The Activist Mommy on Christian late-night!

The Activist Mommy’s Public Witness and Cultural Confrontation

Alright guys, welcome back to our brand new episode of Next Week with Jeff Durbin. Of course, I am here right now across them internets with Luke Pearson, Joy Tembe. You're allowed to speak, by the way.

I am. Luke Pearson, Joy Tembe, and we have a very special guest for you guys today on the show. So as you guys are watching this, I encourage you all to share this across your social media platforms. Very excited to have this as our first guest on, what are we even calling this?

What is this even called? What's it? Is it like season? Season two. We'll go with season two. We'll go with season two. The season two of Next Week with Jeff Durbin. Obviously, brand new format. We're going to have a lot of fun.

We've got Luke and Joy with us, and so we have a very special guest right now. You have seen her, I'm sure, across social media. It is the activist mommy, Elizabeth Johnston. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me.

It's an honor. Absolutely. So we obviously are familiar with you. We know all about your work, very excited about your work, and we were just talking before the show. For me, what makes your work so exciting is the fact that you do not pretend neutrality as you engage the culture.

You're not engaging this issue from a kind of general theistic or general moral or American tradition kind of context. You're approaching it as a Christian, as a mother of an amazing family, big family, which we love, and you're approaching it, engaging with the word of God as the central reference point in all that you're saying and doing.

So we know what that looks like. We want you guys to get a chance to look at it, right? So right now, here is some of the greatest hits of Elizabeth Johnston. Take a look.

Hi, I'm Elizabeth, and I'm the Activist Mommy. Well, you've been living in a cave if you haven't heard about the Women's March in Washington, D .C. On behalf of normal women everywhere, I want to say that was not our march.

I mean, vagina hats, vagina costumes. Then we have the LGBTQQIAAPP acronym. Yes, that's right. I'll have to read this list since I can't keep up with all of it. It's lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, pansexual.

That means anything and everything. Way to go, feminists. You have forever reduced the term sexual assault to mean absolutely nothing. This is a power grab. This is a radical feminist assault on men and masculinity.

The Ashley Judds and Pink Hat Feminists of the world have a deep problem with men. The Colorado Civil Rights Commission ruled that Jack Phillips could no longer create wedding cakes and that he had to provide for his employees gay-friendly re-education.

Are you even kidding me? These homosexuals aren't victims. They're bullies. Jack is the victim. Here's what the vagina hatters were up to this weekend. Anything you can do, I can do bleeding. What? So now we're supposed to give you guys a standing ovation because you bleed?

Wait a minute. Didn't your sign just offend transgender women who don't menstruate? I cannot believe what this Teen Vogue piece of trash has printed in its June edition. They are teaching children 11 through 17 how to be safely sodomized.

Teen Vogue is garbage. The editor's minds are in the garbage. Don't let your kids read garbage. Our children don't belong to educational bureaucrats. Our children don't belong to the state. And our children certainly don't belong to corrupt special interest organizations like Planned Parenthood.

This morning to a very timely headline out of Virginia that read, Orgasm Ed. Oral, anal, and sex toys in 9th grade girls family life class. I wasn't expecting to need duct tape so early in the morning to take my exploding head back together.

But such is life in the year 2018 where perverts in our school system seem to think our kids are sex toys on whom they can conduct so their leisure.

How Elizabeth Johnston Became the “Activist Mommy”

So that was Elizabeth Johnston, the activist mommy. So let's get a chance for everyone to get to know you. Tell us sort of how you got involved in all this work.

Yeah, you know, my first video that I filmed was recommended to me because of the whole bathroom transgender bathroom issue. So this all started just a couple of years ago. I am a mom with 10 children and I'm married to a medical doctor.

Yeah. And we, I homeschool our children and we have always just wanted to raise a godly family and raise up a future generation of warriors for the Lord and people that will advance God's kingdom on the earth.

And so I never envisioned that I would have any kind of public platform. I've always been carrying the diaper bag to my husband's speaking engagements as he's been a pro-life leader for 15, 20 years.

And we've been married for 20 years now. And so I, yeah, I filmed that first little video thinking maybe that my grandmother and my aunt would watch it after Obama issued the transgender bathroom directive and Target did their whole thing.

And you know, the rest is history. We were just shocked to see the hunger that there was not for a conservative voice. Yes. Because there are plenty of those out there, you know, I'm not in culture. I'm not a Bible study teacher like Beth Moore or whatever, but the hunger that there was for a no-nonsense, even confrontational approach against not just conservative issues or issues on the left, but confrontation against sin.

Yes. And I, you know, as you were mentioning, I don't believe that there's a demilitarized zone, a neutral zone, you know. There is right and wrong in the universe, and the Lord has said, who will rise up for me against the evildoers?

There is a lot of evildoing going on in our nation right now, and cultural Marxists are trying to take over not only our country, but really warp the minds of our children. Who will rise up for me? And it appears that God wants me to activate some mama bears, you know, in our culture, you know, come out of hibernation and fight for your kids.

I think it's a powerful testimony too. And I'll let you guys jump in here, but what I love about what you're doing is coming against even what the culture says about the Christian church in terms of gender roles, gender identity, and how the culture often will misdefine what we believe about gender, about roles, and men and women, and women are under the feet of men sort of a thing, and you know, just quiet and submissive and shut your mouth kind of thing.

And here you have the activist mommy, someone with a very strong, bold voice coming against the culture, men and women, in terms of how they're trying to unravel and undo God's order.

Of the world. The funny thing about that is I believe in gender distinction, obviously, and I believe in biblical gender distinctions, and I believe in God's order for the family. However, it's actually men in my life who have called my voice out.

It's actually men like my pastor right now or like Coach Dave Dobbenmeyer is the one who told me to make my first video from past the salt ministries, and my husband is my biggest cheerleader. So we, of course, knowing what God's word truly says, understand that God has always mightily used women, and there is a proper order for that, and I have a tremendous amount of protection by having a strong covering of leadership over me through my husband and through my pastor.

I'm very blessed because of that.

And I think it's a powerful thing, though, in terms of one of the strong Christian, not just conservative, but Christian voices that is engaging in the cultural wars right now in terms of making this about the gospel, calling out sin, applying God's law to these different realms in society is a Christian mother of 10.

I think that's special, and I think it's important because one of the things, I'll just say this briefly, that's I think fallen off from Christian identity in the West in the last couple of generations is the idea that Christians ought to be applying God's good news and His law word to every sphere and every realm of society, and you're doing that, and you're coming against the oppressive voices in our culture and society today that want to ultimately push away the Christian church, push away God's blueprint for society, push away God's law.

You're coming against them as a homeschooling mother of 10 with a bold, strong voice committed to no neutrality and to the word of God as supreme, which is so vital and so necessary. I think we're in the place that we are today as Christians because so many men have not engaged in this cultural war with the word of God as a central reference point, and we need both men and women to do it, and I just love that God does in these little moments.

I think it's powerful that God chooses the voices that He does, but in your case, I love that God has chosen a homeschool mommy of 10. A very unlikely voice.

Yes, that's my point. You understand how often I ask myself, Lord, why me? Why would you choose to use my voice in any way? I've asked many times, why would anyone listen to a homeschooling mother of 10 children?

But as I said, clearly there was a hunger for the actual words being spoken, the content, and even the way in which it's being spoken because organically, in a very short amount of time on Facebook, I've got over 600 ,000 followers.

You can't pay to make that happen. Anyone who has any experience in social media understands you cannot force a video to get even half a million views or a million views, but 12 million, 15 million? How does that happen?

God puts His finger sometimes on a person, and it may be for a brief moment. Tomorrow it may be gone, and so I hold the platform very lightly, very loosely. I take it very seriously, but I hold it very loosely because it could be gone in a moment.

I'm just the Lord's vessel, and as long as He wants to use my voice, He's welcome to do so. If He wants to take it away, I've already thought many times that I was going to lose my voice because I've been very smeared and very censored.

Of course.

Motherhood, Calling, and Faithfulness in Small Things

Ultimately, you're not activist first. You're mom first. Even if activist goes away, you still have a purpose and a very important role.

Absolutely. I was always fulfilled as a mother, very fulfilled. I've always been very proud of being a homeschooling mother and the family that I was raising and very content with that. That was always enough for me.

Like I said, I was never looking for the platform, which is probably why the Lord gave it to me because I think those that are really trying to make a platform happen, oftentimes there's ego and pride in the way there, and it's just not something that God can bless.

You wait on the Lord. He brings forth the increase. We have to be faithful in the small things. We have to be faithful in the diaper changes and in the homeschool lessons and in the very small things that God is asking us to do.

If we can slay those little bears and lions before you know it, oh, my goodness. What did you just do through me, God? Look at what happened. I always am encouraging moms to be faithful in the small things.

What is it that God's laid on your heart? Has he laid on your heart to go outside of an abortion mill and offer help and hope through the gospel of Jesus Christ to those men and women going in there? Be faithful in that small thing.

That's what we did. We've raised all of our children doing pro-life ministry outside of abortion clinics. Has God laid on your heart to go to the city council meeting and to take on the radical sex ed, pornographic sex ed in the school system or the transgender bathroom situation?

You know what that thing is that God has asked you to be faithful in, or maybe it's an issue inside your church. You be faithful and just watch how God increases your ability to influence.

I was just curious, the story behind Activist Mommy. I'm assuming the first video you weren't like, well, I'm Activist Mommy. I'm assuming that maybe came out later. And the story behind that first video, why were they like, you need to do this video?

Yeah, yeah.

Kim Davis, Deborah, and the Birth of a Public Voice

Honestly, something really unusual seemed to happen with me during the whole Kim Davis issue. Something like, there was like a Deborah switch or something that got turned on. And honestly, the man who's my pastor right now really called the Deborah out in me because I was a little uncomfortable that I asked a lot of people to come.

Basically, I put the charge out when Kim Davis would not issue the same-sex marriage license. I was sitting in my kitchen watching my laptop, a Facebook video of the homosexuals in her office, in her face, you know, by whose authority do you not issue this marriage license?

And Kim Davis said, under God's authority. And I literally said to my children, pack your bags, we're heading to Kentucky. I said, we are going to watch this heroine in real time. Stop homeschool. This is civics.

This is homeschool. This is Christianity 101. We're going to watch a Christian in America actually get persecuted for her faith. So we go down there thinking we're going for one day. And I'm asking, I'm calling all these leaders and messaging them on Facebook, and nobody's going.

And I'm like, aren't we going to stand with this woman? When do you get to see a Christian in America suffer for their faith like this? And the national media, the eyes of the world are on this situation.

And so I started asking people to come. And lo and behold, people came from all over the nation. And it was very comfortable for me because it was almost like all these men came and everything, and there I am, a mom, and my husband had to be at work seeing patients.

And I'm like, I'm not wanting to be in a leadership situation. And the man who's my pastor right now said, Elizabeth, this is a Deborah moment. Just embrace it. Don't apologize. God used you to make this moment happen.

And that's fine. Don't apologize. And so something happened there where I could only before then kind of see myself as the diaper bag toting mother. And I began to realize, okay, there is something. I can actually still be a godly, submissive woman, and God can use me in a different way as well.

I can do both if that's what He's called me to do. So anyway, with the whole Kim Davis thing, guys, it was honestly like the most exciting three weeks of our kids' lives. We went down thinking we were going for one day.

It was the court case. It was the trial. And so we thought that she was at worst going to lose her job. And at best, she was going to be fine. Nothing was going to happen. They shackle her ankles and her wrists and send this Christian woman to jail for living out her Christian faith in America, a supposedly Christian nation.

And so then it was like, actually, Flip Benham, David and Jason Benham's father, called me and said, Elizabeth, tell me y 'all aren't leaving. Tell me you're staying in Kentucky. The eyes of the world are on y 'all.

I'm watching Fox News right now. The eyes of the world are on you guys, and you are lifting up Jesus Christ. Please don't go home. So we all stayed. I asked my husband, I said, are you okay with us? And he's like, absolutely.

Y 'all say, you know, we run back to Ohio, pack some bags. It ended up being three weeks on the streets rallying for Kim Davis in front of the judge's yard. Wow. I mean, I'm convinced that Kim Davis is out of jail because that judge's wife said, get those stinking people out of my yard.

We're good. It worked. We really, really, you know, came on strong, which I'm known to do. And it was an amazing move of God. And we were there when 10 ,000 people were outside that Kentucky jail in Grayson, Kentucky.

And Kim Davis walked out, never signed a gay marriage license, to this day has not signed a same sex marriage license. One of the men whose license she wouldn't sign has run against her because she's an elected office holder.

And he didn't even win the Democratic primary. So that was kind of a beginning moment. And then Dave Dobbenmeyer from Pass the Salt Ministries asked me to film that first. Again, see, I was never like trying to do anything like this.

He said, Elizabeth, I saw you getting interviewed by the press. He said, your mama bear voice is what the world needs to hear right now on this target, this bathroom issue. It's the mama bears that need to be speaking on this issue.

Not me. He said, I don't need to be the one talking about this. They need to hear from you. And I was like, OK, I'll try. And that's what I did. And I actually did pray, though, before I did, about what to call it.

And I actually did create a page. And I went and searched the name Activist Mommy on Facebook. And I was shocked that it wasn't taken. This isn't taken? And I just think God gave me the brand. He gave me the name.

And he decided to take it somewhere that I never dreamed it would go. And I just want to honor him with it. Good. That's awesome.

That's seriously powerful. Because I remember all of that. I think our most viewed sermons, I think, on YouTube was the one I gave the Sunday in light of the whole Kim Davis stuff. I spoke about the law of God and activism, engaging these sorts of things from Scripture.

And so I remember all of that, everyone showing up. And it was there, the media filming you guys. That's powerful. OK, so one of the things that I appreciate, and we talked about this just before we started shooting, I appreciate so much that you are engaging these issues head on, and you're doing it with a serrated edge.

Because it has to be done that way. I think we're so sensitive today in modern evangelicalism, evangelism, where we think that the gospel is being nice to people. And we think that there's never really a time or a place.

Jesus certainly would have never said something sharp to somebody. Oh, wow. Because he's just loving and nice. And you, I love that you will mock the unbelieving perspective and sin. Because, of course, Scripture says that God mocks sin and unbelief.

He does the same thing. But I appreciate seeing a Christian today doing that. By the way, everything that you and we are doing right now in terms of how we come against the culture, we mock the sin, wouldn't have been unusual for the Puritan culture.

It would have been normative to see that sort of mocking sin and cutting right into it. But talk about that for a second. Why the serrated edge for you? Why is that necessary?

Why a Sharp, Mocking Edge Can Be Necessary in Cultural Warfare

Jesus is our example. And when Jesus was encountering a humble person who was broken and contrite, willing to listen, he treated them with gentleness and returned that humility. We see that. But yet he would speak the truth to them like the woman at the well when he called her out and said, I know that you've had five men.

He and your husband either. Right. But there was something about her that he saw was humility there. And he treated her in that loving and kind way. But when Jesus was dealing with either self-righteous, prideful, arrogant, evil people, he overturned tables.

He crafted a whip. He called them snakes, brood of vipers. It depends on who we're dealing with. I've got a book coming out soon. And one chapter is basically a conversation that I had with a homosexual in private via Facebook Messenger.

And it's the most beautiful conversation. This wonderful, kind exchange back and forth with this homosexual. I have those conversations all the time with people on social media that nobody knows about and that nobody sees because these are people that are humble and they're actually willing to listen.

And they are curious or they want some truth. But when we're dealing with people trying to sexualize our children, trying to decapitate the heads of babies through abortion.

Or say that it's okay to engage in a little anal sex and if you get a little poop on you, it's no big deal. Oh, my goodness. I want people to hear the kinds of things that are said.

I'm sorry. I haven't had to say that in a while. So it's always hard.

The serrated edge against stuff like that.

We have cultural Marxists very purposefully. This has all been planned for a very long time. Very purposefully trying to separate children from their families, sexualize children. Very graphic things going on.

Right now we are exposing a photographer named Meg Bitton who is photographing girls, little girls smoking cigarettes, marijuana shirts, little girls in lesbian relationships. We exposed Teen Vogue a couple of summers ago.

Teen Vogue, they're destroyed. We gave them such a black eye just from that video. I wasn't the only voice. Many of you chimed in. But that video was viewed like 15 million times. And everybody learned that Teen Vogue was a piece of filth and trash.

And it's pornography basically. Marketing itself as a fashion magazine to children. And so through just little voices like us speaking up and saying enough is enough. Our children aren't yours. They're ours.

And we don't permit you to indoctrinate them in this way. It can make such a powerful difference. If we will just step out of our comfort zone, get out of the four walls of the church, and engage our culture where they are fighting.

For the last 50 years one of my pet peeves is the way the church has been like, Jesus is coming back. It's so bad. It is so bad out there. Jesus is coming back. And he's going to take us all away and everything is going to be fine.

That's the reason given for doing nothing. And I'm done with it. I'm living now and my children are living with your apathy now. And it's your fault. And so we're not going to do that anymore. We're going to try something different.

We're going to be a little bit more like Jesus. We're going to overturn some tables, which is what Jesus would do in our culture. Yes. I love it.

You're on the right show. Trust me. This is a safe space for you right now. Completely. So I have more to ask, but do you guys want to?

I'm just going to kind of echo that. We agree. I think the reason for the state of our culture is because the church ultimately has abandoned, like what you're saying, has abandoned the serrated edges, has abandoned flipping tables, has abandoned calling out evil as evil.

And so absolutely, that's why we're doing what we're doing for the exact same reasons.

Teen Vogue, Sex Ed Sit-Outs, and Hitting Unbelieving Institutions in the Checkbook

The Women's March video from the first Women's March back in January of, was it 2016 or 17? I think 17. That got like 12 or 15 million views or something. Y 'all, in that video, I'm not just saying I wasn't defending Donald Trump.

It wasn't a political thing. I am calling out the sin of abortion and sodomy, homosexuality, you know. I mean, just using very biblical language. And look at the hunger that people have for that kind of confrontation of evil and sin.

And so let that be an encouragement to all of us that God can use our voices, even though it's not comfortable and even though, yes, people are trying to silence us. And I know you want to talk about that a little bit, about censorship.

Yeah, yeah. No, I think it's vital to continue talking about how God can use the voice of the average Christian to make a dramatic change, because the truth is, is that as much as these major organizations have a lot of money and a lot of power and they've been pushing against the biblical gospel and the truth and God's law for such a long time, the truth is, with what you did with the Teen Vogue thing and what was happening with that, if you hit these unbelieving corporations in their checkbook, it will silence them when they realize that this is actually going to affect my ability to make money.

Maybe I'll be a little more careful about doing an article about anal sex for teens because of how it hits my checkbook. So the truth is Christians can't boycott everything. We can't stop going to every company that has paid money to Planned Parenthood because the numbers are too large at this point.

But we can have effective strategic moments together where we say, unified right now, we're going to hit you in your checkbook because this is sinful against God's law.

Yeah, there are moments. There are big moments. There are moments. And I think the anal sex tutorial from Teen Vogue was definitely a moment that we could not miss. Absolutely. That's why we did Sex Ed Sit Out.

Yeah, exactly. We protested graphic sex ed in public schools. I'm not even a public school mom. I know. I'm a homeschool mom. That's what I love. But I felt so sorry. You don't understand. My inbox every day is filled with moms and dads begging me to help them with something.

Just today, I mean, in the airport, I'm just intercepting, please help me with this, please help me with this. And they're desperate for someone to be a voice for them. And there were so many people sending me this pornographic sex ed in the public schools.

And I'm a homeschooling mom, but my taxpaying dollars go to that pornographic sex ed. And I was done with it. And I felt sorry for these moms whose husbands are never going to let them homeschool or they don't feel like they can homeschool or they don't want to homeschool.

There are millions of people in the world we have to accept are not going to homeschool. And our taxpaying dollars are going to this. And so I pitied them. And that's a Christian, you know, attribute is pity.

And I thought this is so wrong. And these kids that are getting this pornography are going to be tomorrow's judges and journalists and doctors and even pastors. Think about how this affects all of us when we just sit back and go, you know, I'm okay, my kids are homeschooled.

Think about how that eventually trickles down to all of us, ultimately in very personal and real ways. And so we hit them in their pocketbook, as you mentioned, because a child has a dollar sign over their head for every day they attend public school.

And so if you can get them to pull out and sit out for even just one day, it turns into a massive profit loss. And here I was calling for this sex ed sit out literally myself, okay, as a homeschool mom, grabbed a couple of other mothers to help me.

This story went worldwide. Rush Limbaugh talked about us for an hour on his show. Franklin Graham, who has a kajillion followers, told people to sit out with us in protest. And it just became a worldwide story.

It ended up we had sit outs in four countries, Australia, Canada, UK, and America. I mean, the day we were sitting out on April 23rd, the footage was coming in from Australia of them sitting out. Can you imagine me waking up in the hotel room where we were having our sit out in North Carolina and seeing this footage from Australia?

And we had planned on sitting out in one city in North Carolina because I don't have any resources. I don't have any George Soros funding, you know, busing people in. None of us do. No, you know. And so, like, I'm hoping 100 people will show up to my little North Carolina sit out.

And it was global. Four countries were having sit outs. And I had people contacting me from Canada, from California, saying, listen to this, 60 of our school sat out on April 23rd. One mom said, our school lost $100 ,000 on April 23rd.

Wow. Because her brother was on the school board, so she knew the numbers. She knew the dollar sign that's over every child's head. And she said, OK, 60%. And she did the math. She said they lost over $100 ,000 on April 23rd.

Those administrators that won't listen to the parents started thinking twice about what they were going to allow. They've got drag queens and sex experts, you know, pole dancers. Yes. Planned Parenthood, human rights campaign coming into public schools.

And your and my dime pays for it to teach kids how to get to abortion clinics, how to take bus routes to abortion clinics to kill their babies, and how to engage in anal and oral sex. Powerful. Well, I didn't even know how far that went.

Contact Information and Closing Remarks

We have one minute left. Oh, shoot. Quickly, how do people get a hold of you? How can people get connected to Activist Mommy?

My website is activistmommy .com, and I'm on all the main platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. And please follow me and get engaged. We are always fighting some kind of evil. And so join us and fight evil with us.

Excellent. Thanks for letting me come on.

It's an amazing show, guys. Fantastic. So Elizabeth Johnston, make sure you guys go check her out. Activist Mommy across all those platforms. You're a gift and a pleasure. Thank you. You are, too. Look forward to doing more in the future.