This is what “released time religious instruction” looks like in reality.
Not in theory. Not in LifeWise’s polished promo videos. Not in the talking points lawmakers repeat.
In practice.
👉Students missing library, STEM, gym, music, drills, and end-of-day routines.
👉Staff having to stop what they are doing because an outside religious program keeps calling for a child.
👉Kids coming back late.
👉School staff feeling pressure to accommodate the program.
👉Teachers wearing LifeWise shirts on school days.
👉Business cards and promotional materials left in staff lounges.
This is not “separate from school.”
This is entanglement.
And it is exactly what we have been warning about..
🚨When an outside religious program is allowed to pull children during the school day, it does not stay neatly outside the school walls. It bleeds into schedules. It pressures staff. It interrupts instruction. It creates favoritism. It turns public school employees into de facto support staff for a private religious program.
👏🏻Public school specials are not disposable.
Library matters.
STEM matters.
Music matters.
Gym matters.
Safety drills matter.
💜The school day matters.
Children should not be missing parts of their publicly funded education so adults can run a private religious recruitment program around the school schedule.
LifeWise and its supporters keep saying this happens “off campus.” 🙄
But the disruption is happening INSIDE the school. 😡
What people are saying:
- Secular Education Association: Teachers, paras, staff, and parents: if you are seeing this in your school, document it.
Send us the schedules, flyers, emails, permission slips, staff directives, photos of promotional materials, and reports of students missing instruction, drills, services, or being returned late.
Public schools are not supposed to be logistical support systems for private religious programs.
Report what you are seeing here:
Contact@seculareducationassociation.org
- Facebook User: Secular Education Association would you want to know about an elementary school sending information home about a religious summer camp? I’m sure I still have the flyer for it. Not related to Lifewise, but in a district that Lifewise is trying to get a foothold.
- Facebook User: Facebook User yes please
- Facebook User: Why are teachers wearing Lifewise shirts? Is Lifewise now their employer?
- Facebook User: Pressure, bullying, and shunning – LW is teaching our children.
- Facebook User: Are we teaching all mythologies or just the dominant western mythology?
- Facebook User: Religion should not be taught in public schools.
Religion should be taught at home and at church.
We are a nation of many different religions and beliefs.
I respect your right to follow your religious beliefs, even if they are different from mine.
I expect you to respect my rights to follow mine, even if different from yours.
- Facebook User: A utopian nightmare.
- Facebook User:
- Facebook User: Look, if Lifewise wants to start a chain of religious schools- go for it! That’s perfectly fine!
But public schools must not subsidize religious education! - Facebook User: Yes for Jesus?
- Facebook User: Church is for religious instruction, not public schools!
- Facebook User: No, no, no!
- Facebook User: Keep this out of public schools.
- Facebook User: It will get worse when the naive volunteers and teachers see their public school be transformed into an ultraconservative Christian nationalist institution. That’s why there supposed to be separation of church and state.
- Facebook User: Religious instruction matters. Your opinion is irrelevant.
- Facebook User: Facebook User Duffsure, if it’s ALL religions
- Facebook User: Facebook User Duff So is wicca instruction okay with you? Is islamic instruction okay with you?
- Facebook User: Facebook User Duff why? It doesn’t seem to work on Sundays.
- Facebook User: Facebook User Duff Okay but why does it need to happen during the public school day?
Also, your whole premise “religious instruction matters” is also an opinion. Your opinion is actually the irrelevant one here in regards to disruption of the school day. Religious instruction can be done on weeknights or weekends at the church or synagogue or mosque of the child’s family’s choosing. Saying that doesn’t negate your opinion that it matters. The topic here, in this moment, is that religious instruction during the public school day is disruptive to entire classrooms, to entire schools.
- Facebook User: Facebook User Duff Yes. Religious instruction does matter. It should happen at their church after school or on weekends.
- Facebook User: Facebook User Duff it matters, on your own time. Not on public school time, nor should it ever be funded by public tax dollars in direct opposition to our Constitution.
If you want to teach children about rape, incest, genocide, slavery, and that all of it is permissible according to the Bible (and yes, the bible condones all of that), do that at your house, or at church. Not at a public school.
- Facebook User: Facebook User Duff matters to some, not necessary to most.
- Facebook User: Facebook User Duff 🤣😂😆
- Facebook User: Facebook User Duff you’re a bloody coward
- Facebook User: Facebook User Duff which is why you have your church, synagogue, temple or mosque not public schools!!!!!
- Facebook User: Facebook User Duff take your kid to church before school, after school or on the weekends. You should NOT be disrupting the school day!
- Facebook User: Facebook User Duff will your kids be joining the Greek Idols club? Religion matters.
Club? What am I saying, we’ll do it during science.
- Facebook User: Facebook User Duff I guess you don’t love Jesus enough to defend your bullshit
- Facebook User: This is pure propaganda…
- Facebook User: Lifewise is a parasite.
- Facebook User: Don’t forget that Lifewise employees keep getting arrested for being child predators. That should be at the top of the list.
Leave a Reply