Ginger interviews the 2023 CHAP Convention keynote speaker, Rick Green! Rick is America’s Constitution coach and has a message of hope and liberty to share with the homeschoolers in PA. Read the excerpted interview here then go register to attend convention at https://conv.chaponline.com/
Ginger Wayde: This is Chattin’ with CHAP, and I’m your host, Ginger Wayde. As you can tell, I have our special guest here; Rick Green is with us today. I want to tell you I’ve known about Rick for a long time. I actually first heard about him because I got connected with David Barton and Wall Builders and then learned about Rick through there. I’m currently going through Constitution Alive with one of my daughters, and it’s just been amazing to learn from Rick and David Barton too as they share the content of our Constitution. Our history is just amazing! My parents watch you on Victory news and of course we’ve heard you on different podcasts and stuff, so welcome to Chattin’ with CHAP. Rick, I’m so glad to have you with us today.
Rick Green: It’s my pleasure. Glad to be with you. In fact, I’ll be on Victory right after this, so tell your parents to tune in.
Ginger: That’s awesome. I will. She’s actually downstairs teaching my little ones some reading and English, so I will tell her that. That’s great! Rick, . . . . there’s a lot of new homeschools in Pennsylvania. There’s a lot of homeschoolers everywhere, and they’re just getting connected with us at CHAP and learning about what conventions are and who people are that are out there, so they may not know you. Can you tell us a little bit about you and your background and all that kind of stuff?
Rick: First of all, thank you for being there for these new homeschoolers. There are so many new people. I’ve heard varying numbers—double, triple in the last couple years. I mean, it’s exploded, and so you’ve got a lot of parents that are figuring this out and if they had to do it on their own, I think a lot of people would end up giving up, but because of associations like CHAP, they have camaraderie, they have people to sharpen each other’s iron, to go and talk and just get advice, sometimes to cry on your shoulder and say, “Hey, I need help and I’m trying to figure this out.” And so, I think God allowed for these associations to get stronger and stronger and stronger over these last years, especially for this moment to be prepared for this massive influx of families that are saying, “Enough of letting the state indoctrinate my child, I’m no longer going to hand my kid over to Rome and to Caesar and be surprised if they act like Romans. I’m going to start teaching them the faith. I’m going to start teaching them and raising them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and I want my curriculum to back that up and to teach that.” So anyway, I just thank God for y’all and for the others around the country.
We got started back when I was a House member. I used to be in the Texas legislature. Really out of frustration that there were so few people in the political realm that were coming from a position of conviction and mostly just kind of “finger to the wind whatever’s popular what’ll get me re-elected,” I wanted to help raise up a new generation of leaders that would be grounded in biblical worldview, that would really understand the founding of the country. What are the inputs that produce good outputs societally? Because if you put garbage in, you get garbage out. That’s for us personally and family, but it’s also for a country and a culture. If you put good stuff in, you get good stuff out, and the founders knew this. They talked about it over and over again. If you had the Bible infused into the culture, you would get good outcomes. If you remove the Bible and the principles of the Bible, you would get all the crime, vice, and slavery, and all the things you didn’t want.
I became very passionate about that, and we started with kids, just training young. When I say kids, I mean sixteen- to twenty-five-year-olds, young people, at that point when they’re really figuring out “what do I really believe, what do I want to do with my life, what God’s calling on my life, what’s my purpose.” So, for years that’s what we zeroed in on: sixteen- to twenty-five-year-olds. We do what we call leadership congresses around the country and [in] state capitals across the country. The closest one to you guys at CHAP would be in Dover, Delaware. Nicole Tice leads that one from the Delaware Family Policy Council. So anyway, we did that for years, and then we started doing more and more Constitution training because we realized civic ignorance, biblical ignorance—that’s the petri dish where bad government grows, and you get bad leaders and bad results if you don’t have civic literacy, if you don’t have a populace that is educated in the basics of the principles of liberty. Well, we know our biblical principles of liberty, and so we started doing Constitution classes everywhere we could, trying to get people to learn these things. That’s just exploded. We’re close to a million people that have been through either Constitution Alive or Biblical Citizenship or one of our other classes, and we just love doing it. I try to say this as humbly as I can—we have the only Constitution classes in which you’ll stay awake. With everybody else, you go to sleep. I just hate boring history. David Barton spoiled me. I used to sleep in high school and college government classes and history classes and then somebody gave me a cassette tape of David Barton and he brought it to life. I was like, “I want to learn it this way, and if I ever teach it, I’m going to teach it that way.” So that’s what ended up happening. So, we love what we do, we’re blessed to do what we do, and we’re thankful to be partnering with you all to bring this to Pennsylvania.
Ginger: We are very thankful for you too. I tell you what that is very true— you guys do make it come alive. I slept through history too. I hated history, and when I started teaching, I learned about literature and teaching them through that way, but your stuff, too—and of course, you’re doing things with Brad Stein. Oh, my goodness! Just like you said, it brings it to life and makes it pertinent.
We here at CHAP—Christian Homeschool Association of Pennsylvania—we’re all about discipling our children, training our children the way we should go, and raising them up, giving them what they need to be functioning adults. That is what our heart is and what we are encouraging parents to do throughout our state. And so, we’re bringing you in, and you’re America’s Constitution coach, right? And you know all about the Constitution and sharing that, so how do those connect? How does encouraging a faith-based education connect with the Constitution? Do they?
Rick: Great question. And I forgot to mention, by the way, I was homeschooled myself. I mean I was homeschooled back in the day when you didn’t answer the front door and it was all very questionable. I remember seeing my pastor on television where they’re, you know, coming after him for encouraging homeschooling. So, we’ve got a long history in the homeschool community itself. We homeschooled all four of our kids. They’re all grown now—homeschooled them all the way through. All that just to say I love the movement and am a part of the movement.
But why bring the Constitution in and from a faith-based perspective? I always approach it this way. A friend of mine Paul Blairy is a pastor out of Oklahoma. I told him last week that I’m stealing this line from him because it’s so good; but he started to say this to pastors, he’ll say, “What part of your life is the Lord not lord over?” and then get them to think about the fact that we’ve kind of put government and politics (I hate even using that word), the Constitution, all those things in this box over here and say, “The Bible doesn’t touch that or church doesn’t touch that,” or whatever, instead of saying, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof,” Psalms 24:1.
We’re saying that the Great Commission is actually to teach them to “obey everything I’ve commanded you,” and so from our perspective, it’s very much a part of our faith-walk. To truly serve God well, we have to serve him in every single area. That means work, that means relationships, and yes, it means even our government and how our society has formed. So, for us, the Constitution is just. . . it’s kind of like what Charles Finney said in the Second Great Awakening—that politics is just simply part of a religion in a country such as this and Christians must do their duty to their country as a part of their duty to God. God will bless or curse this nation according to the course Christians take in politics. What he was saying was that in our system—if we were in the Roman Empire, it’d be different; we’d render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and we have no say in how governments run; it’s all Caesar—but in our system, we are Caesar. So, when he says a system like ours, or you know, in a country such as this, what he’s saying is we’re a constitutional republic, which means you’re Caesar, I’m Caesar, we’re in charge and therefore God’s given us responsibility. Therefore, we have to say, “Okay, how do I do Caesar well? How do I fulfill my role biblically? What does the Bible say about how to treat my neighbor? How to lead? How to form, you know, what are good taxes, bad taxes and all that?” The Bible speaks to every single one of those things. The Constitution itself gives us a chance to analyze how our society’s formed from both a biblical perspective and a constitutional republic. How do we do this in our particular system? We just want to be good stewards of what God’s given us, and we’re blessed to have, I would argue, the best system in the history of the world.
You know and some people would say, “Well, Rick, you know America this and America that. And there’s a real debate right now. Is America good or bad? Should I defend this or not?”
I’m a country boy. I just ask people, “Listen. Are people trying to get in? Are they trying to get out?” That’s the test. Are we a good nation that people want to come to or a nation people are digging tunnels to get out of? And of course, everybody knows the answer to that. There’s a reason they want to come here. There’s a reason that we have one out of every five immigrants on the planet—more than the second, third, fourth, and fifth nations combined. There’s a reason America is still the shining city on the hill. We’ve got our problems. Listen, we could talk about all the negatives and the bad. It’s there. And you know, David Barton and I both always say, “The good, the bad, and the ugly—we want to be eyes wide open.” So, Ginger, I’m not glossing over any of that or being Pollyanna, we can talk about that. . . but, I just think we’ve lost the good. We don’t talk about the beauty of our system and what God’s given us and so people check out instead of saying, “Wait a minute. This is my responsibility. I want my kids to have freedom so I’m going to teach them from a faith perspective how to be a good citizen.”
Ginger: Yeah absolutely. The church bought the lie to not get involved, but it’s all part of the package. We’ve been watching Constitution Alive—my daughter and I. And she’s like, “Well, Mom, I can watch it without you.” And I’m like, “No. No. I want to watch it.” I’ve watched it before, but you know, like I’m not immersed in it every day like you are, so I forget. So, I like watching it again, and then you and David are there and you’re talking about quotes from these guys and Scriptures that they bring up to support the different things in the Constitution. It just blows me away, like it’s just so intertwined through all that.
Rick: Well yeah, you’ll probably laugh at this—you’re saying you’re not in it all the time, and you don’t remember it. I’m in it all the time and I don’t remember it! So, I’ll do the class with somebody online or we’ll do one of our national classes. We’ll be watching the video and be like, “I don’t remember us saying that. That’s pretty cool stuff!” So, anyway, go ahead, but believe me, there’s so much in there, the more you do the class, the more stuff you find. But it’s really. . . it’s truly amazing.
Ginger: It’s truly amazing. I love that. I mean, the documents are out there. Like you guys say, you can get your hands onto it and find out for yourself. So, these days since no one studies it—like they don’t really study it in [public] school. I don’t know how much of a focus, I mean, there’s homeschooling parents like me—it’s important to me, so I make sure that my kids know it, right? So, I don’t know how many people are realizing how the government’s been overstepping their bounds and how things are twisted to mean something they don’t really mean. So, a lot of America is ignorant of the Constitution. So how is this—you kind of touched on this—but how is this—just to make people aware: if you don’t know the Constitution, you don’t know your rights—how’s that going to affect how we function? I’m just looking at the fraud—there’s just, it’s just everywhere—but we’re ignorant, so why is our ignorance making this worse? Do you know what I’m asking?
Rick: Oh no, I hear you exactly and I really think most every problem we’re facing in America today comes down to the fact: number one, that we rejected God so we rejected godly principles and the good inputs that produce a good society; and number two, the ignorance. We just don’t know how our system’s supposed to work, and so because of that we bought a lie. So, you know in 2 Thessalonians it talks about that if you reject the truth then you buy the lie then you act on the lie, and then when you act on the lie, you have to live with the negative consequences of acting on that lie then destruction comes, and that’s exactly where we are. I mean, we rejected truth in this country, started doing that about fifty years ago, and really embraced that moral relativism and there is no right and wrong. That mindset, we really embraced that about twenty, thirty years ago, and then the education system started teaching it. So, we’ve allowed this cultural Marxism to be literally poured into generations of Americans and as a result, the lie has been embraced. So, if we don’t bring the truth back and we don’t teach this is the actual history of America—this is the truth about how a constitutional republic works and the role of us as the church in that constitutional problem—if we don’t do that, I think America’s done. I’m not a doomsdayer. I’m just saying I’m a student of history. We’re at the year mark when most civilizations fall apart. We’ve broken the mold every step of the way, so I believe we can break the mold again, but only if we become an informed citizenry.
Patriotism is not enough. It has to be informed patriotism. It’s not enough to wave the flag. We have to know why that flag behind me is worthy of being waved. What does it stand for? What are the values that were infused? It’s not that we worship the flag or we worship America or any of that. You know, I think America is probably not even around when Jesus, you know, comes back because there’s no one to defend Israel if you look at a lot of those things in the Bible. So, it’s not that we’re worshiping America, we’re just saying that this is just a duty thing, this is just where God’s placed us at this moment. Most Christians have a pillow or a coffee mug with Jeremiah [29:11], you know, “I know the plans I have for you plans to prosper you.” Nobody talks about where they were headed, right? They were headed into years of captivity, and yet he said build your houses, marry wives, plant your gardens, raise your children, all that stuff. So, whether America survives or not, these principles—these biblical ideas of how to treat our neighbor, how to form society—are vitally important and have to be restored. It’s our job to do that as believers. It’s our responsibility and as parents it’s our job to teach our children these truths. Every state constitution in America in the education section talks about the reason for education. In most states for public schools is to have an informed citizenry. Well, virtually no state in America is still doing that actually, which is why homeschooling exploded because we as parents said, “You guys are failing not only at teaching the right values. You’re failing at even educating my kid.”
So now we have this window of opportunity where all the bad of the last few years—where the government’s gotten completely out of control—has shaken us out of our slumber. Millions of families are now saying, “What do I do? I want to do something. I want to learn more.” So, we—you and me and all these associations—have an opportunity. We have a window where we can share that truth with all these families and then they can share it with their kids. There’s a real chance here at revival. There’s a real chance for a revolution of freedom and a love of coming back to God’s word. I don’t want anybody to think that when they come to the conference or when they watch any of our stuff that we’re at all saying politics is the answer. Not at all. What we’re saying is the Bible is the answer. Going back to God’s word. Getting into God’s word every day and then applying it to everything and not leaving anything off the table. That’s the message that I plan to bring at the conference, and what I hope people will embrace is, that if you want to do something to save America, get back in God’s word and teach it to yourself and to your kids. Then don’t leave anything off limits when you go to live that out.
Ginger: Absolutely. That is awesome, and that kind of encapsulated my next question.
Rick: I was reading your mind.
Ginger: That’s okay. You were! It was awesome! We’re all about equipping, connecting, encouraging the homeschool families. You know, we’re protecting, keeping an eye on those legislators in Harrisburg and seeing what they’re up to. I’m super excited to have you there encouraging the people and making them aware of what you just said—of the fact that we need to be active, we need to be teaching our kids. And a lot of us—like I don’t remember ever reading the Constitution in high school—we learned American history or whatever, but I don’t remember doing a study on it, like an exhaustive study on it, so it’s been missing for a long time. We as parents need to learn right along with our kids. So, as you’re reaching out and chatting with me, I’m looking at some of the topics you’re going to be doing: Hope is Alive, Teaching Civics in a Fun and Purposeful Way—
Rick: It is possible!
Ginger: —Be of Good Cheer. So it’s not, like you said, it’s not doomsday stuff. It’s raising leaders and just equipping parents out there. I know you might be listening and going, “Constitution? This is terrifying! I don’t know the first thing! How am I going to teach?” Some of those things, parents, we’re learning right alongside our kids. I hated history in high school, but as I was teaching my children, I really learned a lot. So, parents, be encouraged. I mean Rick’s [will] be there. Rick has eight talks and unfortunately, I’m speaking during two of them, so I won’t be able to come listen to all of them.
Rick: You know, Ginger, you raised something that’s really, really important because I think a lot of times parents shy away from these topics out of a fear of not having the answer to every question. You know, we do something called Constitution coaching where we have coaches that sign up and host our classes. And I always tell these coaches—there’s 24,000 of them across the country—I always tell them you don’t have to know anything, you don’t have to know the answer. That’s why we bring in David Barton and Kirk Cameron teaching on the monument and Congressman Barry Loudermilk and all these people. We bring the experts to you, so that you don’t have to have all those answers. You learn with your kids. Exactly what you just said. I love that model and that’s why, I mean, it’s really three generations of ignorance in terms of our education system and ignorance is—not I don’t mean that as an insult, I’m ignorant about a lot of things but—ignorance is curable we can learn to then fill that fill that gap.
I’m so glad you said that, because I want parents to know this is gonna be—number one, it’s gonna be fun. It’s gonna be hopeful. We’re not doomsdayers. We very much believe—and the world doesn’t understand this—but we know we can have joy even in the midst of the storm. We’re commanded to do so in James [1:2], right? “Count it all joy when you experience various trials.” So, we can actually be righteously angry at the things that are happening in our country and be joyful at the same time.
Now a non-believer is going, “How do you do, how do you do both of them?” Only God can give us that, but that’s the way that, I mean, we’re supposed to have joy as we engage in the battle. . .
Ginger: Absolutely.
Rick: . . . and engage in the fight. So, don’t be intimidated, folk. We’re gonna have fun with it. It’s a topic that you’re actually going to enjoy and your kids are going to enjoy it. Part of the reasons they enjoy it is because we do it through the eyes of the people that experienced it, so take your fourteen/fifteen-year-old daughter and learn the story of Sybil Ludington, Dicey Langston, these girls that at fifteen and sixteen years old in the Revolutionary War did Herculean things, I mean they did incredible things. Tell the stories. Honestly it bothers me that we teach young people that America’s racist and all this horrible stuff [like] we invented slavery when in fact every nation on the planet had slavery when America was birthed. We were the first one to ban the slave trade. We were the fourth one to ban slavery completely. [Learn of] all the great black heroes in our history that haven’t been taught. So if you’re a seven-year-old little black boy in America and you’re taught America’s racist, you’re going to grow up to hate America, but if you’re a seven-year-old little black boy in America and you learn about James Armistead, the first double-spy in American history, and you learn about Crispus Attucks, who was really the first patriot killed, and the American Revolution began as a result of. You learn about all these great black patriots in the American Revolution. You have a totally different perspective. You say, “Wow, I have ownership in the American dream.” It just changes everything whenever you look at it through the eyes of the people that lived it. It makes it fun and entertaining, but it also makes you realize there’s somebody in American history that I can relate to, that I can learn from, and I just think that’s so, so important.
We’re gonna do all that in our workshops and keynotes. I want people to leave the conference, honestly, with a little bit of a burden. I want them to leave going, “This is up to me. I’ve got to do something to help save liberty in my community.” But also, I want them to leave with a hope and a joy that they get to do what they’re doing, that they get to spend this extra time so they get to pass this torch to their kids. We’re gonna have a great time. It’s gonna be a great couple of days. I just want people to be excited about it and like you said not be intimidated about it or think that it’s a topic they wouldn’t normally want to cover.
Ginger: Oh yeah, absolutely! And you will never regret going to one of Rick’s talks. You will love every moment. So, get on there. Look at the schedule. Put little Xs beside his name because you’re going to want to be at those talks. He’s gonna just connect you and give you resources. Rick, if people want to, people can reach out to you right? They can talk to you while you’re there [at your booth]. If you want to know a little bit more about Rick and what he’s doing before the convention, where can they find you, Rick? Where’s a good place for people to look you up?
Rick: patriotacademy.com. Go to Patriot Academy. Everything we do is there—from our Constitution coaching to our leadership congresses across the country. We would love for you to send your young people, especially your high schoolers, but also young people in college to—I forget the dates—of our northeast leadership congress. It’s all on our website. I think it’s in July. There’s something for everybody there at the website. We have adult programs. We even have handgun defense classes with Constitution training that make it fun to learn how to defend your families. We have a lot of different things. They’re all available at patriotacademy.com.
Ginger: That is fabulous. Thank you so much again for coming on today. I’m so glad that our audience could get to know a little bit about you before you come out to the 2023 CHAP Convention. And I’m excited to meet you in person. I’m really glad that you came and chatted with us today. You’ve been a hero of mine for a long time, so thank you. Thanks for coming on, and of course, we look forward to seeing you in less than two months.
Rick: We’ll see you then. Looking forward to it. Thanks for the invite.
Ginger: Thank you. All right. See you later everybody.
