Prayer, Bible lessons and a big red bus: How an Ohio group is bringing God to public schools

[Della]

"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 — activities that 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 Academy is permitted under a pair of little-known, decades-old U.S. Supreme Court rulings that allow for off-campus religious instruction during school hours."

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/li ... rcna142172

[Slimshandy]

Who cares…

[WellPreserved]

The county in Virginia where I used to live had/has the "God Bus" for 4th graders. I want to say is was a dedicated once a week period. All those who participated got to ride the bus to a local church for snacks and "religious instruction". Those who opted out got to sit quietly at their desks for a study hall. It was billed as non-denominational Christian instruction but it was led by the pastor of our local "snake handler" church.

I hated it but wasn't going to send my kids to the school for 4th grade so didn't enter into that fight, lol.

[MonarchMom]

I suppose how people view this depends on whether or not you see religion as a positive element in society.

[EarlGrayHot]

The Founding Fathers of our nation absolutely did NOT want religion in government. No group should be allowed to push their religion onto the rest of us, especially not on young children. It's outrageous that this town allows this nonsense.

[Slimshandy]

The Founding Fathers of our nation absolutely did NOT want religion in government. No group should be allowed to push their religion onto the rest of us, especially not on young children. It's outrageous that this town allows this nonsense.

This has nothing to do with religion *in* government
It is religion *allowed* by the government as an extra curricular that is the student’s choice to join or not.

[WellPreserved]

I suppose how people view this depends on whether or not you see religion as a positive element in society.

As well as what religion should be taught, who is qualified to teach it, and in what context.

I mentioned my former county's own version of the bus in the OP. My daughter didn't partake when she attended 4th grade. 4th grade she was at a secular IB school overseas and comparative religion was one of the units and I really appreciated the instruction. I equally appreciated a class she took at an IB high school - Bible in Literature. I am not opposed to a student learning about religion, even Christianity, in public school but it should be done in a comparative, non-biased manner with historical context.

[jessilin0113]

Mormon kids have done this for ages in my area. In the smaller towns, seminary is before school but when I transferred to one of the bigger schools it was done during the day.

[AZOldGal66]

A friend of mine who is Roman Catholic has described being taken out of regular academic classes a few times a week for religious instructions.

As he's 70 now, this is going back decades ago.

The way I see this, if it's voluntary, there's no harm being done.

[MonarchMom]

A friend of mine who is Roman Catholic has described being taken out of regular academic classes a few times a week for religious instructions.

As he's 70 now, this is going back decades ago.

The way I see this, if it's voluntary, there's no harm being done.

Was this is a Catholic school? If so, that makes sense - that is one reason parents choose a religious institution. If it is a public school that would be a lot of time taken away from academics.