Left-leaning school boards quake when John Amanchukwu approaches the podium, and for good reason.
The former North Carolina State defensive end with the booming baritone has crossed the nation confronting boards of education over leftist race and gender concepts being taught in classrooms, often making his point by reading aloud from sexually explicit books found in school libraries.
“I recently went to Reno and read from a book entitled ‘American Psycho.’ That book should be entitled ‘American Sicko,’” Mr. Amanchukwu told The Washington Times. “The school board within 15 seconds got up and walked out because they said the content of the book was too vulgar for the meeting.”
The book may have been too disturbing for the Washoe County School Board in Nevada, but apparently not for students. The 1991 novel by Bret Easton Ellis was stocked in three high schools.
“The thing is, if you can’t say it at a school board meeting, why are we giving kids access to the same content?” Mr. Amanchukwu said. “Why can kids read it and see it? It really makes no sense.”
He chronicles his journey in “22 Words: Exposing the Loss of Decency in American Education,” a documentary scheduled for release Thursday [Oct. 3] that follows Mr. Amanchukwu as he seeks to raise national awareness about leftist ideology and graphic sexual content in public education.
The film, which also features allies such as Christian actor Kirk Cameron and Brave Books CEO Trent Talbot, is available on the 22wordsfilm.com website.
In the last two years, Mr. Amanchukwu has spoken before two dozen school boards in 15 states. He’s had board members walk out on him and cut off his microphone. He been kicked out of meetings “about five times.”
“That’s why this documentary is going to be so monumental,” he said. “I’m not simply talking about these issues: I take people to the actual scene where I discuss these issues with the tyrants on the school board. People are able to see them try to kick me out and shut me down. I’m not making this stuff up. I’m giving people a front-row seat into what I’ve been going through as I’ve traveled through 15 states.”
Mr. Amanchukwu’s reputation now precedes him. In August, the Baltimore City school board abruptly shut down its meeting after he arrived to speak during public comment, citing a security issue. He was stunned.
“They called a citywide emergency,” he said. “The reality is that when I show up at a school board now, some people recognize me. They start Googling and searching. After I’d been sitting at the school board meeting for about 30 minutes, all eyes were on me. Everyone’s like, ‘Aw, crap, he’s here.’”
Viral Truth-Telling Pastor John Amanchukwu Presents ‘22 Words’ - a Documentary Exposing the Loss of Decency in American Education
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Premiering October 3, 2024
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His efforts are bearing fruit. He said he’s been involved in flipping two school boards and removing dozens of what he calls “pornographic” books from school libraries, prompting his critics to dub him the “book-banning pastor.”
Mr. Amanchukwu doesn’t dispute the part about being a pastor — he’s a youth minister at the Upper Room Church of God in Christ in Raleigh, North Carolina — but he argues that removing or placing age-appropriate limits on mature or sexually graphic material in school libraries doesn’t constitute a ban on books.
“You know what’s amazing? There hasn’t been one book that has been ‘banned.’ You can’t do that,” Mr. Amanchukwu said. “You can’t ban a book, but you can treat books like you do PornHub. When kids go to school and get on the internet, they can’t get on pornographic sites. Why? Because they put guardrails there. They block the access.”
Going up against him are groups including the American Library Association, the National Coalition Against Censorship, and PEN America, which have decried what they describe as a censorship crisis in public schools.
During the 2023-24 academic year, PEN America found more than 10,000 instances of “book bans,” defined as any action taken to remove or restrict access to a book based on its content in response to pressure by parents, community groups, administrators, or lawmakers.
“Coordinated campaigns by a vocal minority of groups and individual actors place undue pressure on school boards and districts, resulting in a chilled atmosphere of overly cautious decision-making regarding the accessibility of books in public school libraries,” said PEN America in its Sept. 23 report.
Mr. Amachukwu countered that “if there’s porn, if there’s salacious, vile and filthy content, we should do the same thing that we do with Pornhub.”
“We should keep this content away from kids,” he said. “And that’s my message. I’m not a book banner, I just have common sense. And I know what’s decent for kids and what’s not decent.”
Born in Raleigh to a Nigerian father and American mother, Mr. Amanchukwu went from playing football at North Carolina State to earning a master’s degree in Christian Ministry from Liberty University. His last name is Nigerian and means “I know God.”
He became involved in battle over public education after reading about an eighth-grade girl in Chatham County, North Carolina, who listed “art, basketball, and the Bible” when asked to name her three favorite things. She said her teacher responded by telling her, “God’s not real.”
Mr. Amanchukwu didn’t know the girl or her family, and yet he drove 45 minutes to speak in her defense at the next school board meeting. He said he had no idea his message would go viral — but it did.
“From there, every day I’m inundated with requests from around the country, parents asking me to come speak on their behalf,” he said. “I’ve even had superintendents, board members, teachers asking me to speak.”
He’s written two books: “Eraced: Uncovering the Lies of Critical Race Theory and Abortion” (Salem Books, 2022) and “Hoodwinked: 10 Lies Americans Believe and the Truth That Will Set Them Free (Regnery Faith, 2024).
Demand for his appearances has become so great that can’t keep up. He recently launched Cyclone 400, a campaign aimed at recruiting, training and deploying a platoon of 400 people to take on the “woke agendas” at local school districts.
“22 Words,” made in conjunction with TurningPoint USA Faith, makes the case for bringing back prayer in schools, arguing that public education has gone from “prayer to porn” in the 62 years since the Supreme Court’s decision in Engel v. Vitale.
The 22 words of the documentary’s title come from the school-sponsored prayer that was banned in 1962: “Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon thee, and we beg thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our country.”
“The prayer was a non-denominational, non-proselytizing prayer,” Mr. Amanchukwu said. “I would love to see it returned to the schools.”
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