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Dear Editor,
I am pleased to respond to the letter of August 7 from Bill Bryant regarding the First Amendment and LifeWise Academy.
The First Amendment states "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof", also known as the Establishment Clause which function is to promote complete official neutrality toward religion. The constitutionality of any government action involving religion depends on whether or not that action is consistent with this overriding principle. When drafting the Constitution the founding fathers were motivated to support the protection and accommodation of religious practice, both individual and collective, seeing they had experienced religious persecution by the English monarchy, religious conflict that had raged in Europe through much of the 16th and 17th centuries.
The Supreme Court held that the free exercise clause bars governmental interference with…all religions, or to discriminate individually between them.
Your mention of "the separation of Church and State" has been mostly misunderstood and misused.
Taken from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association, it reads in part "When they (the Church) have opened a gap in the hedge or wall of separation between the garden of the Church and the wilderness of the world…if (God) will ever please to restore His garden and paradise again, it must of necessity be walled-in peculiarly unto Himself from the world, and all that be saved out of the world are to be transplanted out of the wilderness of the world." Hence the "wall of separation" is to keep the world, or Government, out of the Church, not the other way around.
Concerning LifeWise Academy you wrote "Now schools must address character and mental health on top of providing academic instruction. LifeWise Academy comes alongside administrators and teachers as a supportive ally in the fight for better character development, mental health, and academic achievement." What was your source for this quote? You also accused LifeWise of "pushing religious dogma on 7-year-olds" and expressed concern about "the stigma of kids who are left out of the … program". I have information produced by LifeWise which states "Bringing the Word of God to public school students,
LifeWise Academy is a Released Time religious instruction program which exists to reach students in public schools with the gospel. Under little known Released Time laws students can be released from public school during the school day to attend religious classes, provided the program is off school property, privately funded, and parent permitted."
The concept for the Released Time law originated in 1905 at a school conference by parents who wanted their children to receive religious instruction one day a week outside the school premises.
Typically an hour a day, or week is set aside during school hours, eliminating the conflict after-school hours would cause because of transportation issues and extra-curricular activities. Today about 1000 programs are operating, ranging from kindergarten to high school, with about 250,000 students enrolled.
You stated that "Hitler's youth programs had the goal of "character building". Don't you know that madman achieved his goal through deception? Not so Christ.
St. C -- say "Yes" to LifeWise Academy!
Respectfully,
Patricia Wilcox
Barnesville