God's Not Dead: We the People

God’s Not Dead: We the People is a 2021 Christian movie, the fourth movie in the God’s Not Dead franchise, the previous two installments of which were filmed in central Arkansas. Although this movie was filmed in Guthrie, Oklahoma, it is set in the fictional community of Hope Springs in the “Commonwealth of Arkansas,” and, like its immediate predecessor, God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness, it centers upon the character of Pastor Dave Hill (played by David A. R. White), a minor character in the first two movies who becomes the main character by the third installment.

The opening credits roll over a speech by President Ronald Reagan on the subject of freedom. The story begins with Rita Dowd (Leticia Robles), who works for local social services, showing up to observe the operations of a local homeschooling co-op sponsored by St. Jude’s Church, which is pastored by Hill. When asked if she is married, Dowd responds that she “identifies as self-partnered,” and she takes exception to the inclusion of Bible studies in the curriculum. Soon, parents Mike and Rebecca McKinnon (Antonio Sabàto Jr. and Francesca Battistelli) receive a letter from the “Commonwealth of Arkansas, District Courts of Arkansas” (in actuality, Arkansas is a state, not a commonwealth) demanding that the parents either make changes to bring their instruction in line with the principles of secular education or select an accredited school for their children. If they do not, they are at risk of multiple fines and the possible nullification of their parental rights.

Worried about the local public schools, where birth control pamphlets are being distributed to second graders and the Founding Fathers are regularly lambasted as racist and sexist, the parents, led by Hill, decide to undertake a legal fight. At the same time, in Washington DC, Congress is debating an education bill that would essentially nationalize education standards and outlaw homeschooling, and Congressman Daryl Smith (Isaiah Washington), a conservative African American congressman, invites Hill and the families in the co-op to testify on Capitol Hill about their own homeschooling efforts.

Smith tells Hill that the Common Core State Standards Initiative “eliminates the idea of truth,” and much of the testimony before the congressional subcommittee, led by Congressman Robert Benson (William Forsythe), takes the form of a debate upon the rationality of faith and the compatibility of religion with science, with the (exclusively white) ostensibly liberal-leaning congresspeople openly mocking the Bible as racist and sexist, while Hill and company push back against the idea that morality is relative. In the end, Hill delivers an impassioned speech about the dangers of government reach that receives applause from the audience, and off screen, the vote on the new bill fails.

As with previous movies in the franchise, this one features a few different subplots. Homeschooled seventeen-year-old Brandon McKinnon (Matt Anspach) ends up buying a car from, and then going to prom with, Kayla Neely (Dani Oliveros), daughter of Judge Neely (Jeanine Pirro), the family court judge who had earlier ruled against the McKinnon family; in one of the last scenes, she tears up her own court order. In addition, Ayisha Moradi (Hadeel Sittu), a young Muslim woman disowned by her father Mirsab (Marco Khan) in the first movie for converting to Christianity, ends up reuniting with him after she is injured in a car accident.

Directed by Vane Null, and written by Tommy Blaze, Chuck Konzelman, and Cary Solomon, the movie reflects many of the accusations conservative Christians hurled at the Common Core curriculum, which was not a federal project but, instead, an initiative spearheaded in 2008 by the National Governors Association to increase pedagogical consistency across states. The end credits include a list of court cases centered upon homeschooling.

Unlike the previous installments, God’s Not Dead: We the People did not receive a full national release but, instead, had a limited Fathom Events three-day-only run (October 4 to 6, 2021), taking in a domestic box office of $1.17 million. The film was not widely reviewed. Conservative critic Christian Toto acknowledged that the movie includes “too many sequences in which lectures take place of organic conversation” but also stated that it was “bracing…to see a film grab the cultural moment and demand some answers.” Reviewer Steve Pulaski took issue with the very premise of the film: “There is no movement to end homeschooling, nor is there a movement to abolish Christian homeschooling, religious public schools, nor places for like-minded believers to worship in the United States. It doesn’t matter. The fear of government infringement on such civil liberties will persist so long as films like God’s Not Dead continue to be made.” The events of this film lead into God’s Not Dead: In God We Trust.

Far from attempting to suppress homeschooling, the State of Arkansas has long offered a low-regulatory environment for parents seeking to homeschool their children, requiring no qualifications for teachers and mandating no specific subjects. All that is required is for parents to file a Notice of Intent form with their local school district at the beginning of each year. Following the passage of Act 832 of 2015, parents are not required to test their children, and with the passage of the LEARNS Act of 2023, parents may even receive a state government subsidy to enroll their children into a private religious school or to homeschool their children.

For additional information:
“God’s Not Dead: We the People.” Internet Movie Database. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14578032/ (accessed April 15, 2025).

Pulaski, Steve. “God’s Not Dead: We the People Is a Repugnant Film to Its Very Core.” In Flux Magazine. https://influxmagazine.com/gods-not-dead-we-the-people-2021-review/ (accessed April 15, 2025).

Toto, Christian. “‘God’s Not Dead: We the People’ Is the Movie We Need, Flaws and All.” Hollywood in Toto, October 6, 2021. https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/gods-not-dead-we-the-people-review/ (accessed April 15, 2025).

Staff of the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas