An Ohio nonprofit that provides off-site Bible instruction to public school students during classroom hours says it will triple its programs in Indiana this fall after new legislation forced school districts to comply.
To participating families, nondenominational LifeWise Academy programs supplement religious instruction. But critics in Indiana worry the programs spend public school resources on religion, proselytize to students of other faiths and remove children from class in a state already struggling with literacy.
LifeWise founder and CEO Joel Penton told The Associated Press that many parents want religious instruction to be part of their children’s education.
“Values of faith and the Bible are absolutely central to many families,” Penton said. “And so they want to demonstrate to their children that it is central to their lives.”
Public schools cannot promote any religion under the First Amendment, but a 1952 Supreme Court ruling centered on New York schools cleared the way for programs like LifeWise. Individual places of worship often work with schools to host programs off campus, and they are not regulated in some states.
White Supremacists have infiltrated the Christian church (yes, I know they were already racist) and the 1% will use this authoritarian power to poison the rust belt further, encourage them to secede, load them with debt, bankrupt Social Security and perpetuate the culture war. We need to shame and boycott everyone involved.
Religion can help some people but mostly damages communities. When all is said and done religion will be as toxic as Nazis after WW2. The overwhelming vast majority of people are not practicing Christianity, they’re in a hate group.
There’s a reason we don’t constantly see WW2 footage on The History channel anymore. Everything is identical.
