{"id":21857,"date":"2024-04-19T08:44:15","date_gmt":"2024-04-19T12:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=21857"},"modified":"2024-04-19T08:44:15","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T12:44:15","slug":"a-bible-program-in-public-schools-continues-to-grow-despite-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/04\/a-bible-program-in-public-schools-continues-to-grow-despite-critics","title":{"rendered":"A Bible Program in Public Schools Continues to Grow Despite Critics"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_21860\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21860\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/04\/LifeWise-Academy-bible-study-in-school_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21860\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/04\/LifeWise-Academy-bible-study-in-school_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-21860\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>An MSNBC accused a growing program that allows public school students to learn about the Bible of indoctrination during a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msnbc.com\/alex-wagner-tonight\/watch\/christian-group-uses-public-school-adjacent-bible-study-program-to-breach-church-state-wall-208284229927\">segment<\/a> on the program. MSNBC host Alex Wagner reported on the growing popularity of Lifewise Academy, a program that allows public school students to learn about the Bible off-campus during school hours. The program had originally <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baptistpress.com\/resource-library\/news\/lifewise-academy-teaching-bible-during-public-school-days-grows-nationally\/\">set a goal<\/a> of being in 25 public schools within its first five years after it started in 2019. It has blown through that goal and is currently implemented in 330 schools in 14 states, with those numbers to rise to over 450 schools and 19 states for the fall 2024 school year.<\/p>\n<p>Reporting on the program\u2019s growth, Wagner called it \u201cdistressing.\u201d Wagner suggested the program was indoctrinating children and potentially violating First Amendment rights in the segment, which was entitled \u201cChristian group uses public school-adjacent Bible study program to breach church-state wall.\u201d \u201cPenton\u2019s LifeWise Academy is currently influencing the minds of public school kids in progressive cities like Columbus,\u201d she warned. She referred to Columbus as a \u201cblue island,\u201d meaning a Democrat stronghold within a typically red state like Ohio. She warned that such blue islands \u201ccould be swayed by LifeWise\u201d and warned against the program\u2019s incentives, such as offering parties to students who brought their friends. She linked the potential political influence of the program to Trump, claiming that the former president had \u201cmanaged to turn his Christian followers into politically pious voters, members of the Church of Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>LifeWise Academy founder Joel Penton spoke with <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/dwSW7qtw6Wo\">CBN News<\/a> about the segment, comparing it to and \u201cSaturday Night Live skit.\u201d \u201cThe MSNBC piece frankly, to me, was hilarious. It genuinely felt like an \u2018SNL\u2019 skit,\u201d he said. \u201cThat they would turn it into something that they find distressing \u2026 it was funny,\u201d he added. Penton had participated in an interview for the segment and noted how the program left out positive statistics of the program and focused on the political ramifications. \u201cThey wanted to talk about political things and I kept saying, repeatedly, \u2018We\u2019re not \u2026 a political organization.\u2019 We\u2019re teaching Bible stories to kids,\u201d Penton told CBN. He pointed to statistics by a third-party source that showed attendance goes up for kids that attend LifeWise, a number the report left out. He also addressed the claim that the program violates the First Amendment, pointing to a Supreme Court ruling. \u201cIn the same way that a child will maybe have art class once a week, and music class once a week, and gym class a couple times a week, through our program, a public school student can have Bible class once per week. It has to be off school property, privately-funded, parent-permitted, but the Supreme Court has ruled on this, there\u2019s state laws about it,\u201d he said. The case in question is \u00a0Zorach v. Clauson in 1952, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled religious instruction is legal during time-released periods of school provided it is held off-campus and not funded by school funds. Penton shared the positive impact the program has had in schools. \u201cWe\u2019re getting stories of kids that are coming to faith, asking to be baptized,\u201d he said. \u201cFamilies that are reconnecting to the church, schools that are being transformed, public school teachers that are saying, \u2018Whatever you\u2019re doing over there at that LifeWise thing, please keep it up, because I see the change in my students.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An MSNBC accused a growing program that allows public school students to learn about the Bible of indoctrination during a segment on the program. MSNBC host Alex Wagner reported on the growing popularity of Lifewise Academy, a program that allows public school students to learn about the Bible off-campus during school hours. The program had&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":21860,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Bible Program in Public Schools Continues to Grow Despite Critics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An MSNBC accused a growing program that allows public school students to learn about the Bible of indoctrination during a segment on the program.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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