Explore the tense intersection of education and faith with Pastor John Omwanchukwu in this episode of Family Talk. A name synonymous with activism and advocacy, Pastor John discusses his documentary, 22 Words, which sheds light on the cultural and moral decline in American education. By sharing his vivid encounters and challenges, he motivates listeners to reflect on their roles in protecting children’s education and offers a compelling argument for why the church must become more vocal in today’s societal battles over values and ideologies.
00:08:28 Call to Action for the Christian Community
00:11:51 The Offense of Gospel and Facing Adversity
00:15:31 Critique of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
00:18:10 Challenges in Speaking Up at School Board Meetings
00:21:42 The Reality of Freedom of Speech Challenges
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome everyone to Family Talk. It’s a ministry of the James Dobson Family Institute supported by listeners just like you. I’m Dr. James Dobson and I’m thrilled that you’ve joined us.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, welcome to Family Talk. I’m Roger Marsh. You know, all across America, parents are waking up to what’s being taught in their children’s classrooms. From inappropriate content in school libraries to lessons that undermine faith and family values, the battle for our children’s hearts and minds has reached a critical point. Today here on Family Talk, we’re joined by Pastor John Omwanchukwu, executive producer of the new movie, 22 Words, a documentary exposing the loss of decency in American education. After discovering that a student was being mocked for her Christian faith in public school, Pastor John felt called to take action. Since then, he’s traveled to 16 different states, addressing school boards all across the country and defending parental rights. He’s been labeled the book-banning pastor by the liberal media, a title that he wears as a badge of honor. Here now to kick off this conversation is our very own Gary Bauer, Senior Vice President of Public Policy here at the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute. Stay with us as we explore the urgent challenges facing education in America right here on Family Talk. Gary?
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you, Roger, and welcome everybody to Family Talk. We got a great show today. I know that all of you know that one of the big issues that Dr. Dobson has been concerned about his entire life is the education of America’s children. In fact, Dr. Dobson and I wrote a book, it seems like a gazillion years ago now, called Children at Risk, the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of Our Children. And in that book, we argued that there was this great struggle going on in America, war over values. And the winner of that war would get the right to teach our children what to believe about life and death, love and sex, freedom and slavery. And the book caused quite a stir. When you go back and look at it now, on the one hand, it looks a little prophetic, but it also looks totally out of date. off the rails American education would go. And so all of his career, Dr. Dobson has continued to talk about what we need to do in the classrooms of America. And we all, if we’ve been paying attention, have seen in recent years the tremendous controversy that has sprung up around the nation, parents, movement, came to the forefront, parents suddenly discovering what their children were being taught. They started showing up at school board meetings, and all kinds of yelling happened. But it was a really important moment. It was an educational moment. And our guest today is somebody that has been right in the middle of that battle. Pastor John Amachukwa is a preacher, an author, an activist. and he has committed his life to exposing a lot of the things that are going on, racist ideologies of abortion, critical race theory. His last name actually means, I know God. And if you hear the pastor speak for more than a minute or so, you will quickly decide that he knows God because his message is powerful, and you can tell that the Spirit of the Lord is guiding him as he goes into the lion’s den here in this great battle that’s going on in America. John has got a great background. He had an incredible football career at North Carolina State. He went on to earn a master’s degree in Christian ministry from Liberty University. He’s led ministries to youth and young adults for many years. In addition, he spent 12 years on an issue that is also dear to Dr. Dobson’s heart and all of us at JDFI, and that’s the issue of the sanctity of life. We not only want to educate our children the right way, we want our children to be born so they can enjoy all the blessings of America. And so John has ministered outside one of the most busy abortion clinics in the Southeast United States. Currently, the pastor is a contributor with Turning Point Faith. He’s the first assistant and youth pastor at the Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he lives with his lovely wife and three children. He’s the author of a couple of books, the last one being Hoodwink. which is that book is the basis of a new documentary film he has put together. And that’s one of the main reasons we wanted to talk to the pastor today, not only about this issue, but about this great film, because Dr. Dobson and I both think it’s must viewing. Pastor, welcome to the show. It’s an honor to spend some time with you. And Could you just tell us a little bit about how you got involved in this issue, given much of your past was related to the sanctity of life and some other issues? But man, you have burst on the scene on this issue of what we ought to be teaching our children. So how did that happen?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, you know, when we say that we are pro-life, we mean that. We mean that we’re pro-life from the womb to the tomb. People oftentimes throw that out at people who are pro-life and they say that you have to be pro-life from the womb to the tomb. Well, I am. That’s why I’m involved in education as well. But what we’re seeing in society today is that the enemy, Satan, the evil one, wants to kill babies in the womb. as early as possible. And if he doesn’t follow through with that, he wants to annihilate them mentally in the public classroom. And so about two and a half years ago, a young Caucasian girl over in Chatham County, which is about, I would say about 45 minutes from me, she was being demonized by her teacher. Her teacher told her that believing in Jesus was tantamount to believing in a brick wall. And being a youth pastor for the past about 20 years working in ministry and youth ministry, I had to do something to stand up for this young girl. I didn’t know her. She wasn’t a part of my youth group or my church, but she’s a part of the body of Christ. And so I wanted to go in to defend her honor. So I drove about 45 minutes, spoke at the school board meeting. delivered a strong and commanding message. And I didn’t know that that message would go viral. It went, I mean, all around the country. From that message, it landed me on major talk shows all around America. And I began to become, you know, what they call me now, the book banning pastor and or an individual who’s called on to go defend children and teachers and school board leaders all around the country. You know, and so I didn’t think that that would happen that day. I was just going to speak about one issue. But from there, things have taken off and I’ve now traveled to 16 states. Wow. Speaking up on the behalf of children. And I was once asked by a reporter, they said, Pastor John, are you leading a black movement in America? And I thought about that thing. I said, you know, am I leading a black movement in America? I said, that would be so shallow. No, I’m not. You know, the Bible says that we are one blood. And so I’m leading a kingdom movement. not a ethnic or minority movement. That’s what I’m leading. And so I’ve now spoken in Virginia and North Carolina and New Jersey and Nevada, Florida, Texas, Colorado, California, Idaho, Pennsylvania, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, and Maryland. And by the time it’s all over, I will say in the words of Johnny Cash that I’ve been everywhere and
SPEAKER 01 :
Wow, that is incredible. You know, Pastor, a couple of things jumped out at me there. When you heard about this young woman and how she had been mistreated by a misguided teacher, you know, you could have easily just said, well, boy, that kind of thing shouldn’t happen and then gone on with your life because you didn’t have any relationship with this young woman. And sadly, we often hear about parents or pastors where something will happen in their actual community or to a young child in their church. And unlike what you did for a complete stranger, they’ll say, well, you know, that shouldn’t have happened. But look, let’s not rock the boat. You know, I don’t want to get involved in politics. Or, you know, if you make a big deal about this, the teacher might lower your grade. So why don’t you just swallow hard and move on? It was just one of those bad things that happened in life. Here you are. This wasn’t somebody from your church. And you went out of your way to defend her. And isn’t there a real lesson here that this is what followers of Jesus Christ need to do every day as the culture keeps pushing against us and trying to back us in a corner to keep our faith private?
SPEAKER 03 :
Yes, I agree with that. You know, Diedrich Bonhoeffer said, to fail to speak is to speak, and to fail to act is to act. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said that if you sit idly by and say nothing about injustices, It’s as if you are allowing it to take place because you’ve said nothing, you know. And so I really strongly feel that now more than ever, the Christian church has to be the hands and the feet. But let me add to that and the mouthpiece for God. Hands, feet, and mouth. You know, oftentimes we say, be the hands and feet of Jesus. That’s true. You know, we want to do good works. We want to be that good Samaritan. But we also want to speak up.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yes.
SPEAKER 03 :
And so I really think that apathy is one of the things that’s causing the church to become anemic. Because we know when we should act, but we say, it’s someone else’s problem. Right. Or that’s not happening at our school. Or poor them, you know, let me go focus on my own family. And so we are called to be the body of Christ and the bride of Christ. But sadly today, the bride of Christ is afraid to break a nail. And so we position ourselves in a manner where we want to play it safe. The Bible says that everyone that will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. And sadly, because of self-preservation, so many pastors are taking the position where, you know, I’ll just be neutral or I’ll be a pastor who’s more careful in what I should say rather than just risking it all for God.
SPEAKER 01 :
I’ll often hear pastors say, I don’t want to offend anybody. Well, my goodness, the gospel of Jesus Christ is an offense. It is. To the world we live in. So what a thing to say. Pastor, you also said that you were called a book banner. Yes. I’ve heard, unfortunately, over the last couple of years, powerful words. elected officials in our own government call people like you and parents, moms and dads around the country that showed up at school board meetings to complain. Oh, they’re book banners. None of these books are actually banned. I mean, these books, as bad as they are, are still available in bookstores to adults that want to buy them. And that’s sad that there are adults that want to buy some of this trash. But what you have fought for and what Dr. Dobson’s fought for is to keep this stuff away from little children. And what we’re facing, as you know, are people that say children at the earliest age, all the way down to second and third grade, should be learning about some of this. Right. So, first of all, it’s a lie that you’re trying to ban a book or burn a book, right?
SPEAKER 03 :
It is a lie. You know, and every time they call me a book banner, you know, initially when they call me the book banning pastor, I took offense to it. I said, I don’t like that. But now I kind of wear it with a badge of honor because really what they’re saying is they’re truly incriminating themselves because I don’t want to ban books. I just have common sense. When you go to a public school or even a private school, a student just can’t get on their laptop or on their cell phone and begin to type in any site that they want to go to, especially a pornographic site. You can’t go to it because they put guardrails on the internet. So if we’re going to put a guardrail on the internet so that a kid can’t go to a porn site, shouldn’t we do that in the library when it comes to books? Shouldn’t we make it where kids don’t have access to smut? And sadly, I have to say this because people are asking me all the time, why are we in this mess? And it will take a long time for me to unpack that. But let me just go straight to the heart of the issue. Because of the false triune idol of diversity, equity, and inclusion, Content like this is being placed in our classrooms. Kids are being taught about pronouns. Kids are being told that there are over 72 different genders. You know, Genesis 1, 27 says that God made us male and female. Verse 28 says, and God blessed them. He blessed the male and female construct. And so if you do it God’s way, you receive God’s blessing. But when you do it man’s way, you receive a curse. And so I call it the false triune idol because DEI mimics the Trinity. You know, in the Trinity, we have Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. DEI, you have diversity, equity, and inclusion. When it comes to the Trinity, our worship with God, God desires private worship. And from that private worship, it flows out into corporate worship. But when it comes to DEI, they can care less about private worship. They want to cancel you and deplatform you if you don’t bow to their agenda in public.
SPEAKER 01 :
You know, Pastor, when somebody like myself or Dr. Dobson, you know, we’re white guys, and we’re getting up in years. When we talk about DEI, I mean, it is like walking on, you know, a tightrope across the Grand Canyon. One poorly chosen phrase, and Just like they called you a book banner, they’re going to call us racists and so forth. But I think one of the powerful things that’s happened in recent years is that our brothers and sisters in Christ in the black community are stepping up like yourself. And nobody’s going to call you a racist, Pastor. So let me thank you for bringing this forward.
SPEAKER 03 :
Let me say this. I have been called a white supremacist. Let me, of course, they’ve called me an Uncle Tom and all of that other stuff, you know. I went to California, Temecula, California, to speak at a school board meeting. I delivered a message entitled, 10 Things That Black Students Don’t Need in Education. Number one, I said that we don’t need affirmative action. Number two, I said that we don’t need critical race theory where we label whites as inherently racist while propping blacks up as if we are proverbial victims. You know, the last time I checked, the Bible says that I’m a royal priesthood. And so you can’t be royalty and a victim at the same time. I said that we don’t need the soft bigotry of low expectations. And then I said that we don’t need white liberals telling us that they know what’s best for us than we know what’s best for ourselves. Two weeks later, they were writing about me and labeling me as a white supremacist. You know, it’s, and that’s very condescending. I’ll tell you why. Why is it that because I believe that my values come from the Bible rather than the culture, why do I have to now be a white supremacist? Because I believe that babies should be protected from every stage, at every stage of gestation. Why do I have to now be a white supremacist? Because I believe in school choice. Because I believe in bringing inflation down. Because I believe in securing our country. You know, we have this book in the Bible called Nehemiah. And the focus of that book is building a wall.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yes. Pastor, you said all these things you’ve been called. You’ve been called a book banner and so forth. Can you share with us what happened the first time you You went to one of these school board meetings, not the case where you were defending that poor young lady that was mocked by her teacher because she was a follower of Jesus Christ. But when you went to a school board and just tried to share with them by reading out loud what they were allowing the children of that community to be exposed to and what ended up happening when you did that. Right.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I’ll give you two stories briefly. I went to Vero Beach, Florida, read from a book entitled 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher. The book was very pornographic, very, very, very pornographic. And I read the pages of the book. And within 10 seconds, the board chairlady gaveled me down and told me that I can’t read that, you know, it’s too much in public. And I kept reading it because, you know, I’m not going to fly a thousand miles to a certain location and then get there and then they defraud me and rob me of my freedom of speech. If I have three minutes to speak, hear me, hear me clear. I’m going to speak for three minutes. And so she began to gavel me down. And after that, they came and took my microphone from me and then sent in four cops. And the cops grabbed me by the arm and took me out of the school board meeting.
SPEAKER 01 :
Unbelievable.
SPEAKER 03 :
Recently in Wake County, North Carolina, I spoke at our school board meeting here in my hometown. I addressed two issues. There was a young girl by the name of Lorena Benson who was forced to read from a short story in her class that was incestuous. It talked about two cousins who had a sexual relationship. She had to read from that in class and then discuss it. She went to the school board meeting and told them what happened and that she was traumatized by it and that she resigned from that school. The school board had done nothing about it two weeks later. And then we have this bill called HB 49, which is a parental rights bill in North Carolina, where it says that you’re not allowed to put gender confusing books on the bookshelves statewide. Do you not know that all around this state there are still gender confusing books, grades K through four, on the bookshelves as we speak? And no one has done anything about it. After traveling to 16 states, I have three takeaways. Number one, perverts are perverting the hearts and the minds of our children. Number two, parents are unaware. And number three, pastors, yes, pastors have failed to do their job. I’m calling on men all around this country to stand in the gap and to protect our families. You know, the glory of the man is the woman. But today, many of our men are robbing women of their glory. That’s why they want to compete in women’s sports. They can’t compete against men. You know, if they compete against men, they get last place, right? Right. So then they come up with a novel idea. Hmm, let me go compete against women. And sadly today, we don’t have enough men speaking up about that.
SPEAKER 01 :
You’re absolutely right, Pastor. And were you shocked when it went so far in those early visits that they literally would try to arrest you or physically remove you? You know, it’s been amazing to see how quickly this fundamental right of the freedom of speech and our right to petition our own government – That those basic things are under attack and you see it all the time. And a lot of the people that are doing it are the same people that are running around saying that there’s a threat to our democracy. What ends up, they’re the threat to our democracy.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right, which is a strategy of Karl Marx. Karl Marx believed in labeling democracy. the enemy in the same manner by saying that the enemy seeks to do exactly what he wants to do. In other words, they call us threats to our democracy. They call us the fascist. They say that we are the Hitlers. But at the end of the day, that’s truly their plan. And so one of the things that we see clearly in this culture is that if you don’t have the pulse of what’s going on. And if you don’t understand the impact that syncretism is having on the Christian church, you’re going to be duped. And by syncretism, I mean the amalgamation of cultural belief systems and thoughts where that which is holy and righteous has become perverted and secular because it has been watered down. That’s where we are.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, you’re listening to Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk, featuring a compelling conversation with Pastor John Omwanchukwu about education, parental rights, and the hidden dangers lurking in today’s classrooms. His passionate defense of our children and biblical values reminds us why we must remain vigilant in protecting the next generation. Now, if you missed any part of today’s broadcast or you’d like to share it with friends, simply visit drjamesdobson.org forward slash family talk. There you’ll also find out more about our guest, Pastor John Amonchukwu, and his new documentary, 22 Words, Exposing the Loss of Decency in American Education. And if you are interested in hosting a screening of this powerful documentary, you’ll find all that information when you go to drjamesdobson.org forward slash family talk. Here at the JDFI, we are committed to promoting and teaching biblical principles that support marriage, family, and child development. And programs like the one you heard today are made possible by the generosity of friends just like you. Now, if you’ve been impacted by what you heard on this program and you want to help us broadcast biblical truth to even more families all across America, then I invite you to step forward with a tax-deductible donation. Your support of any amount will help us continue standing up and speaking out about critical issues affecting families. Every day we hear from listeners who tell us how these broadcasts have given them hope and practical guidance for raising godly children in challenging times. You play an integral role in these life-changing moments, for sure. So to make a secure donation, visit drjamesdobson.org. That’s drjamesdobson.org. Or write to us at Post Office Box 39000, Colorado Springs, Colorado, the zip code 80949. Well, I’m Roger Marsh, and from all of us here at the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, thanks so much for listening today. Be sure to join us again next time for part two of a powerful conversation featuring Gary Bauer and Pastor John Amwanchukwu. It’s coming up next time right here on Family Talk, the voice you trust for the family you love.
SPEAKER 03 :
This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.
