Dear Editor,

According to Bruce Gerencser of Ney, Ohio in a Letter to the editor of the Defiance Crescent-News: “Evangelicals have now set their sights on taking over and transforming public schools.

Not content to home school their children or send them to private Christian schools, Evangelicals are increasingly clamoring for school boards to acquiesce to their theocratic demands. Sadly, school boards seem all too willing to bulldoze the wall between church and state, reintroducing sectarian Christianity into our schools.

Take LifeWise Academy. LifeWise, an Ohio-based Evangelical ministry, is a Trojan horse that has been rolled through the front doors of numerous local schools with no push back from school administrators or the media. LifeWise’s objective is indoctrination, not truth.

Further, children will be taught that the mythical stories found in the Protestant Bible are real; that the universe was created by the Christian God; that Adam and Eve were the first humans, and all of this happened a few thousand years ago. These teachings, of course, directly contradict what students are being taught in their science and history classes. LifeWise’s objective is indoctrination, not truth.”

LIFEWISE ESPOUSES CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM.

Christian nationalism is the belief that the American nation is defined by Christianity, and that the government should take active steps to keep it that way.

Popularly, Christian nationalists assert that America is and must remain a “Christian nation”–not merely as an observation about American history, but as a prescriptive program for what America must continue to be in the future.

Scholars are almost unanimous that nationalist governments tend to become authoritarian and oppressive in practice. For example, in past generations, to the extent that the United States had a quasi-established official religion of Protestantism, it did not respect true religious freedom. Worse, the United States and many individual states used Christianity as a prop to support slavery and segregation.

Christian nationalists want to define America as a Christian nation and they want the government to promote a specific cultural template as the official culture of the country. Some work to enshrine a Christian nationalist interpretation of American history in school curricula, including that America has a special relationship with God or has been “chosen” by him to carry out a special mission on earth.

RELEASED TIME COURSES IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION ARE DEEMED TO BE AUTHORIZED.

LifeWise claims their authority is based upon Ohio Law named RTRI (Released Time Religious Instruction).

(A) As used in this section, of the law, “released time” means a period of time during which a student is excused from school to attend a course in religious instruction conducted by a private entity off school district property.

(B) A school district board of education may adopt a policy that authorizes a student to be excused from school to attend a released time course in religious instruction, provided that each of the following applies:

(1) The student’s parent or guardian gives written consent.

(2) The sponsoring entity maintains attendance records and makes them available to the school district the student attends.

(3) Transportation to and from the place of instruction, including transportation for students with disabilities, is the complete responsibility of the sponsoring entity, parent, guardian, or student.

(4) The sponsoring entity makes provisions for and assumes liability for the student.

(5) No public funds are expended and no public school personnel are involved in providing the religious instruction.

(6) The student assumes responsibility for any missed schoolwork.

While in attendance in a released time course in religious instruction, a student shall not be considered absent from school. No student may be released from a core curriculum subject course to attend a religious instruction course.

(C) A policy adopted under division (B) of this section may authorize high school students to earn up to two units of high school credit for the completion of a released time course in religious instruction…

For purposes of this division, secular criteria may include, but are not limited to, the following:

(1) The number of hours of classroom instruction time;

(2) A review of the course syllabus that reflects course requirements and materials used;

(3) The methods of assessment used in the course;

(4) The qualifications of the course instructor, which shall be similar to the qualifications of other teachers within the district.

Notwithstanding division (C)(8) of section 3313.603 of the Revised Code, high school credit awarded to a student for a released time course in religious instruction may substitute for the same amount of credit in subjects listed in that division.

A school district, member of a school district board of education, or school district employee is not liable in damages in a civil action for injury allegedly arising during a student’s transportation to or from a place of instruction when private transportation is used under a released time policy adopted under this section. This division does not eliminate, limit, or reduce any other immunity or defense that a school district, member of a school district board of education, or school district employee may be entitled to under Chapter 2744. or any other provision of the Revised Code or under the common law of this state.

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE.

The First Amendment reads in part: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof… In other words there is “Separation of Church and State” in the United States.

QUESTIONS:

Why is a public school system allowing kids to use school time for religious learning? Offering opportunity for practicing Christians, while leaving out other religions or children that are not religious is simply not fair and will cause divide or worse, bullying.

How do the children decide what important class to drop and replace with religion?

Who audits the LifeWise program? Who selects their administrators? Shouldn’t the LifeWise creators, administrators, teachers, etc. be checked out and licensed? There are so many questions left unanswered for a program that should never be legal in the first place.

No, no, no to LifeWise Christian nationalism!

Bill Bryant

St. Clairsville