LifeWise, an Ohio-based nonprofit, began in 2018 with the goal of serving 25 schools by 2025, but it has far surpassed that goal. As of the beginning of this year, LifeWise has established chapters in over 300 schools in twelve states and is now providing weekly Bible lessons to 35,000 public school students.
These lessons are typically scheduled to coincide with non-core classes such as library, art, or gym classes or during lunch breaks.
Joel Penton, a former Ohio State Buckeyes defensive lineman, founded LifeWise. The organization teaches children character development through Bible lessons while complying with the separation of church and state.
LifeWise Academy offers a program that provides religious instruction during school hours to students whose parents sign permission slips. However, public schools cannot promote or fund this program directly.
This is allowed under a pair of little-known, decades-old U.S. Supreme Court rulings that allow off-campus religious instruction during school hours.
The Supreme Court ruled in 1948 and 1952 that public school students could get religious instruction during school hours, provided that the classes were held off school property and not funded by the government.
The children, all wearing matching red T-shirts, put on their coats, lined up single file, and boarded a red bus with the words “LifeWise Academy” painted on the side. The children on the bus sang praise to Jesus.“For there is no other name … by which we must be saved.”
The students soon arrived at a church a half-mile away, where, for the next 30 minutes, they would pray, read the Bible, and sing worship songs. These activities have become a routine part of their week thanks to an Ohio-based nonprofit on a mission to put God back in the public school day.
LifeWise has gained the support of conservatives who are actively engaged in the new culture wars that are centered around issues such as LGBTQ inclusion, sexually explicit library books, and the role of racism in American history. However, it is also increasingly making inroads in some progressive suburbs and cities, including the deep-blue Columbus, Ohio.
LifeWise is a program that aims to teach children character development through Bible lessons. Supporters claim that it is in compliance with the separation of church and state. The program is offered free to students whose parents sign permission slips, and public schools are not allowed to promote or fund it directly.
Its explosive growth has been celebrated by Christian groups and parents who’ve long decried the removal of religion from America’s classrooms and denounced by those who believe there should be a hard line between religion and public education.
GOP-controlled state legislatures are expanding access to off-campus religious instruction. Indiana’s Republican Governor, Eric Holcomb, recently signed a law requiring public schools to accommodate programs like LifeWise. Lawmakers in Ohio and Oklahoma are also considering similar measures.
Interest in LifeWise Academy has led to a surge in donations, according to the most recent tax filings available publicly. LifeWise Inc., which runs the program, generated $6.5 million in the fiscal year that ended in June 2023, six times more than when it started in 2018.
But the wicked ones who oppose God mobilized against LifeWise say that busing students to nearby churches, where they sometimes collect prizes and eat candy, has made some non-Christian children feel left out or pressured to attend.
Children raised by ignorant parents who hate God or parents who are in false religion can fix this problem by allowing their children to attend. Anyone who opposes teaching children about the Christian God or Bible is of their father, the devil.
John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
John 3:20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
Psalms 127:3 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
Luke 17:2 It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.
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