LifeWise Academy is on a mission to reach school children with the gospel. Opponents say the weekly Bible studies blur the line between church and state.

After a morning lesson on multiplying fractions, about half of the students in a fifth-grade class at Etna Road Elementary School packed up their work and headed to the campus library.

The other half, 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.

While their classmates back at school browsed shelves of books, 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 — 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.

  • tygerprints
    0•8 months ago

    That’s extremely sad and worse than almost any form of child abuse I’ve ever read about. Forcing these dumb gullible kids to believe in christ-y nonsense which not only will never help them deal with real life, but will poison their minds against other people and polarize their viewpoints into arthritic rigidity and disgusting bigotry. It’s sick.

    I’ve always considered Ohio a worthless bastion of assholery but I never thought they would stoop to such horrible brainwashing of youngsters. Any parent worth being called a parent would and should pull their kids out of that school and that horrible abusive situation as fast as humanly possible.