Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed David A.R. White who plays in the starring role of Gods Not Dead: We the People to the newsmaker line to describe his background and the premise for the film.
Leahy: We are joined on the newsmaker Line by David A.R. White. He’s the star of a new movie. God’s Not Dead: We The People. Welcome, David. Thanks for joining us this morning.
White: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
Leahy: God’s Not Dead: We The People. This is a well-known franchise done very well. It’s going to be in theaters on October fourth and six for a three-night nationwide. Fathom Events, Limited engagement. You can see the trailer and get tickets at godsnotdead.com. David, tell us about the movie. What’s it about?
White: It’s basically about these parents who are homeschooling their children and in the process they get a visit from the county, wanting to tell them how they can, what they can and cannot do.
And how they can educate their children, which seems normal in one sense. But it ends up going all the way to Washington, D.C.
If you ever saw that great movie, Mr. Smith goes to Washington, Frank Capra, it’s about taking the political system on and unveiling the corruption in our government. And how much leeway does the government have into our homes and our lives to tell us how we can and cannot do things?
Leahy: David, tell us how you got the role as the star of this new show, God’s Not Dead: We the people. On the web at godsnotdead.com.
White: I’ve done a few of these now and back in 2014, we released the first one, God Is Not Dead. It was the number one independent film that year, and it went on to break all these different box office records.
I think basically at the core it just struck people in a way that, we wanted to bring the conversation of God back into colleges. The first one was all about bringing it back onto colleges and then in the high school and in the community. And ultimately, now it’s bringing it into Washington.
Leahy: David, you have a very interesting background. You are the son of a Mennonite pastor. Tell us about your own personal development.
White:Â I grew up outside of Dodge City, Kansas, on a wheat farm in a Mennonite community. My father was a pastor. We grew up very conservative. I actually only saw one movie in the theater the first 18 years of my life.
But I had a dream to go into the entertainment industry. I was like the last person on the planet that probably suspected that I would do that, and then ultimately produce films.
And I moved to LA when I was 19 to pursue that dream and just always had a heart for the faith-based industry. It really didn’t exist very much.
And we just really believed that we wanted to bring faith back into movies as the classics did. And then they kind of went away. From the 70s on, there really was none other than the Billy Graham organization.
So we wanted to open up conversations about God. We established Pure Flix in 2005 and have been running that and making these films from God’s Not Dead movies. And do you believe the Case for Christ Two?
All these films that basically how do we bring the conversation of God back into where we are in our communities and have it be okay to talk about it because as we have seen, the government is taking more and more.
This movie really is about that the government works for us, not that we work for the government. Where do we draw the line in letting them control our lives?
Leahy: David A.R. White, thanks so much for joining us. The movie again. God’s Not Dead: We the people. On the web at godsnotdead.com. The event is on October fourth, fifth, and sixth. David A.R. White, thanks so much for joining us, and good luck with the movie.
White: All right. Thanks so much for having me, Michael.
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “David A.R. White” by Super Festivals CC BY 2.0.
