Racism, Abortion, and Critical Race Theory: How are they connected? - Podcast Episode 125

Welcome to the Got Questions podcast. As our listeners know, we occasionally bring on a special guest to talk about an issue that we're getting a lot of questions about.

And our guest today is John Amanchukwu, the author of Erased, Uncovering the

Lies of Critical Race Theory and Abortion. So John, welcome to the show today.

Thank you so much for having me. It's a blessing to be on with you, Shay. So John, tell our listeners just a little bit about yourself, your background, and what led you to write

Erased. So my full name, I'll give that to you, is

John Kanayo -Chukwu Amanchukwu Sr. My middle name,

Kanayo -Chukwu, means I will keep trusting and pleading in the Lord. And Amanchukwu means

I know God, and I'm blessed to know that at the age of 19, I gave my life to Christ, so I am a believer and I do know

God. As it relates to why I wrote the book

Erased, and just a little bit about my background, I was born in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, a small town on the coast of North Carolina.

At the age of about five, my mother moved us from Elizabeth City, North Carolina to Raleigh, North Carolina, where we lived in a shelter for nearly a year.

It was myself along with my three other siblings. Didn't grow up on the right side of the track.

According to critical race theory, I was destined for ruins, but I know of countless people who were born into meager means and into poverty, but they were able to realize what we call the

American dream. And that has been the case for me and for all of my siblings.

And so God is a deliverer. And there are many opportunities that are provided in this country if you would just take advantage of them.

As it relates to the book, during the summer of 2020, as we watched democratic governors and mayors tell their law enforcement to stand back and to defund the police, we witnessed anarchists,

BLM and Antifa, rule the night as they ruled through anarchy and burning down buildings and marching through the streets after the death of George Floyd.

During that time period, I was working at one of the largest abortion clinics in the Southeast.

And on a Saturday morning, I went out to the abortion clinic and a father approached me while I was on the side of the street, praying and witnessing two mothers.

A father approached me, a black father, and he said, why are you out here fighting a white man's issue?

And in that moment, I was just alarmed and taken aback by the question that he posed to me.

On that Saturday morning, 70 % of the people outside trying to save the babies were white.

And nearly 80 to 85 % of the mothers in the clinic on that Saturday morning were black.

But this father is going to ask me, why am I fighting a white man's issue?

And if I were to ask him, what was the definition of critical race theory? I doubt that he could tell me what the definition was.

However, he was a walking poster child for all things CRT, because he viewed that my existence down there in an abortion clinic, trying to save babies, not just white babies or black babies or Asian babies or Pacific Islander babies or Hispanic babies or other babies, but babies in general.

He viewed my being there as something that was racist and or racial.

Critical race theory has done a number on our society.

And as we've seen it matriculate from colleges is now into preschools and elementary schools and middle schools and high schools.

And everyone's talking about CRT. And I really want people to know today that critical race theory is racism.

For it is racist to view whites as inherently racist.

Now that's obviously in the past few years, I don't know that much of anyone had ever heard of critical race theory up until the last several years, but it's been something that's constant.

And it's something that we really, let's start with like, what actually is it? That can different people define it differently.

But just before we kind of jump into the conversation further, because I really want to ask you about the connections between critical race theory and abortion.

But how do you define critical race theory? Critical race theory believes that whites are inherently racist.

I like to say that critical race theory is the Jim Crow era in reverse. Blacks are now doing to whites what was once done to them.

It was wrong during the slavery period and through the 1960s for blacks to be demonized as individuals who were ignorant just because of the color of their skin.

And they were forced to drink at separate water fountains and they couldn't use certain public transportation and they couldn't integrate into public schools.

All of those things were wrong. That's the Jim Crow era. But now today, blacks are now trying to do to whites what was once done to them by labeling them as racist because of the color of their skin and trying to label them in a negative way because of something as trivial as your skin tone.

I believe that racism is not a color or a skin tone.

It is sin. The Bible says in Romans 3 and 23, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

And by sin there is talking about sin in general. It's talking about fornication, adultery, drunkenness, lasciviousness, all kinds of sin, whatever you can list is included within sin there in Romans 3 and 23, but also it deals with racism.

And racism will not be annihilated and or done away with until Jesus Christ comes back.

And so it's not a skin tone. It's racist for me to view whites as solely as the racist ethnic group in society.

Blacks can be racist. Hispanics can be racist. Whites can be racist.

All colors, all creeds, all nationalities can choose to sin. And we have to get back to understanding that racism is not a skin tone.

It is sin and we should address it where it is, but we can't go around labeling people groups as inherently racist.

Also CRT is deemed to be everywhere and at all time, in all interactions and in all manners racism is there because CRT says that it is.

And so today we see critical race theory even taught in our public schools. And there'll be people who would tell you, those who are on the left, they'll tell you, no, it's not taught in public schools.

We don't discuss it. But whenever you probe into the diversity, equity and inclusion courses that are being taught and this whole anti -racism doctrine that came from Ibram Kendi, who believes that the best way to deal with past racism is present racism.

When you begin to dissect these teachings, you see that this is truly critical race theory, which is a lens on how to govern all areas of society and all systems and to paint them as skewed in favor of the majority, i .e.

white people. Yeah. No, well said. I mean, I've done a lot of reading on critical race theory and wokeism and all the things that have been going on with the culture.

But I really want to understand how people get to that mindset.

But reading some of these books, I won't even name some of them because I don't in any sense want other people to go out and read them.

But to the point that for racism, it always been defined as viewing someone or treating someone poorly based on the color of their skin.

I mean, that's not a perfect definition. It's basically how it's been understood for most of human history. And then now it's been adjusted to, well, you can only be racist if you have those feelings and you're in the position of power to do something about it.

And we can't just start changing definitions like that.

I mean, I entirely agree that there's still racism in the country and that some of the institutions in our country still have some issues they need to deal with to treat people with equality.

But to say you can't be racist unless you can actually use that power over another person, that's not what racism has ever been defined as.

Right. And when you consider the continents and or countries that are the most racist today, that still have slavery as a part of their framework, if you had to pick the number one continent or country that's leading the pack in that, it would be

Africa. Go figure, right? Today, there are many who are still enslaved on the continent of Africa.

When we think about the transatlantic slave trade and slavery and blacks getting to America to be sold as slaves, who sold them into slavery, right?

Whites, you know, the colonizers didn't have any slaves to sell. Someone had to sell them.

And it was other black or Africans who sold them into slavery to get blacks to America in the first place.

I was at, I was in Manitou, I hope I'm saying that right, Manitou Springs or Manitou Springs, Colorado this past week, speaking for Summit Ministries.

And I had a conversation with some students there and there was one student in particular who was mixed.

And I was doing a teaching on critical race theory. You know, his father's black, mother's white. And, you know, according to CRT, if you are white, then you're inherently racist.

So how about the student or the child that's mixed? Are they 50 % racist?

You know, when you follow it to its logical conclusion, you find out that critical race theory is not a lens that schools and in particular, the church should use.

We should use the gospel. The Bible says that we should love our neighbors as ourselves, you know?

And I tell you what, if we do that well, I believe that we would do away with all of these $5 cheap woke terms and we won't need critical race theory for anything.

If we just use the scriptures, you know, we're not supposed to render evil for evil, right?

Nor railing for railing, accusation for accusation. But the Bible says on the contrary wise, we're supposed to bless, you know?

We're supposed to overcome evil with good. We're not supposed to use an evil lens called critical race theory as a means of dealing with racism.

It's not going to work. The Bible is more current than tomorrow's newspaper.

God knew that there would come a time in history where we would hear about terms like critical race theory.

We'll have to deal with the George Floyds and the BLMs and the Breonna Taylors and the

Michael Browns. God knew that, but he gave us his word. And he let us know clearly, you know, that there's neither

Jew nor Greek. There's neither male nor female, but we are all one.

He did away with all of that. And we are also one blood. And so instead of focusing on trivial things that cause disunity, it's best that we unite on the fact that in Christ, we are one and one blood.

Yeah. Amen. Well said. If I had known you were in Manitou Springs last week, I would have come up and heard you, but I'm in Colorado Springs.

So right next door. Next time you're in town, definitely let me know. I'd love to get together with you and take you out to lunch.

So as you know, with the recent Roe versus Wade overturning by the Supreme Court, I'm getting tons and tons of questions about abortion.

So let's jump into that briefly. What is the connection between CRT and abortion?

Because the subtitle of your book, Uncovering the Lies of Critical Race Theory and Abortion. So what do you see?

What are the connections? And why is that abortion issue such a passionate one for you? Thank you so much.

Critical race theory and abortion are both steeped in racism.

They both come from the poisonous plant of racism, okay? Critical race theory, the ideology to view someone as racist because of their skin color, that's racism.

The abortion movement, which was enacted and started by Margaret Sanger, who was a eugenicist who did not believe that blacks were worthy of existing.

She did not want the word to get out that she wanted to exterminate the black population.

Really, when you look at the abortion industry and where it is today, even through Planned Parenthood, the majority of your abortuaries are found in economically disadvantaged areas.

70 to 80 % of these clinics are found in black communities. They are situated there as a easy tactic of causing blacks to desire to abort their own.

The option for the black community is not so much to keep their child and to raise their children and to work hard.

No, the answer is, hey, if you have sex and you get pregnant, go to your local

Planned Parenthood clinic and abort your baby. And Margaret Sanger was an evil, just dastardly individual, who strategically used abortion as a means of destroying the black community.

And she said that she was going to use the black minister to assist her in doing so if it ever occurred to any of the more rebellious blacks who did not want to support the abortion movement.

I believe that whether a person knows it or not, or whether or not they even agree with what

I'm about to say, if you are pro -abortion, you're also pro -racism.

When you consider the foundation of the eugenics movement and Margaret Sanger's ideologies, it wasn't until the summer of 2020 that Margaret Sanger's name was removed from the prestigious, her noteworthy clinic in New York, the

Margaret Sanger Planned Parenthood clinic. It wasn't until the summer of 2020 that Planned Parenthood said, you know what?

She was a racist and we're gonna remove her name from Planned Parenthood.

Here's the reality, you can remove her name, but her mission still exists.

Blacks only make up 13 % of the overall population in this country, but black women make up 8 % of that and black men represent 5%, but of the women who are ovulating and who can still have children, that's about three to 4 % of black women, but three to 4 % of black women make up nearly 38 to 40 % of the overall abortions in our country.

When you look at statistics for the black population, our numbers are not increasing, we are dying.

And according to a pastor by the name of Clenard Childress, he said that by 2038, if we don't slow down the trend of abortion in the black community, then blacks will be in a category where they may be extinct.

And we're not having children at replacement levels, okay?

And that needs to cease. If we can call, I mean, you know, everyone likes to talk about racism today and being woke and the

Black Lives Matters movement. You know, they're so involved and on the front lines of making sure white officers don't gun down black men and women, but however, when you look at those same institutions, they say nothing about the leading cause of death in our country.

The leading cause of death is not a white officer placing his knee on the back of a person's neck.

Leading cause of death in our country is not cancer or tragic accidents or heart disease.

No, it's not even the coronavirus. It's abortion. And you have to ask yourself, why isn't the

Black Lives Matters movement or even the NAACP, why aren't they concerned about scaling back the number of black babies that are being aborted in our country?

You know, there was a time when Reverend Jesse Jackson called abortion genocide. But when it came time for him to run for the office of the presidency, he'd sold his community down a river.

He switched sides and he won't even call it genocide. You know, they'll call it reproductive healthcare or reproductive justice, you know?

And there is no justice in robbing a baby in the womb of his or her rights, their constitutional rights.

You know, there can be no rights in this nation if there's not the right to life.

And so I fused those two areas of racism together in this book to open up the eyes of the black community and to open up the eyes of the white community.

So that both will see that they're both racist, but to deal with them together going back and forth throughout this book to highlight those issues.

Yeah, I'd say to our listeners, Erased is an excellent book.

So pick up a copy, it's eye -opening. A lot of the stuff that, I mean, since it's been such a huge topic in our culture for the past several years, most of us are familiar with, but the way

John ties it together and just, it was eye -opening. It was awakening in the good sense for me to like, wow,

I'd never really thought of these things in that same angle before. So highly recommended.

Definitely pick up a copy. Let's jump into, we're brothers in Christ here.

Our focus is on people's souls, on pointing people to Christ as the answer to their sin problem.

The sin that causes people to be racist and to value their own personal freedom, reproductive freedom over the lives of babies.

But how do we reflect the light of Christ to people in such a way that they can come to a more biblical worldview when it comes to racism and abortion?

You know, love your neighbor as yourself. Do unto others as you would have them to do unto you.

You know, racism is propagated oftentimes in homes.

You know, my son, John Jr., my youngest son, you know,

I have, my oldest son is John Patrick, middle child, Pamela, and the youngest is

John Jr. So there are three Johns in my house. First John, second John, and third John.

It's all divinely inspired, but don't try that at home. But John Jr., when he goes out and he plays at preschool, you know, there's never a focus on skin tone or color.

You know, children don't think like that. It's not until parents and adults come along and give people a bias, give children a bias or prejudice towards other nationalities.

You know, I believe that every Christian believer should fight racism, true racism, where it exists.

If there's a brother or sister who's talking in a condescending way about a group of people because of the way they wear their hair, because of the vehicles they drive, because of the side of town that they're on, whatever nuance they, you know, it's imperative that as Christian brothers and sisters, that we fight these things where they exist and where they arise, we say something about it.

We should, we should have black preachers preaching against critical race theory. We should, even though it greatly impacts our white brothers more, but if I'm a good

Christian brother, I should address critical race theory, right?

Because it's the godly and the holy thing and a holy and a righteous thing to do. Also, our white brothers should address these cases of true racism, whether it's through law enforcement or even through the abortion movement.

We should speak up about it. We should talk about it. We should have something to say. And I believe that if we create this culture where we're all truly one in Christ, I quoted it earlier, but let me give it to you again.

It's Acts 17 and 26. The Bible says, and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth and have determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation.

God did that. You know, when you pull back this layer of skin, we all bleed red, you know, and it's imperative that we put the focus there.

And here's another thing. Although there are differences and or preferences in communities, just because a certain people group has that they're different or they have different preferences, it doesn't make that community deficient.

You know, preferences are not always deficient. They're just different. You know, there's a certain way that, you know, the black community does our preparation of food.

You know, there's differences in seasoning. There's differences in how we adorn ourselves, the hair and the hair texture of someone who was

African -American is quite different than someone who's white. God did that. You know, although the

Bible does say that God's hair is like wool. You know, black people's hair is more like wool.

You know, God did that. He gave us this beautiful tapestry of differences and shades and skin tones.

And it's imperative for us to honor every people group within that and not to create classism within these differences.

Again, John, well said. Let's close this interview with, I wanna, since I love race so much, give me like the two minute sales pitch on who is the book for and what would you like people to learn from the book?

Yes. So I would like everyone to know before you cast your vote in this upcoming election, you need to get a copy of this book.

This book speaks to two critical areas that are dominating our culture today, abortion and critical race theory.

And these issues are not going away until Jesus Christ comes back. Oftentimes, you're hard pressed to find a pastor or a preacher who will attack these issues head on, abortion or critical race theory.

And so if you're looking for a way to understand what the Bible says about these issues, and if you want a factual and theologically driven standpoint and viewpoint of what the church should be doing, purchase this book.

It's infused with scripture and with true stories and factual arguments.

Each chapter has about 15 to 20 different citations. It's very sound, but it gets to the heart of these issues.

Listen, racism will not be done away with until Christ returns.

Well, when Christ comes back, he's not coming for black people solely. He's not coming for white people solely.

He's coming back for every person who have named and professed the name of Christ.

And we will see truly what heaven looks like when he comes back in the clouds.

I don't know if it's gonna be Michael or Gabriel, but one day someone's gonna blow a trumpet. And the

Bible says that the dead in Christ shall be the first to rise. And we that are alive and remain shall be called up to meet him in the air.

And so shall we ever be with the Lord. But in heaven, you won't find a

Hispanic section. You won't find a white section or a black section. Most of these woke terms that are driving our society today, you won't find them.

What you will find are servants who have been deemed and stamped faithful by the blood of the lamb.

And my prayer is that you will purchase a copy of Erased. If you go to a church and your pastor's kinda, you know, flimsier, weak on these issues, sew a copy of this book into them.

Maybe they'll find something in this book or even bring me in. You can go to johnomanchukwu .com and you can bring me in and book me as a speaker.

And I'll come in and share the true gospel and talk about true racism and help your congregation deal with these issues.

Just for our listeners to know, one of the things I love most about Erased is how, like you said, infused with scripture it is.

The scripture throughout every major point that you make is backed by scripture. And if you wanna learn more about John and the ministry

God's called him to and the book Erased will include links and the show notes for this episode on the description field on YouTube when the video goes live and also at podcast .gotquestions

.org. So again, John, thank you for being on the show. I really enjoyed our conversation. And again, Erased is a phenomenal book, highly recommended.

Thank you so much, Jay. Thank you for having me on. All right. This has been the Got Questions podcast.