Culture & Christianity: The Allen Jackson Podcast - Spiritual Warfare in the Workplace [Featuring Pastor John Amanchukwu Sr.]

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

In a world where pastors present DEI as a biblical idea and students are taught to despise America, Pastor John Amanchukwu delivers sound, biblical truth that’s full of common sense. A bold and passionate advocate for children, families, and truth, Amanchukwu frequently stands up to school boards that allow pornographic books in their libraries. On this podcast, he visits with Pastor Allen to talk about the value of work, the importance of each person’s calling, our responsibility to protect the children, and how God led him to his current path. __ It’s up to us to bring God’s truth back into our culture. It may feel like an impossible assignment, but there’s much we can do. Join Pastor Allen Jackson as he discusses today’s issues from a biblical perspective. Find thought-provoking insight from Pastor Allen and his guests, equipping you to lead with your faith in your home, your school, your community, and wherever God takes you. Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3JsyO6ysUVGOIV70xAjtcm?si=6805fe488cf64a6d Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/culture-christianity-the-allen-jackson-podcast/id1729435597

And so many of our kids are confused today. They're on this pendulum of wondering whether or not this country is good or whether it's the worst country ever on the face of the planet. And so all of this divides America. But we want to unite America. And there's nothing wrong with view in this country as a Christian nation. America was founded upon Judeo-Christian principles. I still believe that.

You believe that. And that doesn't simply make me a Christian nationalist. They've made that a derogatory term, right? But it really means that you hold to traditional values, values that stem from the Word of God. Well, welcome back to culture and Christianity. I am delighted to have my friend John Amun Chuku with us again today. We did a podcast some months ago.

If you missed that, let me send you back there. I think it'll bless you. We talked about lies that Americans believe. And John, as you will find out in a moment's speaks with some clarity and truthfulness that is refreshing. I'm of the opinion that the church has to tell more truth than the politicians do. And we currently have an administration that's trying to tell the truth, so the church is going to have to raise our game a little bit,

those of us that believe we're Christ followers. We also have a live audience with us today, which is not normal for a podcast. We have got a room filled with teenagers. Can y'all make a little noise? Yes. So John and I get into this discussion and you hear noise in the room. It's not there coming for us. They're very much encouraging us.

So, John, welcome back. It's good to have you. Thank you so much for having me back on. It's a joy to be here. It is always an honor to be with you. Now, the last time we were together, you were just releasing a project, a documentary that you've been working on called 22 words. Yes, 22 words.

It's a film that really covers the history of how the American, education system imploded. You know, in 1962, you had the court case, the Engel v. V. V. court case where they lobbied to remove school-sponsored prayer from the public education system. It took place in Hyde Park, New York. There was a simple non-denominational, non-prositizing prayer that was allowed to be recited every day led by the school system and or the teachers. And the prayer is simple. It's short. It says, Almighty, God, we acknowledge our dependence upon thee, and we beg thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our country. And they objected to that prayer. They objected to that prayer,

and the prayer only had 22 words, and it hence the title of the film, 22 words. And from that terrible court case in ruling, the Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 to remove that prayer, we have seen the American education system spiral downward. We've gone from prayer to porn, from prayer to transgenderism, from prayer to critical race theory, where today kids go to school who are white and they're told that they're inherently racist because of the pigmentation of the skin tone, and blacks are being labeled as proverbial victims. It's division. We've gone from prayer to transgender.

genderism. We've gone from prayer to now kids going to school and they're saluting and having the BLM flag with the pride flag and the progress flag flown at their school system. And so we have seen these things take place, but it's a direct result of removing God from the public school system. I believe that any place where God is banned, that place is cursed. You can't reap the favor and the benefits of a holy and righteous God when that God is no longer welcome. Yeah, I'd agree with you. And my academic career kind of tracks when all that happened. I was a child, but I mean, I lived through that.

Sure. And the idea was that if you said that prayer in a classroom and one person objected, sure, then you couldn't say that prayer. That's it. Because if one person was offended, you didn't have permission to take the values of a larger group and force them on that person. Am I right? Is that the idea?

It is. That's the idea. And so because of that, the Christians, and we were overwhelmingly Christian, but if one person raised their hand, well, the Christian said, well, then we won't do that. That's right. We don't want to be offensive. Yes. So scroll forward 50 years.

And now we find the schools that will bring in LGBTQ. They'll bring on all sorts of things. And if I raise my hand and I say I'm offended, now they say you're wrong. You're wrong. And they label you as. being a hate monger or a bigot or homophobic, when if you go 50 years back, it was okay to have the voice of dissent. Right.

And so today we live in a culture where if you disagree with a person, then disagreement equals hate. And that shouldn't be the case. Just because you disagree doesn't mean that you hate someone. It just means that you disagree on a point. I can still love you and disagree with you. But there's a new religion that's being taught. It's the religion of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

It's the religion of communism and Marxism. There are people who hate the cause of Christ in the name of Christ so much that they want to shout and scream death to America. Kids are taught to hate the American flag and to hate the founding of our country. There's so much divisive talk and rhetoric that's being pumped into the hearts and the minds of our children. And so many of our kids are confused today. They're on this pendulum of wondering whether or not this country is good or whether it's the worst country ever on the face of the planet. And so all of this divides America, but we want to unite America. And there's nothing wrong with view in this country as a Christian nation.

America was founded upon Judeo-Christian principles. I still believe that. You believe that. And that doesn't simply make me a Christian nationalist. They've made that a derogatory term, right? But it really means that you hold to traditional values, values that stem from the Word of God. Well, let's go back to DEI because that's had an enormous amount of public funding. Yes.

We've got DEI ingrained in our academics, particularly at the university level. Right. And I've heard a lot of pastors that endorsed it, and they'll say that it's biblical. You have a formal theological education. Do you agree that DEI as it's being presented in our culture is a biblical idea? It's not a biblical idea. You have to be careful taking worldly terms and the terminologies that come from secular humanists and for people who have a true disdain for the scriptures and the infallibility of the Word of God.

We have to be careful taking their colloquialisms and their true disdain. terms and bringing them into a biblical context. We don't need critical race theory or diversity, equity, and inclusion or any of those things to thrive in this country or in any country. Really what we need is to get back to true biblical principles, to love your neighbor as yourself, and to expect people to work and to labor and to toil. You know, the Bible says if a man doesn't work, neither shall he eat. We see where God gave a group of men talents. And some of the men used the talents and they went out and they produced more. And one didn't do anything. And for the person who did nothing, God took what he had. You know, this whole framework of equity is a big

lie. And in the education system today, they want to redefine proficiency. So today, you change the grading scale. And no longer do you view a certain grade level as a grade as an A or B. It has to change to scale towards a person's output, whether or not they're studying or applying themselves academically. And so the Bible promotes work. It promotes sweat equity, you know. It talks about the ant and the sluggard, you know, and the work that they put out. And so one of the things that we have to keep in mind,

today is that we are creating a generation of narcissistic, non-working children who are expecting to reap the benefits of their parents where they had to labor and to toil to receive the things that they have. Life isn't easy. You're going to have to burn the midnight oil. Look at most successful people. Those people sleep little, but they spend a lot of time in their craft, honing and developing their skill set. It takes a lot of time and then there's a lot of failure as well. You don't start off as a successful business leader initially. You have to go through the hard and lean years at first. But what this notion of equity seeks to do is seeks to take from the losers, right? It takes from the winners and gives to the losers, people who haven't worked and labored and toil. There are some people

who grew up in homes who have never seen their parents leave the home to go to work. Because all of their lives, they've lived off of the government system. You know, I know of some people who have for decades, they've never worked, and they just work the system, and they use the disability programs that are there, and the safety nets of welfare begin to get exploited. You know, welfare is a safety net, but it's not a hammock. Growing up as a kid, you know, I grew up in utter poverty. My mother took care of four children and making no more than $28,000 a year.

Wow. I know what it's like to ration out milk and cereal. I know what it's like to take some milk and put it in a bowl and put some water in there to give the idea that you have milk, only to put a little bit of cereal in that, and that's all you have. But my mother had the mindset that instead of us expecting the government to provide everything for us, she took on another job. I remember many times where she'll clock in at one job and then get back home, change your clothes, and go clock in to another job. Sometimes she worked nearly 16 hours a day. We did go through a time frame where we were on welfare, but we

came off of it speedily because my mom didn't like the idea that we were receiving government assistance and or we had to go to a different lunch line to receive our food at school. So mom taught us that there were two things that we can do with our hands. We can turn them upside down and beg or turn them right side up and work. And one of the things that has to be ingrained in this culture today is that working is a virtue. We have to view it as a virtue. Nothing is free. Nothing comes easy.

But this hyperculture of instant gratification in life is going to be a microwaved hot pocket, right? Things are going to come easy. It really doesn't work that way. And it begins to degenerate the hearts and the minds of our upcoming generation. You know, I've had the habit for a while of saying that I think work is an expression of worship. That's good. When you take the tools and the gifts and the abilities that, God has given you.

Right. And you use them. Sure. If you point the responses to that, if you're good at it. Right. And people say you did a nice job. If you point that to the Lord, you're helping people give glory and honor to God for what he did in you.

So that work isn't something to be avoided. That's right. Or to be explained away. God gave us gifts. That's good. I mean, he gave you some crazy gifts. I mean, you got to play D1 football. Right.

You've got college degrees. I mean, you've got a broad menu of gifts. Sure, sure. And we'd be stupid to go, we're self-made men. That's right. God gave us some gifts, and then we went to work with them. So I love your message. I think there's a lot of generations that can benefit from that.

That's good. You mentioned DEI and CRT. Those are all constructs and programs around race. Exactly. So can we just take a minute? Because I think there's so much confusion about how to talk about race. Right. And so much anger, they've used it to divide us.

We need one another. Well, you know, we have, you can't tackle the issue of racism, you know, because when it comes to race, there's only one race, the human race, but there's different ethnicities, you know. However, it's hard for a person who may not be black to understand the race issue unless they go back to a historical time frame and understand the climate and the culture and the tenor of society. of that day, where blacks may have been labeled as three-fifths human, where blacks were told that they couldn't drink from the same water fountain as white. And what I'm referencing right now are some Jim Crow laws that were drafted by the Democrat Party. That has to be brought up, you know, because the Democrat Party is the party that drafted the Jim Crow laws and held on to slavery as well and resisted the 1964 Civil Rights Act initially is also. And so we have to look at that,

but you have to go back and see the cultural lens of that day and time to best understand where we are today. Critical race theory is a vengeance movement. The mentality is this. Since blacks went through harsh treatment in the early time frame of slavery and or the Jim Crow era, they believe that it's incumbent upon them to now force whites to go through the same treatment. So since blacks were bludgeon and castigated, therefore whites have to endure that. Ebram Kendi, one of the leading voices for critical race theory, said that the best way to deal with past racism is present racism.

Now, when we take that viewpoint and line it up to scripture, we find what the Bible says that these things shouldn't be. Because God says that vengeance is mine, say if the Lord, what is right, I will repay. And so we don't take it upon ourselves and now to treat whites harshly solely because of what happened in the past. And then we also have to keep in mind that there aren't any blacks alive today who are slaves. And there are no whites alive today who own slaves. And so many of these things can be wrapped up in the mindset of these are things that ancestors did. but we've grown far from where we once were.

And so how do we bring healing to the racial conversations? The best way to do it is to point towards scriptures and understand that we are made in the image of God in the Amago day, and my white, my blackness isn't deficient, nor is your whiteness superior. That we're equal at the foot of the cross. That aligns both parties. but we then have to tackle these issues head on,

and when things take place in the culture where we can see, well, that was an issue that we can address. We speak up about it, you know? Many people turn silent when it's time to voice their opinions on these things, solely sometimes because they have a skewed mindset towards it and or because they don't want to realize the truth of a situation. You look at the George Floyd case. You look at the Ahmed Arbery situation.

Similar situations, but rather different. The culture sought to exploit those things for financial gain. Look at the Black Lives Matters movement, founded by three lesbian women, who at the end of the day raised over $90 million, and not a single penny went to the descendants of George Floyd. However, they bought mansions and outfits and clothes and fingernails and hair, And all of these various different things were purchased with that money, but none of the money went towards benefiting the black community.

And so these people are called race hustlers and race baiters. And one of the things that we find through history is that that is a job. Some people take it upon them to make it their job to keep people divided. The Democrat Party does that quite well. Every two to four years, in order to gain support from blacks, we have. have to say that the white man is going to take us back. Back to what? That's what Reverend Al Sharpton and Reverend Jesse Jackson and all of these other individuals were shouting the past election that President Trump is going to take us back. And the question is back to what? Back to

aborting 20 million black babies, which has been the plan of the Democrat Party for a long time through the support that has come from the federal government to support those initiatives back to that? And so one of the things that you have to consider when you have this conversation around race is what political party is pulling the strings. And oftentimes when you can find who the puppet master is, you can see clearly why things are the way they are.

But we don't need woke terms to help us solve the issue of racism. More than anything, you have to look inwardly. And if I'm thinking a racist thought, if I view my brother or sister in Christ, who may have a different skin tone as the enemy or the devil or the buffoon, that says that I have a heart issue. And so we expect for that individual to go to Christ and ask God to help them deal with their heart issue so they can best love the image of God.

I think the church, excuse me, I agree with you. I think the church lost its way. Yes. You know, the moral authority for the civil rights movement in the 60s with Dr. King and that generation of leaders. Yes. Really came from Scripture. Yes, yes. That we had to be judged based on the content of our character, not the color of our skin.

Right. And because they were standing on biblical authority, Scripture thundered against the sin in this nation. It didn't. It couldn't be sustained against the voice of Scripture. the same way I think we'll see some of the immorality that's been so pushed for the last two or three decades. I think it will crumble before the authority of scripture. If the church will once again gain the courage to take the truth of God and speak it like you do so clearly. But I think we've got to come back to that, to understanding that it's a heart change that we have to have, that there is no

difference in us below our appearance. That's right. That's right. And it's evil to think anything other than that. It is. And you know, Dr. King was against white supremacy and black supremacy, but he was for God's supremacy. What a thought. And that's the same mindset that we have to have ourselves. And sometimes you get to know different communities better as you begin to interact with people. What a thought.

You learn. You grow. You develop. You know, I admire the relationship that we have and me getting to know you. You know, that it's a beautiful thing because we connect on many different levels. But what I'm finding out the more that I age is that there's something more powerful than being like color. It's being like-minded. You know, Jesus says, who is my mother, who is my father, who is my sister, who is my brother, those who do the will of God. And so I'm not simply looking

for like-color people. I'm looking for the people who want to do the will of God. And to we labor and toil to reach people who don't as one unit. Oftentimes they say that Sunday morning is the most divided day of the week. You have the terminology of the white church and the black church and the black Baptist and the white Baptist and that's not the will of God. We understand why those things exist, you know, the cultural implications thereof of the past. however, it's beautiful to see the multicultural tapestry that's growing in the body of Christ, where we can all lay down our preferences, but unite at the foot of the cross.

Amen. You know, and if you are more open and expressive in your worship, I can celebrate that. But if your style of worship is to be more reserved and quiet and to more so internalized things, I can smell at that as well. that's how we unite as the body of Christ. That's good preaching. About you were 19, I'm going to change directions a little bit. You had a pretty significant life change. Yes, indeed.

Tell us a little bit about it. So I'll tell this story. I don't tell it everywhere, but I used to be a bouncer at a nightclub. Go figure, right? And so before coming is true. I can see that working. You can see it working, right? So prior to coming to Christ, I was a bouncer at a nightclub.

Every Thursday, every Friday, every Sunday. Saturday, and every Sunday I would put on my black shirt with security written around my chest. I'll do about 150 push-ups before I would go into the nightclub. I would stop by a local corner store and buy a black-and-mouth cigar and drink cheap liquor. I couldn't afford much while in college. I would drink some Mad Dog 2020, do some push-ups, smoking cigar faster, and go into the club, stand there big and bad waiting for someone to fight so I can throw someone out of the club. And just to think about how far the Lord has brought me.

You know, I can recall a sermon that I heard at the age of 19 from a pastor, his name was Pastor Cameron. He's in heaven now. But he preached so that I could see my existence. He preached me out of myself so that I could see my existence. He preached me out of myself so that I could see myself to the point where I fell to my knees saying, what must I do to get saved? And God did a transformative work in me.

And so after giving my life to Christ, I knew that the job that I had at the nightclub, although I needed that, you know, $200 to $300 every two weeks, right? I needed that money to survive in college. I knew I had to get rid of that job. But that was a test from God. And so one of the first things I did is I relinquished that job. And I had a problem during that time frame as well. I used to pump and ingest all of the hip-hop music, all of the rap music.

And at that time, trying to walk the path of being a Christian, I wanted to change my rhetoric. Let me make it plain. I wanted to stop using profanity. And so I don't think it's becoming of a Christian to use that kind of language. you know, curse words and swear words. And so therefore, the Lord told me what to do. He said, you need to get rid of the music, change your music. And so I went to my room and grabbed my box of hip hop music and CDs,

and I put it all in a box and took it outside behind Latham Hall on campus and threw those tapes away and those CDs away. And slowly but surely I noticed that my message and my tone and my response to certain things and my language begin to change. And so then I also had to learn how to practice holiness, right, and to become abstinent after living a rambunctious life, you know? And so that slowly but surely put me in a position where my walk with Christ lined up with my lifestyle.

And so you're not going to be perfect, but we're striving for the masteries. And one of the things that young men and young women need to understand is that you can live a holy life at a young age. You don't have to take the mentality of these only fans girls that are out there who are sleeping with a hundred men in one day trying to break a record. No, that's a fast way to HIV, AIDS, STDs, and gonorrhea, right? You don't need that to qualify yourself. Honestly, when a man is prepared to get married, hear me when I say this.

When a man is prepared to get married, he's not looking for the only fans girl. He's looking for that sweet, saved girl who he can trust with raising his family. And so if you want to be a vessel of honor, you have to view yourself as fine china and not as cheap Tupperware. And so you possess your vessel in a manner

where a man says, you know, I want to marry her, because she's rare. She's exceptional. The culture tells us today, have as much sex as possible. So you're wild oats. Go do whatever you want to.

You only live once. You know, it's Yolo. You know, but no, here's the thing. You only die once, right? But you're living to live again. And so what we do with our vessels down here will matter on the day of judgment. And so my transformation was, I mean,

remarkable. I recall getting to know the book of Psalms well. Every morning I would get on my knees and read about 10 to sometimes 20 different Psalms before I would start my day. And at the time, I had a roommate and he was in the past lifestyle with me. And slowly but surely he noticed that John had changed. And I went from just simply being John to now being preach, you know, because once you get born again, you have that New Zeal to win the world. I wanted to win the whole campus. And so I would be on my knees in the morning, praying my psalms.

He would be behind me in bed. Maybe a young lady that slept over with him that night, but we were in the same pod. And so that was my setup. So you're making all these changes while you're in college, playing football, living that lifestyle, and you're willing to be different. That's right.

And you're making choices that allow godliness to grow in your life. That's right. See, I think one of the great, and you mentioned it, and I'll let you get back, but I think one of the great lies is the devil tells us we should kick that down the road. You know, you're in high school, just do whatever you want to do. You're in college, go sow your wild oats. And the truth is you only go to high school once. True.

Why not go for Jesus? That's right. That's right. You're only going to college once. Why not go for Jesus? Because if you abide that lie, you'll be at the end of your life. You'll have spent all your years. and you'll have never stopped

because at every season of life there's a reason to be selfish. It's true. It's true. You get all the way to retirement and then they say, well, it's my time. You know, I've raised my family, I've had a job, and now it's my time. It's the same lie that the high school student believes

when they think they shouldn't honor God. So true. So the courage it took for you to change your life in front of those folks. Yeah. I know they made some fun of you. Oh, they did. Someone might say, kick it down the road,

and focus on that later, but how do you know that later is promised? The majority of the funerals that I've seen over the past 10 years hasn't always been the person that was 85 or 90. Sometimes the funerals are people who are 18 and 21 who thought that kicking salvation down the road would be the best plan. No man knows the day nor the hour that the Lord shall appear. and every breath that we take is borrowed time.

So you can kick it down the road, but you could kick yourself into judgment. And that's the last thing that you want to do. Paul says that every man shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ to give an answer of what they've done in their body, whether it be good or bad. Then he goes on to say, and knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.

And so my role today is to persuade as many people as possible, not to kick it down the road, but to submit to Christ while you can. And so, yes, they picked on me because they were saying that, oh, preach, man, you're not getting any play anymore. You don't have the girlfriends and you're not doing what we're doing.

You're just boring and you're just dull. One night, I'll tell you a story. One of the prettiest girls on campus by the name of Tanzania, I was sleep. It was around 2 a.m. And one of my teammates came into my room. I was knocked out. You know, I was calling on the hogs,

And he took this girl and put her in my bed at 2 a.m. And at this point, I had been practicing abstinence for eight months, right? And I was learning a new way of life, a new walk, and just doing it God's way. And I woke up at 2 a.m. and me and him had a tussle, and you know who won. I was stronger than him. And I wanted to make it clear that although I'm living this Christian life, I'm no one's dormant. And the sacrifice that I'm making spiritually is for the betterment of my spirit man, right? Because I didn't want to be in the church, but also be in the world at the same time.

I didn't want to straddle the fence. And oftentimes people think that straddling the fence is the best thing. No, you have to pick a side. You know, the Bible speaks of darkness and light, not having fellowship, you know, and how can two, walk together except they be agreed. And so we want to live in a manner where we're united with Christ, but we live up to the standards thereof, you know, right? And when you fall and you come short of what God expects, we thank God for his mercy and his grace. But spiritual maturity comes from how we discipline ourselves. So I had to walk in discipline during that time frame. And solely,

but surely I found myself finding a motley crew of teammates who wanted to live the same lifestyle. Come on. And then I transitioned from one small university and go to NC State. And then while I'm there, I lead a prayer group in the racquetball room on Monday nights at around 9.35 p.m. It would be me in about 5 to 10 other teammates. We're smelly. We're stinking. We don't care.

But we're on our knees in the racquetball room. room calling on the name of the Lord. And then on Tuesdays, I let a Bible study at one of the busiest dormitories on campus. And so I've been working in the area of youth ministry and working with young adults for a long time since I was 19, essentially. And so that's about 21 years. And so God has called me to the younger demographic, to really empower them and to remind them that if God can take a person who did 150 pushups outside of the nightclub every night, right, who used to smoke cigars and drink the cheap liquor and do all of these things just to impress someone and also earn a paycheck. If God can deliver me at the age of 19 from these things,

he can do the same thing for you. Amen. And but it requires a person being willing to trust God in their journey. Everyone has a journey. right but i do i do believe that many of the benefits of finding christ at a young age is that number one it keeps you from the consequences that come from living a riotous life you know many of the blessings that i walk in today and that i have today is solely because i made the right decision at the right time i didn't wait to 40 to give my life to christ i took advantage of the opportunity when I had it at night. I like that better.

It isn't just that you didn't have so much to repent of. You were preparing. Yes, yes. When you made those decisions at 19 and beyond through college with people making fun of you. Yes. When there were abundant opportunities to be ungodly, and you would make a decision to be godly anyway.

Yes, yes. When you had a lot of peers and friends that were making other choices. Right. In truth, you were being prepared. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You know, David talked when he heard Goliath, He talked about he'd been prepared with the lion and a bear.

That's right. And it feels like to me that you spent a lot of years being prepared. Indeed. And then God called on you. You knew what it was like to be made fun of when you were 20. So in the last couple of years, you've traveled our nation. Yes. And stood in front of school boards in 18 states.

Yes, 18 states. Telling them that the filth they've been making available to the students is not appropriate. That's right. And I suspect everybody hadn't cheered when you've done that, haven't. Not really. They haven't. You know, but you were developing that muscle for 20 years.

That's right. Getting ready for that. That's right. You know, God has us all in our waiting season and on the backside of the mountain where he's preparing us and honing us. And hear me, God takes people who have gone through difficult situations. Regardless of what has happened to you in life, God knows how to mend the broken hearted.

You know, we deal with all types of adversity, social adversity, psychological adversity, mental adversity, financial adversity. We serve a God that takes adversity and strengthens us at the same time. But the scripture also tells us that if we faint in the day of adversity, then our strength is small. So how do we know how much strength we have? God sends the difficulties. And the difficulties are used to hone us. It's our spiritual treadmill that gives us the mobility and the stamina and the courage to stand

so that God can get you to the level where he's going to use you for his glory. And I see myself doing that today. I'm accustomed to the cut downs and the nasty statements. I think it was the preparation of my early 20s that allows me to deal with people writing full-fledged articles about me. You know, it's not just a sentence or a paragraph, but a full article, and they put your face on it as well, right? And so you have to develop that stamina.

I know what it's like to receive death threats. I know what it's like for people to say, damaging things about me and my wife. You know, you receive that kind of information. I know what it's like to go to a place, to speak and you check your email and someone's in the audience, but they're sending you negative comments and saying what would happen if you say certain things. I know what that is like, but I also know what is like where the scripture, to know the word of God and to walk in God's

truth and to know that no weapon formed against you shall prosper and every tongue risen in judgment shall be condemned. And so God does use every season to prepare us, every stage, matters. There isn't a stage in the human existence that God isn't pruning and using you and developing you so that he can use you for his glory. That's so good. And so as I travel with this country, I'm emboldened. I'm encouraged as never before. I'm fought against as never before. But as God takes me on this journey, on this trek of being a repairer of the breach, of bringing common sense to education, I know that my existence is for purpose. And the quest of life is finding that balance and knowing why God allowed you to be born.

What all the damaging things that have come in your past, what all of the hard times and difficult moments, why did God intend and purpose that I would see 2025? every person has a special reason why God has allowed them to come into existence. And his purpose is that that individual will be used for his glory, for his glory alone. He has a special plan for all mankind, regardless of where you're from, regardless of what side of the track you were born, regardless of how eloquent, how strong and how courageous you are, God has a purpose for you. Amen, you've out preached the preacher.

You too kind. So even if people call you names and don't like you and resist you, God's purposes can still come forth in your life. That's right. I understand in California they called you a white supremacist. That's what they called me. And, you know, I guess I'm... We've been wondering about you.

I get it out here. I know it, right? And so I make a joke now that Pastor Allen has teach me, you know, to walk in my whiteness down because, you know, he's a close brother. And I wake up every morning and I say to my wife, I want to be the best white man that I can possibly be to you. And it's just a big joke. It's a big lie. They called me a white supremacist because I don't hold viewpoints that they think a black man should hold.

Which is rather condescending towards black men. What they're saying is towards any man. And towards any man, you're right, you know. What they're saying is since I believe that gender theory and queer theory and critical race theory and redefining proficiency and all of these various different things shouldn't happen in the public school system, that I have to be a white supremacist. But that doesn't make any sense because I believe that life is precious at every stage of gestation. I'm a white supremacist because I repel and I'm against the soft bigotry of low expectations. I'm a white supremacists. You know, there's white liberals, and I say this humbly, right?

But historically, white liberals have a pattern of lowering the bar from minorities. And thinking that they know what's best for us. then we know what's best for ourselves. They positioned themselves as the proverbial white saviors, where we need them for them to be our crutch because we're incapable of standing on our own two feet. Now, when you go back to a time frame from the 1890s to the 1950s, part of the 1960s where the black marriage rate rivaled that of whites,

When you look at the family structure of the black community during that time frame, the 1890s up to the 1960s, things were quite different. You know, you had more intact homes with two parents there, mother and a father. We started our own businesses. We built our own schools because of issues with segregation. Even with all the bigotry and the hatred. With all the bigotry, all of the hatred, all of the Democrats, loss. All of that stuff, we overcame those things. But along comes Lyndon B. Johnson with his great society plan. He found a creative way to remove the black man from the home and replace him

with a $300 to $400 check from the government. Because of that, it shifted the landscape of the black community. They created welfare states. and a dependency upon the federal government to provide for their basic needs. That destroyed the black community. And I've heard this said before, and I like to say it myself, since the Democrat Party destroyed the black community, I want to destroy the Democrat Party. I take that personally.

Because I see the trends, I see the place that we are in this culture as a result of Democrat laws that have been seen. set up intentionally to marginalize blacks and make them think that they need to build a dependence upon the government. The government will only give you enough to keep you hamstrung and to keep you subservient to the system. We live in a country where capitalism is celebrated. The fastest way to wealth is following the capitalistic structure, not Marxism or communism or socialism, but capitalism.

The fastest way to wealth is getting married at a young age, starting a family, having children at a young age, building a home, being a homeowner, not leasing all of your life, but being a homeowner. These are the fastest ways to wealth and prosperity. But what the government seeks to do is to convince you that, no, you can't do that on your own, you need us to do it. But I don't espouse to that. I believe that the greatest thing that we can do is take advantage of the opportunities that we have. People aren't fighting to get out of America. People are fighting and risking their lives to get in.

We're going to have to, I know we've got to close this. You've got a plane to catch. Yes. And I agree with what you said, but I want to say it a little differently, saying that the Democratic Party failed. I want to say that differently. I don't think it was a political party that failed. I think it's the church that failed. If the church had been the church, slavery would have been addressed long before we got to the Civil War.

I agree with that. And the reason that's relevant to us, I believe, is the places where the church is failing today, it's destroying lives. That's good. The church has failed to speak up about abortion, and we've lost more than 60 million children. and the church has been reluctant to speak up about DEI.

Yes, yes. And it's allows racism to take root in our nation again, in our Christian schools and our Christian universities. The church has failed to speak up because they're afraid about LGBTQ and the redefinition of marriage. And we're abandoning a whole generation of young people, the ungodliness. So, yes, I look back and with embarrassment, say the church failed in a horrific way.

But if the church isn't healthy and vibrant and doesn't have the courage to tell the truth now, there's a generation 50 and 60 years in front of us will look back at us with the same sense of failure that we look back at the church when slavery and the Jim Crow laws flourished in this nation. And that's what I have so much respect for you. Yes, thank you. You're calling all of us to pay attention to the authority of Scripture. Yes, yes. And not abandoned our children.

That's right. So we always like to wrap up these sessions with what we can do. So we've got a building full of young people. Yes. And I'm sure there are some young folks listening. What are you going to say to them? What can we do? How do we orient our lives with God so that the authority of Scripture can thunder through us like it through Dr. King and that generation?

What are you going to say to them? Well, the scripture tells us, wherewithal, shall a young man cleanse his ways, but by taking heed according to there too by the Word of God. The first thing that we have to do is submit to biblical authority and fall in love with truth. God's truth endures to all generations. You don't need a truth for Gen Z, a truth for Gen X, a truth for the baby boomers. No, you just need one truth.

Live up to the standards and the truth of God's word. follow and seek after him, always be prepared to repent and acknowledge when you have wronged God or you've strayed or you've missed the mark. But understand this, that God wants to empower you also to do great exploits. But you can't do great exploits separate and apart from God. The Bible says, and those who know their God will do great. exploit and be strong. It's the will of God that you would do great exploits. I'm asking you to take the challenge

of doing great exploits and win a generation for the God of the Bible. Amen. Good job. Thank you. John M. and Chuku, thank you for your voice in our nation and your voice to our church. God bless you. Thank you so much. You're welcome here anytime. Thank you. And for the rest of us, we've got to take our Christianity into the culture. We can't hide behind walls of our churches and debate theology. We've got to go live our faith out in the marketplace

in our schools and hospitals and courtrooms. If we'll do that, I believe we'll see God bless America again. Thank you for your time today. Good job. Thank you. As we begin a new year, we have new opportunities unfolding before us to grow in our faith and make a difference for the kingdom of God. And it has never been more vital for us to lead with our faith at our kitchen tables, our workplaces, and our communities. Join us as we read through the Bible cover to cover. Making a commitment to read your Bible daily will significantly transform your spiritual life.

As you read, you'll gain a deeper understanding of the character of God and a greater awareness of what he's doing in the earth. We want to support and equip you to stand firmly in truth so you can boldly lead with your faith. You can download the app or go to the website at wchurch.org for more information. Let's make an intentional effort

to seek the Lord and invite the Holy Spirit to work in our lives as we read the Word of God together this year. Hey, thanks for joining me today. Before you go, please like the podcast and leave a comment so more people can hear about this topic too. If you haven't yet, be sure to subscribe to Alan Jackson Ministries YouTube channel and follow the Culture and Christianity podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Together, let's learn how to lead with our faith and change our culture.

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