Rightwing Christians plot to increase US religious education during school hours

The Guardian

12-02-2025

A group of rightwing Christian organizations is pushing a model bill to require public school districts to allow students to receive religious education during school hours, according to footage from a December meeting of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers.
During the meeting, a group of state lawmakers voted to create a model bill that would allow students to leave school grounds to receive religious education for one to five hours a week, a practice referred to as religious release time.
Fourteen states require school districts to have 'release time' policies on the books and similar bills have been introduced in Arkansas and Mississippi. In Ohio, a new law that was passed this year requiring school districts to adopt release time policies will go into effect in April.
Driving the push for the model legislation is a rapidly growing organization called LifeWise, which offers Christian classes during public school hours. LifeWise has received legal support from rightwing groups including America First Legal and has allied with groups on the far right including Moms for Liberty. At the December NACL meeting, supporters of the religious release time bill said the legislation had been drafted by Alliance Defending Freedom, an anti-LGBTQ+ legal organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated as a hate group.
'America is a Christian nation,' said Matthew Faraci, a conservative activist who spoke at the event in favor of the bill. He said the bill is 'guidelines to say, 'OK, we already know it's legal, but here's how you do it in the right way so that you won't get sued''.
Founded in 2018 in Ohio by Joel Penton, LifeWise Academy offers Christian instruction off-campus to public school students with parental approval, typically during recess or classes such as art and library. The group has grown dramatically in the last five years, reporting relationships with nearly 600 schools in 29 states as of August 2024.
LifeWise's revenue has exploded, too, growing from $2m in 2021 to $35.3m in 2024 according to the group's IRS reports.
'It's our hope that students all across America would have access to Bible education through release time during school hours, and so we want to work toward that end,' said Penton. 'We would be hoping, praying, working toward more than 1000 schools by the next school year.'
LifeWise has anticipated some of the questions parents are likely to raise when the group partners with their child's public school, and enumerates them in an expansive FAQ section on its website. Among these concerns are: is teaching the Bible during the school day really legal? Is LifeWise Academy a political movement? And, how is this legal?
Release time is regulated under two supreme court cases dating back to the 1940s, which limit religious education in schools but allow for students to leave campus to take religious classes.
In 1948, the court ruled that a public school in Illinois had violated the law in holding religious courses during school hours. The ruling found the district had 'enable[d] sectarian groups to give religious instruction to public school pupils in public school buildings' and thus violated the first amendment. A subsequent supreme court ruling, in 1952, held that New York City schools were legally allowed to 'release' students for religious education and devotion outside of the school with parental permission.
LifeWise is not the only group to offer Christian education during school hours, but it is the first to turn such programming into a national, coordinated effort.
For parents like Jessica Cappuzzello, an Ohio mom who raised her children going to church, the opportunity to add Christian education during the school day was exciting.
'My boys are learning about things like compassion, perseverance, generosity, gratitude,' said Cappuzzello, who emphasized that she supported the idea of such programming for non-Christian students as well.
LifeWise advertises fully inclusive Christian education, claiming that all students, including those of non-Christian religious backgrounds, 'can benefit from a greater understanding of such an influential book.'
The program also functions explicitly as a tool to evangelize young people into the Church.
According to an internal training module reviewed by the Guardian, LifeWise's 'target audience' can be found in 'unchurched students who are not already hearing the gospel.' Public schools, according to LifeWise's public-facing 'Vision Statement and Philosophy' are an ideal 'mission field' for the program to operate within.
And while LifeWise advertises an apolitical curriculum and promises not to proactively wade into topics like gender and sexuality, if students ask questions, instructors take a 'traditional' approach, Penton told the Guardian.
An internal LifeWise document for instructors titled 'Difficult Questions from Students,' which was published online by the progressive group Honesty for Ohio Education, recommends LifeWise instructors tell students that divorce, LGBTQ+ identities and non-married couples living together are sinful.
The document states that 'transgenderism does not exist' and 'LGBTQ individuals are living in sin and angering God.'
While LifeWise – and the laws enabling its expansion – has grown, so has opposition to it.
In 2021, Zachary Parrish, the father of a first grader at Defiance elementary school in north-west Ohio noticed a reference to LifeWise on his daughter's classroom schedule, tucked between library and gym class.
The reference could have been inconspicuous, but to Parrish, it was a glaring red flag.
His daughter's teacher had explained to parents – in what Parrish described as a 'pitch' – that the Christian organization would be offered to kids enrolled at the public elementary school off-site during school hours. Uninterested in the religious instruction on offer at LifeWise, Parrish asked for alternative programming for his daughter.
'They shoved her in a study hall in the gym class,' said Parrish. 'That's what she was sent to do, because she didn't go to LifeWise. They put her on the iPad.'
He is not the only parent who opposes the program.
According to Sammi Lawrence, a staff attorney with the Freedom from Religion Foundation, the group received more than 40 complaints from parents and school district employees about LifeWise in 2024. Many reported 'schools permitting LifeWise representatives to come into the school and try to recruit kids to go, letting representatives come in during classes or come in during lunch, and pass out flyers'.
Public schools cannot legally promote LifeWise, and Lawrence told the Guardian FFRF has successfully intervened to stop such practices.
Frustrated at what he viewed as an effort to sneak religious education into public schools, Parrish posted on Reddit and connected with other parents who shared concerns about the close relationship the LifeWise religious educational program had developed with schools in Ohio.
What began as a small group of parents developed into a grassroots organization of parents across the country who oppose the way the Christian curriculum has been implemented during public school hours. Parents Against LifeWise, a private Facebook group where parents who oppose the program share information about LifeWise, has grown to 7,500 members.
Parents have reported that the program creates in-group and out-groups within the student body, leaving non-Christian students feeling left out or even bullied.
The draw to escape school for a popular off-campus activity could contribute to LifeWise's success, and it bothers parents such as Parrish.
'Of course they want to leave school,' said Parrish. 'What kid doesn't want to get out of school?'