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Ohio Kids Can Sit For Lessons From the Satanic Temple December 04, 2024
Ohio schoolchildren can now spend part of their school day learning the teachings of the Satanic Temple through the state’s religious release program.The temple’s Hellion Academy of Independent Learning, or HAIL, announced that it’s offering lessons ...
Religion in Public Schools Being Tested By Christian Conservatives December 02, 2024
If the constitutionality of mixing religious doctrine with public school education had seemed to be largely decided, with U.S. Supreme Court rulings in the 1960s and ’80s limiting how religious activity and teachings can be enforced, a wave of new la...
Should Christians Send Their Children To Public Schools? September 25, 2024
Most of these students go to public schools, but we have seen significant shifts in the past few years. The U.S. Census Bureau says about 7 million children, or about 13% of school-aged students, go to private schools. This includes about 3.5 million...
Why Some Christians Don’t Want to Bring the Bible Into Public Schools September 17, 2024
Over the last several years, some conservative Christian politicians and organizations have sought to accelerate a national movement to bring prayer and religious texts into classrooms. Many evangelicals and Catholics oppose what they view as liberal...
The Church Can Help End the Phone-Based Childhood September 16, 2024
As American kids head back to school this fall, many will do so with smartphones in hand. The average age at which American kids receive their first phone is just 11, and most public schools only ban nonacademic classroom phone use—and struggle to en...
Christian School Sues Maine Over ‘Poison Pill’ Law September 12, 2024
A Christian school on Sept. 3 filed an appeal against Maine for attempting to dodge a U.S. Supreme Court ruling by passing a “poison pill” law that prevents Christian schools from participating in the state’s school choice program. First Liberty Inst...
GOP Pushing Christianity into Schools are Hitting Resistance September 06, 2024
Florida now allows chaplains in public schools. Oklahoma and Texas are looking to infuse Bible lessons into curricula. And Louisiana wants to set up Ten Commandments displays in classrooms.But these efforts to push Christianity into public schools ar...
Religious Education and the Meaning of Life September 06, 2024
A century later, inevitable feels like the right word. A long line of American politicians, scholars, and community leaders has characterized education as a way to hand down values and ethical priorities. Is religion essential to this sort of educati...
Can Public Schools Ask Students About Religion? September 04, 2024
In 2019, amid a national debate about adding a citizenship question to the U.S. census, I wrote a story about why the government does not survey Americans about their faith.As I explained, the key reason is that faith-related information is sensitive...
How US Public Schools Became a New Religious Battleground August 08, 2024
It is a foundational democratic tenet taught in every basic U.S. history course: the Constitution bars the government from endorsing an official religion or favoring one over others.But moves by two Republican-governed states - Louisiana's requiremen...
The Classroom is the Battleground for Religious Freedom August 07, 2024
A few weeks ago, the state legislature of Louisiana passed a bill that would mandate the display of the Ten Commandments in every public school. The bill instantly became a touchstone in the culture war, fanning fears of Christian nationalism across ...
GOP Leaders are Calling for Religion in Schools. It's Not the First Time. August 06, 2024
Oklahoma's top education official ordered public schools to teach the Bible and wants state funding for a controversial religious charter school. Louisiana leaders directed schools to display the Ten Commandments. Texas leaders proposed a curriculum ...
Why Mandating Biblical Texts in Public Schools May Backfire July 26, 2024
Referring to religious texts in terms of patriotism and history may prove effective in inserting them into classrooms. But the argument that they are like any other aspect of American culture could backfire, paving the way Christian texts and symbols...
Trump, Washington and the 'Miraculous Care of Providence' July 16, 2024
Donald Trump is a lucky man. A few centimeters and a slightly turned head were the difference between life and death. Imagine if his head exploded on national television: what chaos, vitriol and whirlwind would have erupted and scorched America’s alr...
Ten Commandments in Classrooms Will Not Fix Dysfunctional Schools July 11, 2024
But most teachers will probably post it on their walls … and ignore it—much like they do with posters of learning objectives, school mission statements, bullying hotlines, and all the other meaningless content mandated from on high. Somehow, miraculo...
'Satanic Temple' Members to Protest Push for Religion in FL Schools July 09, 2024
Satanists are ready to volunteer in Florida's schools in response to Governor Ron DeSantis's push to integrate more religion into the state's public school system under a volunteer school chaplain program that went into effect last week. Members of T...
OK Schools Required to Teach Bible, State Superintendent Says July 01, 2024
Oklahoma’s state superintendent on Thursday mandated that all public schools teach the Bible in a move that he said was meant to impart “historical understanding,” but that critics say blurs the constitutional boundary between church and state....
