagine you’re riding at midnight. And he makes me I feel like I’m on the horse with Paul Revere and I’m riding at midnight, and why am I going to the pastor’s house? Because the pastor was passionate about life and liberty in the Bible, and he had been the leader in that community. And the next morning, he’s out there with them when they’re marching. He made it fun and he brought it to life. And for the first time, I fell in love with history. And then as a law student reading all the opinions of the judges, I realized the way that judge perceives history is determining his decision today and therefore impacting our laws for tomorrow. And then lastly, the Bible itself says, remember the former days.
Rick Green:
And I didn’t get that until I was in my late 20s, maybe early 30s. Wait a minute. I’m commanded biblically to know history, to remember the former days, and to recount it for my children and for their children and our children’s children. Right? So that’s part of the biblical command. Psalm 78 is all about teaching the kids so that they will be warriors for the faith and that they will stand up for truth and that they won’t be unwilling to engage. It’s a wonderful everybody should read Psalm 78 in the mindset of I want to raise my kids to not be the ones that let liberty die. I want to raise my kids instead to be like those who rebuilt the walls with nehemiah.
Yvette Hampton:
Yeah. So good. And you have a show. It’s like a TV show. It’s a series called Chasing American Legends. We were just talking about this before we came on Live. Our family has seen it. If you guys haven’t seen it, do you know what the link is? How can people watch that? Again?
Rick Green:
Easiest place to get it’s patriotacademy.com. If you go in the store on Patriotacademy.com and just search for Chasing. Then it’ll pull up, chasing American legends. You can watch it digitally on your phone or computer, iPad or whatever, or you can buy the DVDs. But it’s fun. It’s twelve episodes.
Yvette Hampton:
So fun.
Rick Green:
Yeah, it’s basically a reality show, a history mystery show. And Brad Stein, who’s hilarious, goes with us. We even do a reenactment of George Washington’s Battle of the Monaga Halo when he’s 23. And Brad Stein dresses up as George Washington and we get to shoot him with paintball musket guns. So just like good Homeschoolers, we made it fun.
Yvette Hampton:
That’s awesome. And it’s Rick and his family, so you guys will have such a good time watching this. It is the most like homeschooling. So well done, though. I mean, the production is great on it. It’s so much fun to watch.
Rick Green:
And the kids will learn through the eyes of our kids. Right? Because our kids were like twelve and 13 and 15. And so your kids will enjoy learning with them. They march with the Minutemen at Lexington. They actually march all night long.
Yvette Hampton:
It’s so cool.
Rick Green:
It’s pretty cool. It’s really funny. We had some really good times with that. And it even has some behind the scenes extra stuff that’s also very funny.
Yvette Hampton:
Yep. So cool. So much fun. So you guys check that out@patriotacademy.com. Two quick questions that just popped up. So the first one is, do you think this is from Chalkboard Creative Homeschool? I love that name. Do you think we should work in our churches to create a homeschool community for parents who are both working and can’t educate their kids? And that’s a great question because how involved should the church be in helping to home educate kids? Especially when parents, they don’t have the time, maybe it’s a single parent and they’re not able to take on the full responsibility of home educating their kids, but they don’t want them in public school either. What do you think the role is for the church?
Rick Green:
There big flashing neon. Yes. Talk to Creative Homeschool. We’ve got churches that I’ve kind of moaned about this for decades, but we got churches that sit empty for six days out of the week, or maybe five days if they still have a Wednesday night service. And that building could be used for a homeschool co op. But 100%, I think doing homeschool co ops and homeschool resource centers like Heidi St. John does up in Vancouver, I think that’s the new wave. I think there’s going to be more and more of that happening all across the country so that you can help your neighbors and your friends and your family.
Rick Green:
And not only that, we’re built for community. We need that interaction your kids do need. I mean, people always tell us, oh, what about socialization? Well, that’s why we started homeschooling, was to not get the bad socialization and get the good socialization.
Yvette Hampton:
Socialism socialization. That’s right.
Rick Green:
Good point. Exactly right. So I think doing that. And I guarantee you, if you’re in a community that doesn’t have that yet, there’s a church somewhere in that community that would love to host that because it helps to make their church more popular in the community as well. But not only that, a lot of those pastors get it. They understand they’ve got a resource that they’ve built in that building that could be used for much more. And they’re beginning to understand that the church is supposed to be the epicenter of the community. It’s supposed to be the place that people want to go and gather, not just on Sunday, but other days as well.
Rick Green:
So great question. And 100%, I think we need more and more of that and we’re starting to get more and more of that. So it’s good.
Yvette Hampton:
Yeah, agreed. And honestly, if you have a pastor who’s like, I don’t know about this homeschooling thing, maybe his kids are grown and they didn’t homeschool and he just doesn’t understand it, have him watch the movie Schoolhouse Rock the Homeschool Revolution because he will have a much better understanding of homeschooling after watching the film. And again, you can stream it for free@schoolhouserockedmovie.com, watch that for free, but definitely share that with the leaders in your church so that they can really understand the importance of having our kids at home. And then one last question before we sign off. And this one’s from Cassandra. She said, what was the cassette called? Can we still find them?
Rick Green:
Oh, well, the one for me was America’s Godly Heritage from David Barton way back when. And you can get some very updated versions of that. And then the Chasing American Legends, if that’s what you were referring to. That one you can get on DVD or stream, but it’s called Chasing American Legends. There’s some places out there like, I don’t know if VidAngel still has it or not. They did for a while, pure Flicks had it, they may or may not have it, but Patriot place to get it. And we may be shooting a new season. We’ll see.
Rick Green:
We got a bunch of people trying to get us to do that. You’ll laugh at this event, though. They said we want to do Chase American Legends the Next Generation, which means we want to focus on your kids. And Rick, you can make a cameo if you want, but they’re basically pushing me off the stage saying, get the gray haired guy off your own. There you go.
Yvette Hampton:
Oh gosh. And I would say again, Cassandra, this biblical citizenship in modern American. We’re going through this with our daughter this year with our oldest, though my youngest sits in and watches it too. And it is fantastic. And you can actually purchase the DVD set. You can stream this as well and you can download the there’s a workbook that goes with it. It is so powerful. And David Barton is in this.
Yvette Hampton:
This is Rick and David barton and a few other people who are part of this as well, and they’re teaching about our founding fathers, about our government, about how we can get involved. I mean, there’s so much information packed in this and it’s really fun to watch it’s very well. Thank you. And thank you for saying that about the movie. It was amazing. All by God’s grace. God was so good to allow our family to be part of making that film. So check it out again, Rickpatriotacademy.com.
Yvette Hampton:
You guys, check out what he’s got going on. Get your kids involved. Get involved yourselves and pray, pray, pray, pray, because we are on this battlefield together. We are together. We’re not doing this alone. And we’ve got the Lord of the universe. He’s leading this army. And so we’re grateful for that.
Yvette Hampton:
So, Rick, thank you so much for joining us. It’s been so much fun chatting with you tonight, with you.
Rick Green:
God bless you all, love your family, love what you’re doing. All of you out there that are homeschooling, when my mom was asked, they would always say, you homeschool? Wow, what a sacrifice. And she would always say, no, it’s an investment. And you are investing in your kids. You’re investing in freedom. You’re investing in the next generation. So thank you.
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